State waives death penalty option for 4 of 5 people charged in fatal machete attack

Suspects accused of planning murder weeks before luring victim into woods

MIAMI ā€“ Four of five people charged in the machete hacking death of a 17-year-old boy in Homestead will not face the death penalty if they are convicted of murder, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

The state said it would seek the death penalty only for the accused ringleader, Kaheem Arbelo, 22.

Desiray Strickland, 20, Jonathan Lucas, 19 Christian Colon, 20 and Joseph Michael Cabrera, 24, are also charged in the June 28, 2015, killing of Jose Santos Amaya Guardado. They each face up to life in prison if convicted.

Colon is the only defendant who is charged with second-degree murder charge, while the rest are charged with first-degree murder.

"Based on these children's ages, I think they did exactly the right thing in this matter," Colon's attorney, Jimmy Dellafera, said.

Guardado's body was found July 1, 2015, by his brother, partially buried in a wooded area behind Homestead Job Corps in Homestead, where Guardado and the defendants were students.

The group is accused of plotting for weeks to kill Guardado, digging a hole in the woods two weeks before the killing.

According to an arrest report, the group lured Guardado into the woods and Arbelo used a machete to slash him as the group ambushed him.

Police said Arbelo's friends watched him kill Guardado, and said Strickland complained that she missed part of the attack because she left for a few minutes to urinate in the woods.

According to the report, as the victim was dying, he was instructed to lie in the grave. Police said Guardado made a final attempt to fight off Arbelo, but was struck by the machete multiple times until his face caved in.

Police said the group pushed Guardado's lifeless body into the grave.

The suspects got rid of the shovel and murder weapon and attempted to burn their clothes and Guardado's belongings, the report said.

Police said Strickland and Arbelo had sex in the woods until it was time for them to return to campus at the Job Corps.

"They're all very young, immature. It's a very unusual case. The evidence is questionable as to Ms. Strickland," Strickland's attorney, Scott Sakin, said.

A motive for the attack remains unclear, but a police source said the victim had been bullied before by the group and that Guardado might have owed Arbelo money.


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Amanda Batchelor is the Digital Executive Producer for Local10.com.