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Dallas beheading suspect should have been deported
The man arrested for a brutal Dallas beheading is a Cuban national who, despite deportation efforts, was allowed to remain in the country.
DALLAS - The man arrested for a brutal Dallas beheading is a Cuban national who, despite deportation efforts, was allowed to remain in the country.
Theoretically, Yordanis Cobos-Martinez should not have been in the United States when police said he attacked and killed his boss with a machete.
Dallas Beheading
What's new:
Yordanis Cobos-Martinez remains in the Dallas County jail.
The 37-year-old from Cuba is charged with capital murder after he allegedly attacked and killed his boss with a machete at a Dallas motel on Wednesday.
Court documents revealed gruesome details of a beheading sparked by a dispute over a broken washing machine.
Dallas motel beheading: Affidavit reveals gruesome details
According to the arrest affidavit, the suspect, Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, admitted to decapitating the victim. WARNING: This story contains graphic details that may be disturbing to some readers.
Public records show that at the time of the murder, Cobos-Martinez had an active warrant for a probation violation out of California.
Back in 2017, Cobos-Martinez carjacked a woman in South Lake Tahoe while he was naked. A jury convicted him in 2023 and sentenced him to a year and a half in prison.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told FOX News that Cobos-Martinez was released from ICE custody on Jan. 13 despite a removal order due to Cuba not wanting to take him back.
The Biden administration, which was in power at the time, did not deport undocumented immigrants to third-party countries like the Trump administration currently does.
Dig deeper:
FOX 4 talked to an attorney who is not involved in the case about the circumstances that led to Cobos-Martinez being allowed to stay in the country.
"A country has to actually have a formal agreement with the United States, or an informal agreement either way, saying that they will receive their deports back," said Eric Cedillo, an adjunct clinical professor at the SMU Dedman School of Law.
Cedillo explained that President Donald Trump, at the start of his second term, ordered deportations to a range of third-party countries willing to take immigrants, such as El Salvador, South Sudan, and Rwanda.
"So, it’s probably true to suggest that if this had happened more recently, he probably would be sent to a third country as opposed to being released out into the country. So, it is a situation where timing had a lot to do with it," he said.
Dallas beheading: Victim identified, suspect charged with capital murder
The preliminary investigation determined that the suspect cut the victim with an edged weapon several times. Reports from the scene suggest the victim was beheaded.
In cases where a defendant like Cobos-Martinez is in and out of jail, there are a lot of moving parts from the police to the prosecutors and courts that can complicate his custody status.
Cedillo said Cobos-Martinez would likely be deported to a third-party country now, but first, he has to answer to the murder charge here in Dallas.
He could also end up serving life in prison, which means deportation is a moot point.
What they're saying:
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security put the blame squarely on the previous administration’s policies.
"This gruesome, savage slaying of a victim at a motel by Yordanis Cobos-Martinez was completely preventable if this criminal illegal alien was not released by the Biden administration because Cuba would not take him back," the department said. "President Trump and Secretary Noem are no longer allowing barbaric criminals to indefinitely remain in America."
A spokesperson for the victim’s family called the killing "sudden and deeply traumatic," adding that his life was taken in a brutal attack that occurred in front of his wife and son, who bravely tried to protect him.
The Source: The information in this story comes from the Dallas Police Department, the Department of Homeland Security, interviews with SMU professor Eric Cedillo, and statement's from the victim's family.