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A Florida court sentenced Cuban Carlos Yordanis Aldana to 50 years in prison for the brutal murder of his girlfriend, 30-year-old Yannelis de la Caridad Casales, in March 2025, in the city of Jacksonville, in the northern part of the state.
The sentence was issued by a judge from Duval County on January 30, nearly a year after the horrific crime that grieved a family and shocked the Cuban community in Florida and the island.
The news was reported on Wednesday by journalist Daniel Benítez, who published the court document with the sentencing ruling.
When he took the life of his partner, Aldana, who was 38 years old, it had been less than two weeks since he arrived in the United States from Cuba, where, according to the victim's family, he had served three years in prison for a crime that was not revealed at that time.
According to reports following the murder, the man resided in the U.S. and had traveled to the island for vacation. There, he was taken into custody due to an ongoing legal case.
He and Yannelis met in Cuba. According to relatives, while he was in prison, the young woman emigrated to the United States, entering the country through the southern border, where she settled with the hope of reunifying and building a future with her partner.
On March 16, 2025, a family video captured the heartfelt welcome that Yannelis gave to her boyfriend at an airport in Florida.
“You are the dream I always prayed for. Welcome home,” the young woman wrote on Facebook, alongside the images that captured the heartfelt reunion.
But less than two weeks later, on the morning of March 30, everything would end in tragedy. Aldana stabbed Yannelis 15 times, causing her death, inside the bedroom of the apartment they shared in a residential complex in the Arlington area of Jacksonville, Duval County.
When the police officers arrived at the scene, they found the assailant with stab wounds to his hand and left leg, so he was treated by paramedics and later taken to a hospital. After receiving medical clearance, he was incarcerated in the Duval County jail.
On that fateful morning, the officers who arrived at the apartment followed a trail of blood that led them to where Yannelis's body was found, with multiple stab wounds and already lifeless.
The solidarity of friends, relatives, and other members of the Cuban community in Florida made it possible to raise the necessary funds, through a campaign on GoFundMe, to repatriate Yannelis's body to her hometown of Santiago de Cuba, where her parents, brother, and other family members were able to say their final goodbye.
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