A Miami-Dade judge has once again sentenced Rafael Andrés, 62, to death for the murder of Ivette Fariñas, a 31-year-old waitress who worked at the La Carreta restaurant at Miami International Airport and was killed in 2005.
A report from Telemundo 51 revealed that what makes this case particularly grave is the convict's history: during the hearing on Friday, Judge Zachary James recalled that Andrés had previously been convicted for the murder of Linda Azcárreta, aged 32, which occurred in 1987, when he beat and stabbed her to death.
For that first crime, Andrés was sentenced to nine years in prison, but he served only 18 months before being released for good behavior in an overcrowded prison system.
That early release allowed him to return to the community and, years later, commit the crime against Fariñas. She had hired Andrés to do repair work in her apartment in the Westchester area of Miami.
According to the prosecutors, Andrés struck Fariñas in the face and head, stabbed her three times in the chest, suffocated her, and then strangled her with the electric cord of her own rice cooker, before setting the apartment on fire.
The forensic doctor estimated that the victim may have suffered for up to 30 minutes before dying.
Andrés also stole Fariñas' ATM card and fled the scene. He was captured in March 2006, convicted in 2014, and sentenced to death for the first time in 2015.
However, that first sentence was overturned following a ruling by the United States Supreme Court in 2016, which declared Florida's scheme unconstitutional, as it allowed the judge —rather than the jury— to determine the facts necessary to impose the death penalty.
In November 2025, a new jury in Miami-Dade reviewed the evidence and recommended the death penalty by a vote of nine to three, considering the crime to be heinous and cruel.
Judge James followed that recommendation on Friday and sentenced Andrés to death for the second time, marking the first conviction of this kind in over a decade that sends an inmate from Miami-Dade to death row in Florida.
Among those present in the room was René Azcárreta, Linda's son, who was only seven years old when he found his mother murdered in 1987 and who, over the years, developed a close bond with Fariñas' family.
"It's something that honestly no one should have to endure," Azcárreta stated after learning of the sentence.
The victim's son summed up the weight of four decades of waiting with a direct warning to the condemned: "They gave you a chance, a free pass, and you squandered it. You deserve what you have now."
He also noted that, although Fariñas' family lost a daughter, over time they gained a son: "Our families have been quite close."
Fariñas' family left the court in tears and without making any statements.
The defense announced that it will appeal the new sentence and may argue, among other things, that the jury's recommendation was not unanimous.
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