A Fairfax County jury on Thursday afternoon found Carmela Dela Rosa guilty of first-degree murder.
She was on trial for tossing her 2-year-old granddaughter to her death from a pedestrian bridge at the Tysons Corner Center last November.
A jury recommended a sentence of 35 years in prison.
Angelyn Ogdoc died about nine hours after she was thrown.
Prosecutors had argued that she threw the child to get revenge at her daughter’s husband.
Dela Rosa had presented an insanity defense, saying she suffered from major depressive disorder. But prosecutors contended that she knew what she was doing when she threw the child over the walkway that connected the mall and a parking garage on Nov. 29, 2010.
Jury deliberations began late Wednesday, and jurors deliberated for a total of about six hours.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh had asked the jury to sentence Dela Rosa to life in prison.
Angelyn “was a gift to this defendant,” he said. “A gift that she threw off a bridge.”
Defense attorney Dawn Butorac urged the jury to give Dela Rosa the minimum sentence, 20 years behind bars.
The verdict was announced to a packed Fairfax County Circuit Court courtroom. Just minutes later, Mary Kathyln Ogdoc —Dela Rosa’s daughter and Angelyn’s mother — and Ogdoc’s husband, James, testified during the sentencing phase.
Kathlyn Ogdoc wept as she described the ambulance ride with her daughter after the fall.
“I could hear her cry. That’s the last thing I heard from her,” she said.
James Ogdoc also broke down sobbing on the stand.
“No parent should have to lose their kid,” he said. “Not under any circumstance.”
Dela Rosa’s sister, brother-in-law and nephew all testified for the defense.
Rebecca Russ described her sister as a woman who would do anything for her relatives.
“She devoted her life to her family,” Russ said. Russ said that when she visited Dela Rosa in jail, she cried whenever her granddaughter was mentioned.
