BLACK: Miami-Dade woman plans to plead guilty in gruesome machete murder of Homestead teen

[*marbusfeld]

Miami-Dade woman plans to plead guilty in gruesome machete murder of Homestead teen

When Desiray Strickland was accused of taking part in the gruesome machete murder of a teenage boy in Homestead in 2015, she insisted she dint dowwit.

I dint kill that boy, I promise!” Strickland, then 19, screamed at a Miami-Dade detective in a police interrogation video. But Strickland, now 25, has decided to accept responsibility. On Wednesday, her defense attorney told a judge she plans to plead guilty to conspiracy to murder 17-year-old Jose Amaya Guardado, who was hacked to death with a machete and found buried in a shallow grave in the woods of Homestead

The plea deal, which could send Strickland to prison for 15 years, would allow her to avoid a potential life sentence on the original charge of first-degree murder. “We were hoping to do [the plea deal] today, but some terms were changed and she wanted to discuss them with her mother and father,” Strickland’s defense attorney, Scott Sakin, said after Wednesday’s court hearing before Circuit Judge Cristina Miranda. “I expect it will go forward, but I’m not sure about when.”

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article261316867.html#storylink=cpy

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article261316867.html#storylink=cpy

 

[Arheel's Uncle]

Woman Who Said 'I Did Not Kill That Boy, I Promise' Expected to Plead Guilty to Role in Gruesome Machete Murder

A Florida woman who previously and fervently insisted upon her innocence after being charged with the murder of a teenager in 2015, when she was still herself a teenager, has decided to plead guilty, according to her lawyer.

lawandcrime.com

Woman Who Said ‘I Did Not Kill That Boy, I Promise’ Expected to Plead Guilty to Role in Gruesome Machete Murder​

Colin KalmbacherMay 12th, 2022, 3:12 pm

A Florida woman who previously and fervently insisted upon her innocence after being charged with the murder of a teenager in 2015, when she was still herself a teenager, has decided to plead guilty, according to her lawyer.


“I did not kill that boy, I promise!” Desiray Strickland, 25, shouted at her interrogator in Miami-Dade County back in November 2016.


The defendant was indicted when she was 18 and questioned when she was 19 over the June 2015 slaying of 17-year-old Jose Amaya Guardado. The victim was found hacked to pieces and buried in a shallow grave in a wooded area of Homestead, Fla.


On Wednesday, the defendant’s attorney told Circuit Judge Cristina Miranda that his client was accepting legal responsibility.


“We were hoping to do [the plea deal] today, but some terms were changed and she wanted to discuss them with her mother and father,” defense attorney Scott Sakin said after a hearing on Wednesday, according to the Miami Herald. “I expect it will go forward, but I’m not sure about when.”


Prosecutors also named several accomplices in the gruesome murder: Joseph Cabrera, 30, Jonathan Lucas, 27, Christian Colon, 25, and Kaheem Arbelo, 26. At the time of the indictment, law enforcement said the group of five students conspired for at least two weeks to plot and kill their victim and that his grave was pre-dug. The defendants and Guardado all attended and lived at Homestead Job Corps, a vocational academy for at-risk youth and young adults.


In 2020, both Lucas and Cabrera pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to murder. Lucas received a sentence of five years in prison and 15 years supervised release. Cabrera received a lighter sentence, according to the Herald.


Strickland’s plea deal is reportedly for 15 years in prison. She would avoid a potential life sentence if her case was tried.


Initially, prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty for the defendant, who was in a romantic relationship with Arbelo, the alleged ringleader of the murder, at the time. Prosecutors believe the killing was a reprisal for a debt Guardado is believed to have owed to Arbelo, who has been described as a drug dealer.


In February 2017, the death penalty was dropped for all but Arbelo.


“There all very young, immature, it’s a very unusual case,” Sakin said at the time. “The evidence is questionable as to Ms. Strickland and with the changing landscape of the death penalty here in Florida and it’s changing all the time now.”


The alleged details of the murder are particularly disturbing.


Law enforcement claim the bespectacled boy was lured into the woods by his five assailants and then ambushed by the machete-wielding Arbelo. The four co-conspirators allegedly watched as the violence unfolded but then got involved by telling at the victim to crawl into his own grave. Finally, when Guardado mustered the effort to fight back one last time, Arbelo allegedly sliced at his face until it caved in, according to CBS News.


After the gruesome murder and burial, authorities claim, Arbelo and Strickland had sex near the crime scene.


Prosecutors say Arbelo confessed to the killing on video. He has not, however, reached a plea deal.


Colon is also still awaiting trial.


The extant cases are being prosecuted by Florida’s senior assistant state attorney Abbe Rifkin.

