Trump promises tough prosecution of immigrant accused of beheading man in Dallas

Amy McDaniel and Harriet Ramos, Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Sep 15, 2025

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President Donald Trump promised Sunday night that a Cuban immigrant accused of beheading his manager at a Dallas motel with a machete last week “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “I am aware of the terrible reports regarding the murder of Chandra Nagamallaiah, a well respected person in Dallas, Texas, who was brutally beheaded, in front of his wife and son, by an ILLEGAL ALIEN from Cuba who should have never been in our Country.”

“This individual was previously arrested for terrible crimes, including child sex abuse, grand theft auto and false imprisonment, but was released back into our homeland under incompetent Joe Biden because Cuba did not want such an evil person in their country,” Trump wrote. “Rest assured, the time for being soft on these illegal immigrant criminals is OVER under my watch!”

Victim mourned by wife and son

Nagamallaiah, who was from the southern Indian state of Karnataka, moved to the United States in 2018, BBC News reported.

Nagamallaiah, known in the community as “Bob,” leaves behind “his wife, Nisha, and his 18-year-old son, Gaurav, who just graduated high school and is preparing to begin college this fall,” the family wrote on a GoFundMe account that has raised more than $343,000. “Gaurav dreams of studying Hospitality Management, inspired by his father’s hard work and generosity.”

Nagamallaiah’s funeral was held Saturday in Flower Mound.

Warrant reveals gruesome details of killing

An arrest warrant affidavit released last week provided details about the police investigation into the Wednesday, Sept. 10, killing of Nagamallaiah, a 50-year-old manager at the Downtown Suites motel in East Dallas. The warrant and other sources say the suspect, Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, killed Nagamallaiah in front of his family, then kicked his severed head “like a soccer ball” across the motel parking lot before throwing it into a dumpster.

Cobos-Martinez, 37, faces a capital murder charge and is in a Dallas County jail without bond on a hold for Immigration and Customs Enforcement He admitted to police during a video interview that he killed Nagamallaiah with a machete, according to the affidavit.

Another motel worker told police that she and Cobos-Martinez were cleaning a room when Nagamallaiah approached them and told Cobos-Martinez to stop using a washing machine that was broken. According to the affidavit, Cobos-Martinez became angry that Nagamallaiah gave the instructions to the other worker and asked her to translate.

Video footage shows Cobos-Martinez leave the motel room, grab a machete and begin cutting and stabbing Nagamallaiah, the affidavit states. The victim ran toward the motel office while Cobos-Martinez chased after him with the machete, police said.

Nagamallaiah’s wife and son saw what was happening and tried to stop it. The suspect pushed them away several times and continued the attack, police said. At one point, Cobos-Martinez went through Nagamallaiah’s pockets and took his phone and a lanyard with a key card, according to the affidavit.

Witnesses called 911, and Dallas-Fire Rescue arrived as Cobos-Martinez was trying to leave. They followed him and directed police where to find him.

Cobos-Martinez was covered with blood and still holding the machete when he left the motel, investigators said. Police arrested him in a couple of blocks away on Samuell Boulevard.

Beheading suspect’s criminal record

Cobos-Martinez has been linked to other crimes in Houston, Florida and California, KXAS-TV reported.

His prior arrests include a 2017 case in South Lake Tahoe, California, where he faced charges including carjacking and false imprisonment after authorities said he tried to steal a woman’s car while naked, Nevada NBC station KRNV-TV reported.

Earlier that year, he was accused of stealing a car in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

In 2018, Cobos-Martinez was arrested in Harris County, Texas, where he was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, according to KXAS-TV. A charge of indecency with a child through sexual contact was dismissed, but Cobos-Martinez spent a year in jail on a related assault charge, the NBC station reported.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson told WFAA-TV that Cabos-Martinez had recently been in the custody of Enforcement and Removal Operations at the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas, following his arrest in Dallas on a fugitive from justice charge related to the California carjacking. But he was released in January on an order of supervision because there were “no removal flights to Cuba,” the ICE spokesperson said.

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