Inset: A photo of Yordanis Cobos-Martinez from the Dallas County Jail. In the background, there is a scene of a motel in Dallas, Texas, where Cobos-Martinez is accused of murdering a manager (WFAA/YouTube).
Shocked witnesses were present when a Texas motel employee purportedly attacked a manager with a machete, resulting in decapitation, following a dispute concerning a malfunctioning washing machine.
Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, 37, stands accused of capital murder in the death of 50-year-old Chandra Nagamallaiah.
The incident took place around 9:30 a.m. on a Wednesday at a motel located in the 3400 block of Samuell Boulevard on the east side of Dallas. According to a police press release, the suspect inflicted multiple cuts on the victim with “an edged weapon.” Paramedics declared the victim deceased at the scene.
Witness Stephanie Elliott told local ABC affiliate WFAA that the victim tried to run away after the suspect attacked him but he fell.
“He just kept hitting him and hitting until he decapitated him,” Elliott expressed. “I was in disbelief that a person could do that to another human being.”
The related news station got access to an arrest affidavit, which revealed that Cobos-Martinez and another motel worker were tidying up a room when the victim approached Cobos-Martinez, instructing him not to use a broken washing machine. Nagamallaiah was conversing with the other employee in the room to translate the instruction to Cobos-Martinez, according to the affidavit. This reportedly agitated Cobos-Martinez who then went to another room to retrieve a machete before returning to attack the victim.
The wife and son of Nagamallaiah, who were in the motel’s office, attempted to halt the assault by striking the suspect with a bat, but despite this, Cobos-Martinez continued to swing the machete at the victim’s neck, eventually severing it, according to reports from the police.
Local NBC affiliate KXAS, also citing an affidavit, reported that Cobos-Martinez kicked the decapitated head into the parking lot, picked it up, and dumped it into a dumpster.
Nagamallaiah was the manager for two or three years and was a hardworking employee, the motel property owners told KXAS.
