A Jefferson Parish judge on Monday (June 30) sentenced Irielle Love to life plus 40 years in prison for her conviction of stabbing a diminutive 84-year-old woman to death in her Metairie apartment. 

Love, 25, of Kenner, is guilty as charged of the second-degree murder of Dory Sierra, a jury decided on June 18 during about 33 minutes of deliberations. Love also was convicted of obstruction of justice for taking Ms. Sierra’s cell phone after murdering her. 

Life in prison without probation, parole or suspension of sentence is mandatory under Louisiana law for second-degree murder. Judge Frank Brindisi of the 24th Judicial District Court also sentenced Love to the maximum 40 years in prison for obstruction of justice. He ran the sentences consecutively. 

“You acted like a monster that day,” Judge Brindisi told Love in announcing the sentences. “You took her life and now we’re stuck with you. It’s not very fair to us.” 

On the morning of Dec. 1, 2020, Ms. Sierra, who stood at 4’8” and weighed 134 pounds, was stabbed 10 times in the bathroom of her apartment in the 3300 block of Edenborn Avenue. She lived in the complex for more than two decades. Her daughter, who resided with Ms. Sierra, found her mother’s body in the bathtub when she returned home from work that afternoon. 

“All evidence points to her. And it does. There is no doubt in this case that the person that is sitting right here in this chair murdered Dory Sierra,” Assistant District Attorney Taylor Somerville told jurors in closing argument on June 18, pointing at Love seated at the defense table beside her attorney. 

Love was at the apartment complex with her mother and grandmother, who was seeking a new apartment because she was being evicted from her rental in Kenner. They went to the complex to look at a rental unit and to submit a lease application. 

When Love’s mother and grandmother temporarily left the complex to get a money order for the deposit, Love meandered around and wandered into Ms. Sierra’s apartment. Evidence shows that Love used pepper spray on Ms. Sierra during the attack. 

It was “a crime of opportunity,” Assistant District Attorney Eric Cusimano told jurors. 

After using paper and cloth towels to clean the blood from her own body, Love walked away with Ms. Sierra’s cell phone and the $280 that she set aside to pay her bills.  

Love left behind the piece of evidence that led the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office to arrest her: A single fingerprint on the interior of the apartment door. 

Armed with a search warrant, detectives went to the Martinique Street apartment that Love shared with her grandmother. They found eviction papers in Love’s grandmother’s name and an order to appear before a justice of the peace in Kenner for an eviction hearing at 11:30 a.m., that day. 

The detectives learned that Love, her mother and grandmother arrived at the Edenborn Avenue apartment complex at about 9:50 a.m. Love’s whereabouts were unknown for about 30 minutes. By the time her mother and grandmother returned with the money order, Love had left the complex. 

Soon after, Love called them, asking them to pick her up at Barnett Street and West Esplanade Avenue. They arrived at the eviction hearing late. That afternoon, Love’s grandmother drove her to a hospital in New Orleans, where Love committed herself to the psychiatric ward. Detectives arrested her there three days later. 

Investigators, meanwhile, found Ms. Sierra’s cell phone at the bottom of a trash can outside an apartment building in the 4400 block of Kent Drive, just off West Esplanade and near where Love wanted her mother and grandmother to pick her up. 

Using geolocation technology, detectives determined that Love’s cell phone and Ms. Sierra’s cell phone were together as Love walked away from the murder scene. The cell phones were tracked together north on Edenborn to West Esplanade, and then west toward Kenner. Ms. Sierra’s cell phone ceased movement at Kent Drive, where Love left it in the garbage can, while Love’s cell phone continued on to the justice of the peace court in Kenner. Love, her mother and grandmother attended the late-morning eviction hearing. 

 “That is a damning piece of evidence,” Assistant DA Cusimano said. 

Love denied killing Ms. Sierra. At trial, her attorney conceded that she entered Ms. Sierra’s apartment and stole the cell phone and $280. But there was no evidence proving that Love killed the woman, he argued. 

During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Brindisi heard victim-impact testimony from Ms. Sierra’s former daughter-in-law and a member of the family for whom Ms. Sierra had been employed as a housekeeper and nanny. 

Ms. Sierra’s former daughter-in-law noted how she remained active in her later years, traveled and attended mass weekly. Ms. Sierra, who stood “barely over four feet,” helped raise her autistic son. Because of his affliction, he does not know why she is no longer with him. 

“All he knows is that he lost her,” Ms. Sierra’s former daughter-in-law testified. “He is not attached to very many people because of his autism, except for his grandmother.” 

As a nanny, Ms. Sierra helped raise three children who today are “young professionals” working in careers out of state, a member of that family told the court. She called Ms. Sierra “a beloved member of our family.” 

“She was part of us,” she testified. “We just cannot fathom how anyone can do this to anyone, especially our Nana.” 

In addition to the prison sentences, Judge Brindisi ordered Love to pay a $100,000 fine. “Ms. Love this was a senseless killing,” the judge told her. “There was no reason to do it. You took a good person from us.” 

Assistant District Attorneys Taylor Somerville and Eric Cusimano prosecuted the case.