OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
12:56 PM – Friday, September 12, 2025
A 37-year-old illegal alien from Cuba, who was residing in Dallas, Texas, has confessed to beheading a motel manager during a heated dispute. According to court records obtained Thursday, he placed the victim’s head in a trash bin and now faces a capital murder charge.
Police arrested Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, 37, on Wednesday after finding him covered in blood and carrying a machete, which is believed to have been used to kill 50-year-old Chandra Nagamallaiah, the manager of a motel — an arrest affidavit states.
Prison records also list the suspect as being an “undocumented immigrant.”
“According to the affidavit, Cobos-Martinez admitted to the killing in an interview with authorities,” NBC News reported.
Cobos-Martinez is now being held without bond in the Dallas County Jail on an immigration detainer.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Cobos-Martinez is a Cuban national with a final order of removal from the United States. He has most recently been held in ICE custody at a detention facility west of Dallas, the department said.
According to the statement, Cobos-Martinez was released under an order of supervision in January after Cuba “would not accept him because of his criminal history.”
The violence unfolded on Wednesday morning, after Nagamallaiah — identified by NBC Dallas-Fort Worth as the manager of a motel northeast of downtown Dallas — told Cobos-Martinez not to use a broken washing machine, according to the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, Cobos-Martinez and a woman were cleaning a room when the confrontation started. He grew agitated because Nagamallaiah spoke to him through the woman rather than addressing him directly, the affidavit states.
Video evidence cited in the affidavit then shows Cobos-Martinez leaving the room, pulling out a machete, and repeatedly cutting and stabbing Nagamallaiah.
Screaming, Nagamallaiah ran to the motel’s front office, but Cobos-Martinez chased him and continued the assault, according to the affidavit. At one point, Nagamallaiah’s wife and son tried to intervene, but Cobos-Martinez pushed them aside and pressed on with the attack.
The affidavit also states that Cobos-Martinez took a key card and cellphone from Nagamallaiah’s pockets before continuing the assault, “until his head was removed from his body.” He then kicked the victim’s head into the parking lot, picked it up, and placed it in a dumpster, according to the document.
First responders arriving at the scene saw Cobos-Martinez fleeing and pursued him. Officers arrested him about a block away. When taken into custody, Cobos-Martinez still had the machete, along with Nagamallaiah’s key card and cellphone, the affidavit notes.
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