Alberto Sierra, 42 years old, pleaded guilty this Friday in a Miami-Dade court to having killed his estranged wife and her two young daughters nearly 14 years ago, in a case that now moves directly to the phase where a jury will decide whether the defendant will receive the death penalty or life imprisonment.
Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, Sierra appeared before Judge Marisa Tinkler Méndez of the Miami-Dade Circuit Court and entered his guilty plea without any agreement with the prosecution, according to the Miami Herald.
When the judge reminded him that he faces the death penalty, the defendant responded succinctly, "Yes, ma'am. It's been 14 years, so..."
The victims were Gladys Machado, 29 years old, and her daughters Julia Padrón, eight years old, and Daniela Padrón, four.
They were murdered on November 10, 2012. Three days later, a neighbor found their bodies inside a closet in their home in Flagami, on the 7300 block of Northwest Fourth Street.
According to her own confession to the detectives, Sierra accompanied Machado and the girls to the Mall of the Americas in the woman's golden Nissan Altima.
During the journey, Machado received a call from another man, and Sierra stabbed her inside the car. He then drove the three of them to their house, locked the girls in a room, and suffocated Machado with a plastic bag.
According to the arrest affidavit cited by NBC Miami, Sierra also sexually assaulted Machado and then took one of the girls from her room and strangled her; he did the same to the other while she was sleeping.
The DNA samples taken from Julia matched Sierra, and her fingerprints were found at the crime scene.
Machado and Sierra had a history of domestic violence and had separated shortly before the crimes.
She had moved in with her grandmother in Homestead; he lived with his mother in Kendall. On the night of the murders, Machado's six-year-old son stayed with the grandmother, which saved his life.
The victim's car was found nine days after the crimes, parked in reverse among some bushes at the Calusa Club Apartments, in front of Sierra's mother's house, with blood on both seats.
The police noted that the vehicle had been positioned in that way to conceal the license plate number.
Sierra had been released from prison just five months before the murders for violating his parole after a weapon was found at his home.
He had previous convictions for drugs and weapons. In addition, the Department of Children and Families had investigated him because Julia told a teacher that her stepfather had bitten her, although the Miami-Dade police concluded that it had been while "playing" and no charges were filed.
Sierra was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, three counts of kidnapping, two counts of abuse of a corpse, and one count of burglary.
In Florida, the state plans to impose the death penalty when at least eight of the 12 jurors recommend it, following a law signed in 2023 that removed the requirement for unanimity.
The selection of the jury for the sentencing phase is scheduled for August 17, and the 12 citizens chosen will hold the final decision: death or life imprisonment for the man who ended three lives in a single night.
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