MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — A 42-year-old man pleaded guilty to nine felonies on Friday related to the 2012 murders of his 29-year-old wife, his two step-daughters, and the abuse of two of their bodies in Miami-Dade County.
Gladys Machado and her two daughters, 4-year-old Daniela Padron and 8-year-old Julia Padron, died on Nov. 10, 2012, at their home in the area of Northwest 73 Avenue and Fourth Street, according to deputies.
Machado had given a neighbor access to the home, and the neighbor followed a putrid smell to a bedroom closet, found their bodies, and called 911 on Nov. 13, 2012, according to deputies.
Deputies arrested Alberto Sierra, then 28, on Nov. 19, 2012. Detective Rosie Cordero-Stutz, now the Miami-Dade Sheriff, talked to reporters about the case after the arrest.
“He used a plastic bag to asphyxiate Gladys,” Cordero-Stutz said. “And after that, he sexually assaulted her.”
Detectives searched for Machado’s 6-year-old son, who also lived at the home, but wasn’t there on Nov. 13, 2012. They found him safe with his grandmother.
Miami-Dade prosecutors filed the felony case against Sierra on Nov. 20, 2012, and he pleaded not guilty on Nov. 29, 2012.
The nine charges: Three counts of first-degree murder, three counts of kidnapping, two counts of abuse of a dead human body, and armed burglary.
The state is seeking the death penalty. Jury selection in the capital penalty phase is Aug. 17. Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez has been presiding over the case.
Local 10 News Photojournalist Tim McFarland contributed to this report.
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