Eight years after a woman’s body was found in a grassy area on a Hialeah motel, completely naked, and covered in blood, a Miami-Dade jury recommended her killer should also die.
Last week, those same jurors found Ronald Lopez Andrade guilty of raping and later killing 30-year-old Yaimi Guevara Machado.
Late Wednesday evening, despite not all jurors considering the crime to be heinous, atrocious, or cruel, in an 8-4 vote they still recommended death as a potential punishment.
Jurors also found first-degree murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of the sexual battery.
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According to the arrest report, Machado was at the Chesapeake Motel at 935 W. Okeechobee Road with a friend when she was accidentally locked out of her room while not fully dressed.
Lopez Andrade had arrived at the lobby of the motel around 4:30 a.m. and bought four beers and cigarettes, the report said. He harassed a cleaning lady and the clerk and asked the staff if there were any prostitutes, the report said.
Lopez Andrade then came across Machado, who was dressed only in a bra and jeans, and let her have his shirt. But when Machado refused Lopez Andrade's advances, he became enraged and they began to struggle, the report said.
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Prosecutors say Lopez Andrade raped her and then strangled her to death.
Machado's body was found in a grassy area on the motel property completely naked.
The tragic death shook the South Florida family and the Hialeah motel was ordered to pay the parents of the woman $12 million due to its staff's negligence in preventing her death.
The lawsuit alleged that staff sold Lopez Andrade alcohol, attempted to help him find a prostitute, and allowed Lopez Andrade to linger on motel property despite him not being a guest.
The family also alleged staff did not kick Lopez Andrade out of the property after he sought sexual favors from a housekeeper.
As for the criminal trial, Lopez Andrade will have another hearing later this year where the judge will have the ultimate say on sentencing.
This is the second time this year a Miami-Dade jury has recommended death. In an 8-4 vote, jurors recommended a death sentence for Ysrael Granda, a man found guilty of ordering to kill his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. Granda is awaiting sentencing.
