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A grand jury in Dallas County has issued a formal indictment for capital murder against Cuban Yordanis Cobos Martínez, 37, accused of decapitating the manager of a motel with a machete in September and disposing of the victim's head in a trash container. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty under Texas Penal Code.
The information was confirmed by Al Día Dallas, which detailed that the indictment was formalized on October 23, and by The Dallas Morning News, which reported that the crime took place in front of the victim's wife and child, in an attack that investigators described as "atrocious" and "savage."
A crime that shook Dallas
The murder occurred on the morning of September 10th at the Downtown Suites Motel, on Samuell Boulevard.
According to witnesses cited by Al Día Dallas, Cobos Martínez, an employee of the motel, argued with the manager, Chandra Mouli “Bob” Nagamallaiah, 50 years old, before leaving the building, grabbing a machete, and repeatedly attacking him.
The victim attempted to flee towards the office, where his wife and son were. Both tried to intervene to save him, but they were pushed aside. The attack continued until Nagamallaiah was decapitated.
The Dallas Morning News reported that the assailant kicked the victim's head twice, picked it up from the pavement, and threw it into a garbage container.
The authorities declared the manager dead at the scene.
Arrest, criminal record, and immigration detention
Cobos Martínez was arrested minutes later, while walking covered in blood with the machete still in hand. Since then, he has been held in the Dallas County jail, with a bail of 1.25 million dollars and an immigration detainer (ICE hold).
The Cuban is an undocumented immigrant and had a prior deportation order, as confirmed to The Dallas Morning News by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin.
Due to his criminal record, the United States attempted to deport him in 2025, but Cuba refused to accept him, leading ICE to release him due to "lack of likelihood of deportation in the near future." That release, revealed by Fox News and CBS, sparked a heated political debate following the crime.
The defendant's criminal record is extensive:
- A conviction for assault in 2018.
- Arrested in California for attempting to steal a car while naked (2017).
- Charges of indecency with a minor in Texas (dismissed).
- Arrests for vehicle theft and carjacking in Florida (did not succeed).
New accusations from Cuba
After the murder in Dallas, relatives of a victim in Holguín, Cuba, reported that Cobos Martínez allegedly killed a man in 2008 and that his uncle took the blame to protect him, as the family told journalist Javier Díaz from Univision. That case was never thoroughly investigated.
The revelations suggest a possible pattern of violence that has persisted for over a decade.
For his part, Nagamallaiah, an Indian immigrant and family man, was planning to travel to India to visit his parents weeks after the attack. His death has shocked the Indo-American community in Texas, which raised nearly $200,000 to cover funeral expenses and support his 18-year-old son.
“It was a sudden and deeply traumatic murder,” a family spokesperson told FOX.
A case that reignites the immigration debate in the U.S.
The DHS classified the crime as “completely preventable” and held the Biden administration responsible for having released Cobos in January 2025. The office recalled that under Donald Trump's administration, the deportation of criminals to third countries was resumed when Cuba refused to accept them.
The case has been used by authorities and conservative commentators as an example of the impact of failures in migration cooperation with Havana, while pro-immigrant organizations are calling to avoid generalizations that fuel stigma against Cubans.
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