Women Plead Guilty in Baseball-Bat Killing

Two women who beat a 20-year-old San Fernando woman to death with a baseball bat after the breakup of their friendship pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter charges Thursday in San Fernando Superior Court.

Dawn Michelle Rodriguez, 20, of San Fernando and Socorro Corrienna Mauricio, 21, of Pacoima could be sent to prison for a maximum of four years each when they are sentenced July 23, Deputy Dist. Atty. Edwin F. Greene said. The two had been charged with murder but prosecutors agreed to accept a plea to the lesser charge because the victim, Elizabeth Valdivia, apparently provoked her attackers.

Valdivia died of massive head injuries three days after the June 13 beating on a street in Sylmar. She was walking home from her job at a fast-food restaurant when she was confronted by Rodriguez and Mauricio, who had been waiting for her in a pickup truck with two other women, police said.

Testimony at a preliminary hearing indicated that Valdivia may have provoked the fight after encountering the other women. Mauricio allegedly grabbed a bat out of the truck but Rodriguez told her to put it down, Greene said. Valdivia picked up the bat but Rodriguez and Mauricio wrestled it from her and beat her with it, he said.

The women apparently had been arguing for some time about the breakup of their friendship, and had challenged one another to fight, Greene said.