Killer of College Student Ordered to Prison for Life

After apologizing for killing an Occidental College senior during a botched robbery 18 months ago, a 20-year-old Compton woman was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“I am sorry,” Araceli Pena said in Los Angeles County Superior Court. “It was an accident. And I know how it feels to lose a loved one.”

Pena was convicted in March of first-degree murder after a jury determined that she had murdered 22-year-old Wendy Soltero during an attempted robbery on Oct. 28, 2000. Pena was also convicted of two counts of robbery and three counts of attempted robbery.

Soltero was shot dead in her car in Hollywood while doing a good deed by picking up two friends who were stranded without a ride. She was parked in a residential neighborhood when a car pulled up behind them, and Pena walked up to the car, demanded money and shot Soltero in the head.

Judge Mark Mooney sentenced Pena after emotional statements from the victim’s family.

Soltero’s mother, Elizabeth, called Pena a murderer and a coward.

“The thought of the terror she [Wendy] experienced that night will haunt me forever,” Soltero said. “Not a day goes by that I don’t feel the loss.”

After reading letters from his daughter, Gene Soltero told Pena: “This is who you took from us. I hope you think about it every day of your life.”

Pena then stood and apologized to the Soltero family.

Administrators at the small, private school awarded Soltero an honorary bachelor’s degree in studio art after her death, and displayed her photography and paintings in a gallery on campus.

Pena’s co-defendant, Demetrio Cabrera, 33, is scheduled to be tried in June in Los Angeles.