A 54-year-old California woman who fatally stabbed her husband in 2000 has now admitted to killing her wife with a knife in their home, raising hard questions about a justice system that gave her a second chance she used to take a second life.
Yolanda Marodi entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder in San Diego Superior Court in El Cajon on Tuesday, admitting she used a knife to kill her wife, Rebecca Marodi, a 49-year-old captain with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Rebecca was found with stab wounds to her neck, chest, and abdomen inside the couple's four-bedroom home in Ramona, California, on the night of February 17, 2025. Prosecutors had originally charged Yolanda with first-degree murder but negotiated the count down to second-degree after consulting with Rebecca's family.
Deputy District Attorney Jared Coleman told the Daily Mail the plea reflected several considerations, including the family's wishes. He pointed to "the consideration of many factors, maybe the most important of which was the desire of the victim's family for closure." Yolanda faces 36 years to life in prison. Sentencing is set for September 2.
The plea closes one chapter of a case that stretches back a quarter century, and exposes the cost of leniency in a system that released a convicted killer back into the community, where she found another spouse and, according to her own admission, took another life in nearly identical fashion.
Surveillance footage captured Rebecca's final moments
The February 2025 arrest warrant lays out a grim sequence. Around 8:10 p.m. on February 17, surveillance video captured Yolanda chasing Rebecca on the patio of their $950,000 home. Ring camera footage showed Yolanda standing in front of Rebecca, apparently holding a knife in her right hand, with what appeared to be blood spattered across her arms.
Audio captured on the surveillance system recorded Rebecca pleading for her life:
"Yolanda! Please... I don't want to die."
Yolanda's response, also captured on the recording: "You should have thought about that before."
About ten minutes after the couple was last seen entering the home, Yolanda gathered her belongings, pets, and luggage into a silver Chevrolet Equinox SUV and fled. The Department of Homeland Security logged her vehicle entering Mexico that same night.
Rebecca's mother, Lorena Marodi, discovered the body. She had been out with friends and drove past the home while dropping people off, noticing Yolanda's car was gone. When Lorena returned later that night, she found a trail of blood, and her daughter's body. She called 911.
The killing came roughly one week after Rebecca told Yolanda she was leaving her and ending their marriage. The couple had been married slightly more than two years. After the stabbing, Yolanda texted a person described in court documents as a "known associate," writing: "Becky came home and told me she was leaving me, she met someone else, all the messages were lies." In a follow-up message, she added: "We had a big fight and I hurt her... I'm sorry."
Manhunt stretched from San Diego to Mexico
Unlike in 2000, when Yolanda turned herself in to police roughly 24 hours after killing her first husband, she ran this time. The San Diego Sheriff's Office alerted law enforcement on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Fox News reported that authorities launched a full manhunt after identifying Yolanda as the prime suspect in the stabbing death of the Cal Fire captain.
Mexican authorities arrested Yolanda last March. She was subsequently released to U.S. Marshals at an American port of entry and returned to San Diego County to face charges. She initially pleaded not guilty to murder.
On Tuesday, she reversed course. Standing before a judge, Yolanda responded "Yes" multiple times when asked whether she understood the consequences of her guilty plea, according to local outlet FOX5.
Rebecca Marodi built a career protecting others
Rebecca Marodi had risen to the rank of captain at Cal Fire, the state agency responsible for wildland fire protection across California. Her colleagues mourned her as a mentor and leader. Cal Fire released a statement after her death calling the loss tragic: "The tragic loss of Captain Marodi is mourned by her family, friends, and her CAL FIRE family." A separate statement from Cal Fire's Riverside unit said her "legacy of mentorship, service, and dedication will be felt for years to come."
The case is one of several recent incidents in which first responders and public safety personnel have become victims of violence. In Virginia, a deputy was killed during a welfare check, underscoring the dangers that front-line public servants face even off the fireground.
First husband stabbed to death in October 2000
Yolanda's criminal history made this case extraordinary from the start. In October 2000, she fatally stabbed her then-husband, James J. Olejniczak Jr., who was 26 years old at the time. Court documents reviewed by CBS8 showed she had filed for divorce from Olejniczak months before his death. The couple had agreed to mutual restraining orders. Yolanda had requested joint custody of their two children, who were nine and four.
After killing Olejniczak, Yolanda turned herself in about 24 hours later. She was sentenced to 11 years in state prison. She served her time from February 2004 through November 2013, roughly nine years and nine months behind bars.
Domestic violence cases involving fatal outcomes within family homes continue to draw national attention, and Yolanda Marodi's case stands apart for one reason: the system already knew what she was capable of.
Fox News noted in its earlier reporting that Yolanda had pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the 2000 case. The distinction between that charge and the murder charge she now faces matters. In the first killing, the system treated the act as something less than murder. Yolanda served her sentence, walked free, married again, and, according to her own guilty plea, did it again.
Plea deal trades certainty for closure
The decision to negotiate the charge from first-degree murder down to second-degree will draw scrutiny. First-degree murder in California requires proof of premeditation and deliberation. Second-degree murder requires malice but not necessarily a premeditated plan. The distinction carries significant sentencing consequences, but Coleman framed the deal as a product of the victim's family's needs rather than evidentiary weakness.
Still, the evidence captured on surveillance, Yolanda chasing Rebecca, the knife, the blood, the recorded plea for mercy, and Yolanda's cold reply, paints a picture that many observers would call deliberate. Whether a jury would have convicted on first-degree charges is now a question that will never be answered.
Cases involving public safety figures and violent crime continue to surface across the country. In Florida, a grand jury indicted a retired Orlando police officer for first-degree murder in the shooting death of his wife. In New Jersey, a police sergeant was indicted for his conduct related to a double-murder scene. Each case tests public trust in the people and systems charged with keeping communities safe.
Yolanda Marodi will return to court on September 2 to learn the length of her sentence. The minimum is 36 years to life, a term that, if served in full, would keep her behind bars until she is at least 90 years old.
An 11-year sentence was supposed to be the consequence for the first killing. Rebecca Marodi paid the price for the gap between that sentence and justice.
