MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – A Miami Gardens man who turned himself in to authorities Saturday after killing his wife and mother-in-law did so because he suspected his wife had been unfaithful, an arrest report stated.
After Jose Echevarria, 55, turned himself in at a Hialeah police station, Miami Gardens police officers went to his home in the 3300 block of Northwest 175th Street and found his wife and mother-in-law dead inside.
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According to the arrest report, Echevarria said he and his wife, Marlene Gonzalez, 47, had been lovers for 20 years, dating back to when they both lived in Cuba.
Police said Echevarria told them he reunited with Gonzalez when they both moved to the U.S. 11 years ago, and they got married this past January.
Echevarria claimed their relationship was well until about four or five months ago, when Gonzalez's mother and her niece moved in with them, the arrest report stated.
Police said Echevarria claimed there was a lot of disrespect among them and his wife stopped having intimate relations with him.
Echevarria said he got increasingly suspicious after he returned from a 12-day trip to Cuba and his wife no longer wanted to sleep in the same bed as him, authorities said.
According to the arrest report, Echevarria hid a recording device in their home and installed a GPS device in Gonzalez's car to find out whether his wife was having an affair.
Police said Echevarria allegedly heard his wife telling someone on the phone, "You made me so happy. You took me to Motel Paradise and I enjoyed (it)."
Echevarria told detectives that he and his wife agreed to separate and she called him Friday because he had already changed the locks to the home and she and her mother wanted to get the remainder of their belongings.
Echevarria said he returned to the house, but got into a verbal argument with his wife and asked her whether it was true she was moving into an apartment with another man, authorities said.
"Think of what you are doing. We have a 20-year relationship and you are leaving me for someone you just met," police said he claimed he told his wife.
Police said Echevarria claimed that his wife began to yell at him and said, "That's right. I am and he has a bigger (expletive) than you and (expletive) me better than you do."
According to the arrest report, Echevarria said his wife also told him that the new man in her life didn't need medication to be intimate with her.
Echevarria killed his wife after the argument, police said.
Authorities have not disclosed exactly how she was killed, but a medical examiner's report confirms that she died as a result of "multiple blunt and sharp force injuries."
The arrest report stated police found her lying on the floor in a pool of blood with a head injury and a cut to her neck.
Her mother, Carmen Alfonso, 66, was found dead on the floor of a bedroom. Police said it appeared she was trying to seek shelter from harm as Echevarria struck her in the head, also causing damage to a wall.
Echevarria faces two counts of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon.