Honduran Man Found Guilty of Raping and Killing Woman in Florida Motel; Jury Votes Death Penalty

https://www.latintimes.com/honduran-...a-woman-563428

The victim's family told local media she dreamed of being a nurse.

Carola Guerrero De León
Published Oct 24 2024
3:51 PM EDT


A Miami-Dade jury found a Honduran man guilty of raping and killing a woman in the Chesapeake Motel in Hialeah, Florida. PETRO BARABASH GOOGLE LOCATION

A Miami-Dade jury found a Honduran man guilty of raping and killing a woman in a Florida motel back in 2016.

Ronald Lopez Andrade could be facing the death penalty as eight jury members voted in favor and four voted against capital punishment for his role in the death of 30-year-old Yaimi Guevara Machado.

Police reports show that Andrade walked up to the Chesapeake Motel in Hialeah in 2016, asking staff for prostitutes. Andrade, who was 26 at the time, had been living illegally in the U.S. for less than a year. She resided in a building behind the motel, per Local 10 News.

Andrade's arrest report indicates that hotel staff sold him alcohol and allowed him to remain on the premises despite him harassing a cleaning lady and a clerk.

Meanwhile, the victim had been locked out of her room and was waiting for someone when Andrade approached her. Machado didn't have a shirt on, and Andrade let her borrow his, authorities said. Andrade then made sexual advances, which Machado rejected.

The Honduran man quickly became violent, according to official reports cited by the outlet, and took the victim to a grassy area near the hotel. Lopez Andrade then raped and strangled her to death, per an NBC report.

Detectives said that Andrade left the scene when he noticed the victim was no longer moving and her face was covered in blood.

Police found Machado's naked body with her clothes nearby, and Andrade was arrested on a second-degree murder charge.

The victim's family sued the hotel and received $12 million due to the staff's negligence in preventing Machado's death. The family said that she was very intelligent and wanted to be a nurse.

A judge will decide Andrade's sentence later this year.