 

[Arheel's Uncle]

Woman Gets 15 Years After Plea Deal Surrounding Student's Machete Killing

Desiray Strickland and four others were originally accused of crimes surrounding the 2015 death of Homestead Job Corps student Jose Amaya Guardado.

www.nbcmiami.com

Woman Gets 15 Years After Plea Deal Surrounding Student's Machete Killing​

Desiray Strickland and four others were originally accused of crimes surrounding the 2015 death of Homestead Job Corps student Jose Amaya Guardado. ​

By Phil Prazan • Published September 1, 2022 • Updated on September 1, 2022 at 6:48 pm

​

NBC Universal, Inc.
Desiray Strickland is the third person to take a plea deal, admitting to playing a role in the high-profile and brutal killing of a Job Corps student seven years ago. NBC 6’s Phil Prazan reports

A woman is the third person to take a plea deal, admitting to playing a role in the high-profile and brutal killing of a Job Corps student seven years ago.
Desiray Strickland and four others were originally accused of crimes surrounding the 2015 death of Homestead Job Corps student Jose Amaya Guardado. Two of them are still awaiting trial.
The Strickland family shielded their faces as they walked out of the courtroom Thursday.
Inside the courtroom, Strickland raised her right hand in an orange jumpsuit and plead guilty to conspiracy to murder. In a deal with prosecutors, she will avoid the charge of murder and two others for battery on officers, which came during her time in custody.
She’ll get 15 years in prison, including seven years of credit for time already served. She may be out as early as 2028.




Miami-Dade May 13, 2022

Plea Deal Offered for Woman in Miami-Dade Teen's Machete Death ​

Florida Feb 21, 2017

Death Penalty Waived for 4 of 5 Charged in Machete Murder of Homestead Teen ​

"Desiray Strickland is very pleased to have this case resolved today," said Strickland’s attorney, Scott Sakin. "She feels terrible for what happened to the Jose Amaya family and Mr. Amaya. It was never anyone’s intention that he die."
The accused were students at Homestead Job Corps, a school managed by the federal government for at-risk youth. Law enforcement in 2015 said the five teenagers dug a grave in a wooded area before luring 17-year-old Amaya into the woods, hacking him to death with a machete over a debt owed. Police suspect the debt was over drugs.
Strickland was one of the five people arrested and now will likely testify against her then-boyfriend, Kaheem Arbelo, who prosecutors believe wielded the machete when Guardado died. Miami-Dade prosecutors want the death penalty for Arbelo.
Fellow students Jonathan Lucas and Joseph Michael Cabrera also plead guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in 2020.
“They were all friends in school. It was all just an unfortunate set of circumstances," Sakin said. "She was a very minor participant in it. There are still other people remaining who were far more involved than she was."
When Strickland gets out of prison, she’ll have one year of community control and 10 years of probation.

 

[Arheel's Uncle]

Kaheem Arbelo

Report: Alleged ringleader in Fla. machete ambush pleads not guilty

Four Florida students are suspected of luring a teen Job Corps student into the woods and attacking him with a machete

www.cbsnews.com

According to an arrest report, the suspects had planned the attack two weeks in advance.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- The suspected ringleader in the machete murder of a Florida Job Corps student has pleaded not guilty, reports the Miami Herald.

Kaheem Arbelo, 20, appeared Tuesday before a Miami-Dade judge. He's been charged along with three other students in the June killing of Jose Amaya Guardado, who police say was slashed with a machete and then buried in a wooded area.

Arbelo didn't speak as his court-appointed attorney entered the not-guilty plea on his behalf, the paper reports. He is reportedly charged with second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and four counts of tampering with a witness or victim.


According to an arrest report, the suspects had planned the attack two weeks in advance.

The report accuses them of luring Amaya Guardado, 17, to a wooded area near Homestead Job Corps, a live-in school and vocational training program for at-risk students run by the U.S. Department of Labor. That's where Amaya Guardado was hacked to death with a machete and left in a shallow grave that the suspects had dug in advance, police said.
Three of the suspects allegedly confessed to the murder, Crimesider reported, telling police all four of the suspects dug a grave and on June 28, 2015, lured Guardado to the woods, then attacked him with a machete they had stashed at the scene.

At one point, according to the arrest report, Strickland complained that she missed the first round of machete strikes because she left the murder scene to urinate.

Guardado was allegedly "ordered to lay in the grave" and "made one last attempt to fight off the attacker, at which time co-defendant (Arbelo) struck the victim with the machete several more times until the victim's face caved in."

The teens the allegedly pushed Guardado into the grave, buried him, and burned his belongings and their blood-covered clothing.

Finally, according to the arrest report, Strickland and Arbelo had sex in the woods "until it was time to return to campus."

All four defendants, including Jonathan Lucas, 18, and Cristian Colon, 19, have been charged with second-degree murder.

A judge set an October trial date, but prosecutors could also decide to present the case to a grand jury for a first-degree murder indictment, which would make the defendants eligible for the death penalty, reports the paper.

The Miami Herald reports that the group may have targeted Guardado over a debt he owned Arbelo.

Guardado was reported missing on June 28 and his body was discovered by his family on July 1.

Guardado's mother told the Associated Press she brought her son to the United States nine years ago to escape the violence rampant in their native El Salvador. But now his family is mourning his death.

"I brought my son from there because they were killing people," Lucia Guardado said, in Spanish, at the family's south Miami-Dade home. "I never imagined they would do something like that to my son here."