Dallas motel beheading: Pres. Trump calls for immigration crackdown after killing
Gruesome details of Dallas motel beheading
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.
DALLAS - President Donald Trump says his administration will work to crack down on immigration after the "terrible" beheading of a man at a motel in Old East Dallas.
Yordanis Cobos-Martinez of Cuba is charged with capital murder, after police say he killed his boss with a machete over a dispute involving a broken washing machine.
Pres. Trump on Dallas Beheading
Pres. Donald Trump (left), Yordanis Cobos-Martinez (right)
What they're saying:
President Trump addressed the killing in a post to Truth Social on Sunday night.
"Rest assured, the time for being soft on these Illegal Immigrant Criminals is OVER under my watch! Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Border Czar Tom Homan, and many others in my Administration, are doing an incredible job in, MAKING AMERICA SAFE AGAIN. This criminal, who we have in custody, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law," Trump wrote in part.
Dallas Motel Beheading
The backstory:
According to an arrest affidavit, on Sept. 10 at 9:26 a.m., Cobos-Martinez was involved in a verbal argument with 50-year-old Chandra Mouli Nagamallaiah at the motel.
A witness said she and Cobos-Martinez worked at the motel and were cleaning room 108 together when Nagamallaiah approached and was telling Cobos-Martinez to not use the washing machine that was broken. The witness said Cobos-Martinez was upset that Nagamallaiah was speaking to the witness to translate communication instead of speaking directly to him.
Video shows the suspect then left the room and got a machete "from his person" and started hacking Nagamallaiah multiple times.
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.
Nagamallaiah ran down the parking lot towards the front office screaming as Cobos-Martinez chased him, according to the affidavit.According to the arrest affidavit, on Sept. 10 at 9:26 a.m., Yordanis Cobos-Martinez was involved in a verbal argument with 50-year-old Chandra Mouli Nagamallaiah at the motel.
A witness said she and Cobos-Martinez worked at the motel and were cleaning room 108 together when Nagamallaiah approached and was telling Cobos-Martinez to not use the washing machine that was broken. The witness said Cobos-Martinez was upset that Nagamallaiah was speaking to the witness to translate communication instead of speaking directly to him.
Chandra Mouli Nagamallaiah
Video shows the suspect then left the room and got a machete "from his person" and started hacking Nagamallaiah multiple times.
During the attack, police say Cobos-Martinez stopped and went through the victim's pockets, taking his cell phone and lanyard with a key card. He then started cutting the victim until his head was removed from his body.
During the attack, the victim's wife and son walked out of the front office and tried to get Cobos-Martinez to stop hurting the victim.
Suspect's Immigration Status
Dallas motel beaheading suspect had active warrant
Dallas police continue to investigate a gruesome and highly visible beheading at a motel in Old East Dallas that happened on Wednesday morning
Dig deeper:
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.
"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.
Dallas beheading suspect was allowed to stay in the U.S. after Cuba refused deportation
The man arrested for a brutal Dallas beheading is a Cuban national who, despite deportation efforts, was allowed to remain in the country under the Biden administration's policies.
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.
The Source: Information in this article comes from a Truth Social post from President Donald Trump, court documents for Yordanis Cobos-Martinez and interviews with SMU professor Eric Cedillo.