Gavel. Photo courtesy of Metro Creative Graphics.
A Dallas grand jury indicted the man accused of murdering and, ultimately, beheading a motel manager on Sept. 10 in the 3400 block of Samuell Boulevard.
The official charge Yordanis Cobos-Martinez is facing is capital murder by terror threat. Generally, capital murders are punishable as capital felonies, in which case the convicted person who committed the crime as an adult would be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.
The victim, 50-year-old Chandra Mouli “Bob” Nagamallaiah, died at the scene and was discovered to have been cut several times with a machete by 37-year-old Cobos-Martinez.
At the time, The Dallas Morning News reported that Nagamallaiah was a motel manager, and Cobos-Martinez was an employee. According to the arrest report, Cobos-Martinez became upset with the manager and attacked Nagamallaiah. Cobos-Martinez is also reportedly an undocumented Cuban migrant, but it’s unclear what effect immigration enforcement will have on this case.
Cobos-Martinez’s family spoke to WFAA earlier this year and said they were trying to get him back to Cuba to receive psychiatric treatment, but they claim the Cuban government wouldn’t allow that. Cobos-Martinez had prior trouble with the law in the U.S. and told his family of previous arguments with Nagamallaiah, including over pay.
To date, $447,128 from over 7,000 donations has been raised for Nagamallaiah’s family on GoFundMe, but donations are currently paused. The money was expected to pay for funeral expenses, immediate living costs and support for Nagamallaiah’s 18-year-old son as he goes to college.
The GoFundMe page described Nagamallaiah as a “loving husband, devoted father and kind soul who touched the lives of everyone who knew him.” His son was inspired to study hospitality management because of “his father’s hard work and generosity.”
