31 May 2025 :
May 29, 2025 - FLORIDA. Death sentence of Ronald Lopez Andrade thrown out
Judge throws out jury death recommendation for man found guilty of woman’s murder in Hialeah—-The judge ordered a new penalty phase hearing for Ronald Lopez Andrade, who was convicted of raping and killing Yaimi Guevara Machado.
After allegations of potential jury misconduct and court errors, a Miami-Dade judge ruled on Thursday that a jury’s death recommendation will be thrown out for a man found guilty of killing a woman in Hialeah.
In October 2024 (see HoC 23/10/2024), jurors found Ronald Lopez Andrade guilty of raping and later killing 30-year-old Yaimi Guevara Machado.
Machado was found in a grassy area at the Chesapeake Motel at 935 W. Okeechobee Road, completely naked and covered in blood.
Records show that Machado refused Andrade’s advances, he became enraged, and eventually ended up killing her.
A week after the guilty verdict those same jurors recommended for the judge in an 8-4 vote to send the killer to death row.
However, before Judge Michelle Delancy could sentence the defendant, defense attorneys for Lopez Andrade requested a new trial.
‘Invasive animal species’
Hours after the death recommendation, one of the jurors emailed the court alleging several instances of juror misconduct while deliberating.
Among the allegations, one of the most concerning for defense attorneys was that “the jurors engaged in a conversation where they drew a parallel between the death penalty in this case and ‘killing invasive animal species.’”
In November, in a rare occurrence, Judge Delancy ordered all jurors to take the stand, under oath, and individually testify about the conversations they had behind closed doors during deliberations.
“As a wildlife professional, I had mentioned that the concept of euthanasia in this particular conversation was something that I had been well versed in because I support and work with in situations where we mainly euthanize species that are from other places and are not good for our ecosystem here,” said one juror while trying to clarify the comment about invasive species which his colleague took to be xenophobic.
Judge Delancy questioned that juror if the comment had anything to do with Lopez Andrade being a Honduran national.
“It had nothing to do with that,” the juror responded.
Another allegation claimed a woman consulted with her husband before reaching a verdict. That woman told Judge Delancy she obeyed orders and denied speaking to anyone about the case before reaching a verdict.
With the cloud of allegations hovering over the jury, Miami-Dade prosecutors believed a judge should grant a new penalty phase trial with a new set of jurors.
However, defense attorneys believed the case should start from scratch and requested the judge to grant a new trial claiming, for example, that the court was wrong in allowing some gruesome photographs into the trial and potential jury misconduct.
Chance at life
After several months of waiting, Judge Delancy denied the request for a new trial but ordered a new penalty phase hearing.
Judge Delancy ruled the court properly admitted photographs of the victim into the trial, ruling “every photograph introduced have independent value.”
As for one of the jurors allegedly violating the judge’s order and speaking to her husband, Judge Delancy ruled the juror did not speak with her husband based on the testimony from the November hearing, where all jurors were forced to testify about the allegations raised.
Additionally, as for the alleged racist comments, the judge believed they sounded egregious and concerning, but after hearing from jurors, she found “no proof that the ‘killing invasive animal species’ comment was born from racial bias and/or animus but was taken out of context and misapplied by one juror. An overt and explicit racially-motivated statement was never made.”
A date for the new penalty phase, where parties will once again need to present testimony on whether Lopez-Andrade should live or die, has not been set yet.
