Karina Corbalan sits in court during her sentencing on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. Corbalan pleaded guilty to murdering her boyfriend Alejando “Coco” Sanchez on the first day of jury selection.
Courtesy of NBC6
More than six years ago, Aymee Sanchez’s son Alejandro “Coco” Sanchez was gunned down outside his Hialeah home. On Monday, she faced her son’s killer in a Miami courtroom — pouring out her grief.
“My sentence started,” Sanchez said in between tears. “I don’t get a judge, I don’t get a jury. I don’t get an appeal. And there is no release date for me. My sentence is waking up every morning knowing my son is still gone. My sentence is carrying a pain in my chest that nobody can see. My sentence is loving a child I can no longer touch. That is my life sentence.”
Alejandro Sanchez Sanchez family via GoFundMe
Moments before, Karina Corbalan, 29, pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge stemming from Alejandro Sanchez’s killing. Corbalan and Alejandro Sanchez were dating at the time of the shooting.
Corbalan’s change of plea, which was announced the same day jury selection was slated to begin for her trial, was the result of a deal with prosecutors. In exchange, Corbalan received a 25-year prison sentence and will have to complete 10 years of probation upon her release.
Corbalan gunned down Alejandro Sanchez, 28, on March 2, 2020. His mother said he was shot at 15 times in front of his house at 5600 block of West 21st Ave. He was shot in the chest several times and later died at Ryder Trauma Center.
Corbalan will get credit for the more than six years she served awaiting trial at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
‘You have no heart’
Sanchez, choking up and holding back tears, lamented her son’s loss. In six years, she said she has constantly relived the trauma of seeing her beloved Coco dying in her arms.
“I held him. I begged him, ‘Coco, baby. Mom is here. Please don’t you dare die on me,’” Sanchez recounted. “I was trying to save the same child I had spent my life protecting.”
READ MORE: A Hialeah man was shot in front of his home. A 23-year-old woman is charged with murder
Because her son was killed and detectives were investigating his murder, Sanchez said, she couldn’t give him a kiss on the forehead one final time. Corbalan teared up as Sanchez spoke.
Karina Corbalan Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation
“Karina, you took even my goodbye from me,” Sanchez said. “A mother should never have to visit her child in a cemetery…. You didn’t just take my son’s life. You broke a mother in a way that could never be repaired.”
As Sanchez neared the end of her address, she focused her sight on Corbalan, who was sitting with her attorneys in the jury box.
“You belong …with garbage because that’s what you are,” Sanchez said, in a louder voice. “You are a heartless person. You have no heart.”
Afterward, Sanchez sobbed and Corbalan turned to the Sanchez family. She said she loved him “no matter what the video showed or what they feel about me.”
“I’m sorry for what happened. I’m sorry for taking his life,” Corbalan said. “I never meant to hurt him no matter what you think…. and I’m paying for it.”
Miami Herald
Grethel covers courts and the criminal justice system for the Miami Herald. She graduated from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), speaks Spanish and Arabic and loves animals, traveling, basketball and good storytelling. Grethel also attends law school part time.