An Indian-origin man, working as a motel manager in the US, was brutally attacked and beheaded in front of his son and wife in Texas after a dispute over a washing machine.
Fifty-year-old Chandra Nagamallaiah, originally from Karnataka, reportedly told the accused, a co-worker, not to use the broken washing machine when the accused got a machete and stabbed him multiple times. The incident took place on Wednesday at the Downtown Suites motel in Dallas.
A video has surfaced on the internet showing Yordanis Cobos-Martinez chasing Nagamallaiah with a machete before stabbing him several times. The suspect, identified as 37-year-old Cuban Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, had a history of criminal record. He has been arrested and charged with capital murder.
The visuals show the victim, fleeing toward the motel office, where his wife and son were present. Nagamallaiah followed behind, attacking the victim with machete in front of several onlookers, shrieking and trying to stop the attack. However, the accused showed no sign of relenting and kept stabbing the victim, in presence of his 18-year-old son and wife.
HT.com has chosen not to include the video in this report due to its graphic and disturbing content.
The Dallas Police Department said that the accused took Nagamallaiah’s cell phone and key card from his pockets before resuming the attack until the victim’s head “was removed from his body”.
Witnesses called the crime as “sick and disturbing” as the accused cut the victim “several times” before decapitating him.
“The suspect kicked the (Nagamallaiah’s) head twice into the parking lot and proceeded to pick it up and carry it to the dumpster and put it inside,” the Dallas police said.
According to a report in NBC 5, the accused fled the motel following the murder. He was apprehended wearing a blood-stained t-shirt.
A PTI news agency report said that Cobos-Martinez was enraged when Nagamallaiah asked another person to translate his instructions instead of addressing him directly.
Cobos-Martine is likely to face life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty. He has been arrested twice for auto theft in Florida and has indecency with a child and assault charges in Houston.
The Consulate General of India in Houston condoled the death of Nagamallaiah and said it is following up on the matter closely.
“We are in touch with the family and offering all possible assistance. The accused is in the custody of Dallas Police,” it said in a post on X.
