HealthWoman Who Killed Fire Captain Wife Sentenced to 36 Years to LifeAired September 6, 2026 at 5:30 PM UTCWritten September 6, 2026 at 5:33 PM UTCRead the write-upThis storyTranscript · LOADING0:00A Cal fire captain was stabbed 23 times.0:03Her wife now gets 36 years to life.0:0530 years of firefighting service ended on a Ramona driveway in February 2025.0:10The woman responsible had already served prison time for killing another spouse.0:14The question this case leaves, how a woman paroled in 2013 for stabbing her husband0:18to death, got a second chance she used the same way.0:21Rebecca Becky Morodi, 49, was a Cal fire captain at the French Valley station in0:25Riverside County.0:27On the night of February 17th, 2025, at the couple's home on Rancho Villa Road, she0:32was stabbed 23 times in the neck, chest, and abdomen.0:35Her mother, Lorena, who lived on the same property, found her and called 911.0:39Becky died at the scene.0:41The home security camera recorded the attack around 8 p.m.0:44It captured Becky being chased across the patio, screaming that she didn't want to0:49die.0:49The woman who later faced 36 years to life answered, you should have thought of that0:54before, and was described as holding a knife with blood on her arms.0:57The recording also shows the killer loading pets and luggage into a Chevy Equinox1:02afterward.1:02That same night she crossed into Mexico.1:04The Department of Homeland Security logged the crossing shortly after 9:15 p.m.1:08She was arrested in Mexicali more than five weeks later, on March 22nd, 2025, and1:13turned over to U.S.1:14Marshals.1:15The record runs in two chapters.1:17In October 2000, she stabbed her estranged husband to death.1:21She pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2003 and was paroled in 2013.1:26Roughly 10 years served.1:27That prior conviction was treated as a strike in this case, and it's why the plea1:31locked in a life term.1:32In August of this year, a month before trial was set to begin, she pleaded guilty to1:36second-degree murder, admitted using a knife, and waived her right to appeal the1:41term.1:4134 days later, the judge imposed the sentence.1:44The method was the same, a knife in a domestic setting, on a spouse, two spouses 251:50years apart, and the second time the woman had already been through the system once.1:54Now, the number itself.1:56In California, 36 years to life is an indeterminate life sentence.2:00The 36 years is the minimum before she can even be considered for parole.2:04It is not automatic release.2:06The Board of Parole hearings would decide later whether she is suitable, and she2:09would be about 90 years old by then.2:11She could die in prison without ever being released.2:14In court, the victim's mother spoke, Lorena Morodi, said the grief of losing her2:19only child ripples into every part of her life, called it the privilege of a2:23lifetime to have been Becky's parent, and asked that the woman who killed her2:27daughter be kept behind bars for the rest of her life.2:35The district attorney added that no one is immune to domestic violence.2:39Judge Selena Epley called Becky a hero in her community.2:42So, what does accountability mean here?2:44The sentence is real, at least 36 years.2:46But the question the family lives with is why the system that convicted her once,2:50imprisoned her, and paroled her in 2013 could not stop a second killing.2:54What the record now shows is 23 stab wounds, a guilty plea, and a term that could be2:59life.2:59What it does not show is how a woman who had already killed one spouse found her way3:03back into a marriage and into a position to do it again.Explore with HeyDexFollow via RSSThe shortThe short ↗