Miami Handyman Gets Death Penalty For Beating, Stabbing, And Strangling An Airport Waitress To Death With Rice Cooker Cord
A Miami handyman, Rafael Andres, 51, received the death penalty Wednesday for beating, stabbing, and strangling an airport waitress to death in 2005, according to Miami Herald.
In 2005, Andres was a handyman in Miami, Florida who was hired to complete a task for 31-year-old Yvette Farinas – a waitress at La Carreta at the Miami International Airport – at her home at 7300 block of Southwest 12th Street.
#RafaelAndres sentenced to death for 2005 murder of waitress @MiamiHerald @elnuevoherald @DavidOvalle305 pic.twitter.com/fEQ8SRvaTC
— walter michot (@WalterMichot) May 6, 2015
Once Andres arrived at her home, which Farinas shared with her significant other, he beat her in the face, stabbed her multiple times in the chest, and afterwards grabbed a rice-cooker cord and began strangling her to death.
Before stealing Farinas’ ATM card to withdraw cash and pay for a hotel room at Miccosukee Resort and Casino, he set her home on fire.
Although Andres attempted to discard the body and evidence by setting fire to Farinas home, a cloth with his DNA was left behind and collected into evidence.
Police officials captured the suspect in 2006, and in November 2014, Andres was convicted of first-degree murder, burglary with battery, robbery with a weapon, and arson.
“When you took that rice-cooker cord and wound it around her neck, the evidence is clear. She was alive. She knew you were strangling her,” Miami Judge Dava Tunis told Andres. “She fought you for her life.”
“You were still a young man. You had the opportunity to live a productive life.”
“Unfortunately, you did not learn and committed a second-heinous murder.”
Prior to brutally killing Farinas, Andres had served 18 years in prison for murdering 32-year-old Linda Azcarreta. Andres had stabbed the Miami woman to death, claiming that the incident unfolded as a result of multiple drug use, reports NBC Miami.
The families of both Andres’ victims appeared in court for his sentencing and was relieved to hear that the judge had given him the death penalty.
“I wanted to thank you for allowing me to speak,” Azcarreta’s son, Rene Azcarreta, told the judge who was a child when his mother was brutally murdered in 1987. “As a child I never had that opportunity to express the excruciating loss I had to deal with and the effect this has caused on everyone on my family.”
“This has been a long and difficult road for the Farinas family, we appreciate the jury’s verdict,” said prosecutor Gail Levine. “That family will never be the same but today they received the closure that they deserved.”
[Image courtesy of Penn State Law/Flickr]
