A California woman who had already served years in prison for fatally stabbing her husband is heading back behind bars for killing her new wife.
Yolanda Marodi, 54, of Ramona, was sentenced Wednesday, Sept. 2, to 36 years to life in prison for the 2025 murder of her wife, Cal Fire Captain Rebecca “Becky” Marodi, 49.
The sentence came nearly a month after Yolanda pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
She had originally pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder but later accepted a plea deal with prosecutors.
The case began on Feb. 17, 2025, when Rebecca’s mother went to her daughter’s home in Ramona and found her suffering from multiple stab wounds to the neck, chest and abdomen.
Emergency crews tried to save her, but she died from her injuries.
Authorities said Rebecca had been stabbed nearly two dozen times.
Home security footage captured part of the attack.
At around 8 p.m. that night, investigators said the video showed Yolanda chasing Rebecca across the patio with a knife in her hand.
Rebecca could reportedly be heard begging for her life.
“Yolanda! Please … I don’t want to die,” police said she cried out.
Yolanda allegedly responded, “You should have thought about that before.”
After the killing, surveillance footage reportedly showed Yolanda loading luggage and pets into an SUV before leaving the home.
Authorities said she fled to Mexico that same day.
Four weeks later, on March 22, Mexican authorities located and arrested her in Mexicali.
She was later turned over to U.S. Marshals and brought back to the United States.
Investigators also said they found messages Yolanda allegedly sent to an acquaintance the day after Rebecca was killed.
“Becky came home and told me she was leaving me,” one message read, according to an arrest warrant. “She met someone else, all the messages were lies. We had a big fight, and I hurt her … I’m sorry.”
According to Yolanda’s Facebook page, she and Rebecca married on June 17, 2022.
Prosecutors said their marriage began falling apart in February 2025, shortly before the murder.
Rebecca was a veteran Cal Fire captain who had dedicated her career to serving the public.
San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan called the killing “vicious.”
“This was a vicious murder of a respected and dedicated Fire Captain who dedicated her entire career to serving her community,” Stephan said.
She also pointed to the case as an example of the dangers of domestic violence.
“This case also shows that no one is immune to domestic violence, which is one of the most hidden and dangerous forms of violence we confront,” Stephan said.
The murder was not Yolanda’s first deadly stabbing.
In 2003, she pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the 2000 stabbing death of her then-husband, Jim Olejniczak, in Riverside County.
She served nine years in prison from 2004 to 2013.
Now, more than a decade after her release, Yolanda is returning to prison for killing another spouse.
Her attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
