Eight years after a woman’s body was found in a grassy area on a Hialeah motel, completely naked, and covered in blood, a Miami-Dade jury recommended her killer should also die.
Last week, those same jurors found Ronald Lopez Andrade guilty of raping and later killing 30-year-old Yaimi Guevara Machado.
Late Wednesday evening, despite not all jurors considering the crime to be heinous, atrocious, or cruel, in an 8-4 vote they still recommended death as a potential punishment.
Jurors also found first-degree murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of the sexual battery.
According to the arrest report, Machado was at the Chesapeake Motel at 935 W. Okeechobee Road with a friend when she was accidentally locked out of her room while not fully dressed.
Lopez Andrade had arrived at the lobby of the motel around 4:30 a.m. and bought four beers and cigarettes, the report said. He harassed a cleaning lady and the clerk and asked the staff if there were any prostitutes, the report said.
Lopez Andrade then came across Machado, who was dressed only in a bra and jeans, and let her have his shirt. But when Machado refused Lopez Andrade’s advances, he became enraged and they began to struggle, the report said.
Prosecutors say Lopez Andrade raped her and then strangled her to death.
Machado’s body was found in a grassy area on the motel property completely naked.
The tragic death shook the South Florida family and the Hialeah motel was ordered to pay the parents of the woman $12 million due to its staff’s negligence in preventing her death.
The lawsuit alleged that staff sold Lopez Andrade alcohol, attempted to help him find a prostitute, and allowed Lopez Andrade to linger on motel property despite him not being a guest.
The family also alleged staff did not kick Lopez Andrade out of the property after he sought sexual favors from a housekeeper.
As for the criminal trial, Lopez Andrade will have another hearing later this year where the judge will have the ultimate say on sentencing.
This is the second time this year a Miami-Dade jury has recommended death. In an 8-4 vote, jurors recommended a death sentence for Ysrael Granda, a man found guilty of ordering to kill his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend. Granda is awaiting sentencing.
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