Dallas County DA won’t seek death penalty in Old East Dallas motel beheading

Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot released a notice of intent submitted to Dallas County court on July 6, stating Texas will not seek the death penalty in the case against Yordanis Cobos-Martinez. 

An attorney for Cobos-Martinez didn’t immediately return a phone call requesting comment Wednesday. 

Cobos-Martinez, 37, is accused of attacking and decapitating his coworker, 50-year-old hotel manager Chandra Nagamallaiah, on Sept. 10 at the Downtown Suites motel on Samuell Boulevard in Old East Dallas. Nagamallaiah was cleaning a room with another employee when Cobos-Martinez approached them and began arguing with Nagamallaiah about a broken washing machine, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit.

Cobos-Martinez became angry that Nagamallaiah was speaking to a witness to translate instead of to him directly, the affidavit said. Authorities allege Cobos-Martinez then left the room and came back with a machete, which they say he used to attack Nagamalliaiah. 

Nagamallaiah left the room screaming, fleeing to the hotel parking lot then to the front office, where Cobos-Martinez chased him until he eventually killed him, the affidavit states. Cobos-Martinez then pushed Nagamallaiah’s wife and son as they attempted to stop the attack, according to the affidavit.

Cobos-Martinez fled the scene, but was detained by police shortly after the attack, still covered in blood and armed with the machete, the affidavit said. Cobos-Martinez was formally charged with capital murder on Oct. 23, court records show.

Cobos-Martinez is from Cuba and had a prior deportation order to the country, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, previously told The Dallas Morning News.

He had an immigration detainer issued against him by DHS when he was originally arrested and booked in Dallas County jail.

Cobos-Martinez has an extensive criminal history that includes a one-year jail sentence for assault in 2018 and a 2017 arrest in California on allegations that he attempted to carjack a woman while naked, according to the affidavit.