Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, 37, a Cuban immigrant, was arrested by Dallas Police for the murder and beheading of an Indian-American in Texas.
The man was recently released from ICE custody and also has an immigration hold. Cobos-Martinez is currently being held at Dallas County Jail on a capital murder charge.
The case
On Wednesday, 9.30 am local time in Texas, officers responded to a stabbing call from the Downtown Suites motel on Samuell Boulevard. The officers found 50-year-old Chandra Nagamallaiah decapitated in the hotel room, according to the arrest affidavit.
According to police and witnesses, Cobos-Martinez had been living and working at the hotel and Nagamallaiah was the motel's manager.
Witnesses told the officers the she had argued with Nagamallaiah at the hotel before he retrieved a machete and began the gruesome attack.
One witness who worked at the hotel said that she and Cobos Martinez were working at the motel and were cleaning room 108 together. Nagamallaiah approached them and told Cobos-Martinez not to use the washing machine, which was broken.
According to the witness, Cobos-Martinez was upset by the fact the Nagamallaiah was speaking to the woman and asking her to translate the information instead of speaking directly to him.
The video shows the suspect leaving the room and getting a machete from his person before he started hacking at Nagamallaiah multiple times.
Nagamallaiah then ran down the parking lot towards the front office, screaming as Cobos Martnez chased him.
Near the front office, he then hacked at Nagamallaih multiple times. During the attack, the victim's wife and son had walked out of the front office and tried to get Cobos Martinez to stop.
The accused only pushed them away and continued the assault. During the attack, he also stopped and took the victim’s cell phone and lanyard with a key card. He proceeded to separate the victim's head from his body ,
One witness said who spoke to CBS News, said, “He chased him from 108 all the way to the office. The man was trying to get into the office to tell his family,” “I feel bad for his family because he got a wife, they came out and they didn't know what to do, she was screaming, hollering, but I told her to get back because I didn't know if he was going to attack her too,” they added.
According to the arrest affidavit, the accused kicked the man’s head twice into he parking lot and then picked it up and carried it to the trash, where he disposed of it.
Dallas Fire and Rescue had followed Cobos Martinez, where he was walking toward the road covered in blood and still armed with the machete. He was the taken into custody and taken to the Dallas police headquarters, where he provided a statement that agreed with the video collected from the scene. He admitted to the killing, and he said that he used a machete to kill the victim.
Cobos-Martinez's criminal history
According to the arrest record from the County Jail, Cobos Martinez is being held without bond and is also on an immigration detainer to be send back.
He had a violent criminal history and had been convicted in California, and was also arrested in Florida and Houston.
Earlier this year, Coboz Martinez was released from ICE custody despite his removal order after they found “no significant likelihood for removal in the foreseeable future."
Coboz-Martinez also had an active warrant for probation violation out of California.
In 2017, Cobos Martinez carjacked a woman in South Lake Tahoe while he was naked. He was convicted in 2023 and sentenced to a year and a half in prison.
The motel property owners told NBC 5 that Nagamallaiah had managed the motel for two or three years and described him as a good, hardworking person.