One Woman Ordered to Stand Trial in Beaumont Murder, Another Pleads Guilty to Accessory

As one woman was ordered this week to stand trial for murder in the death of a Beaumont resident, another pleaded guilty to conspiring to help the other hide from police, according to district attorney officials. 

Vanessa Kathleen Fierro was held to answer Monday on all charges in the Feb. 28 death of Elizabeth "Coti" Asselin, according to Riverside County District Attorney Spokesman John Hall.  She has previously pleaded not guilty to the murder.

As for the woman who was arrested in Simi Valley with Fierro nearly a week after the crime— Tanita Marie Baker— she pleaded guilty to a charge of being an accessory to murder, for helping Fierro avoid arrest and capture by police, according to Hall. 

Baker had initially entered a plea of not guilty on March 11, the same day Fierro also pleaded not guilty, according to court records and the district attorney's office.  

On Tuesday, she was sentenced to three years and four months for her new plea—  a plea that was not part of any deal with the district attorney's office, according to Hall.

"The sentence is for her to serve two years in county jail first, then the remaining 16 months under mandatory supervised probation," Hall added.

Fierro was charged on March 8 with murder, and Baker was charged with being an accessory to murder for allegedly helping Fierro escape town and police, according to a criminal complaint in the case.  Both women are already convicted felons who served time in state prison, adding enhancements to the charges the women face.

Fierro will be back in court on May 13 for an information arraignment, according to Hall.

A criminal complaint in the case alleges that Asselin was stabbed by her roommate Fierro, though an autopsy ruled the determining cause of death to be asphyxiation due to strangulation, a Beaumont police corporal testified in court, according to the Press Enterprise.

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