Two men on death row, including one who is set to be executed at the end of April, testified in defense of a Miami handyman who could also face the ultimate punishment for killing a La Carreta waitress with a rice cooker power cord in 2005.
Rafael Andres, 61, had his first day of a Spencer hearing on Monday, which is an opportunity for the defendant’s attorneys to try and convince a judge to go against a jury’s death recommendation and choose life in prison as a punishment instead.
In 2014, Andres was convicted and later sentenced to death for the murder of Ivette Fariñas.
At the time, prosecutors stated that Andrés stabbed Fariñas, 31, multiple times in the chest, struck her in the face and head, and strangled her with the power cord of a rice cooker before leaving her apartment engulfed in flames.
When firefighters responded to the blaze at the home located at 1100 Southwest 74th Avenue, they discovered Fariñas’s body, which had also been burned.
Andrés was a handyman who had been hired by Fariñas. Prosecutors said he stole her ATM card and fled the scene before being captured in March 2006.
Additionally, Andrés was also previously convicted of another brutal murder in 1987, when he beat and stabbed Linda Azcárreta to death. He served a year and a half in prison for that case.
Death row again?
Andres, who was originally sentenced to death, was granted a new sentencing trial by the Florida Supreme Court after the U.S Supreme Court ruled the state’s law at the time was unconstitutional in 2016.
In November of 2025, a new Miami-Dade jury reviewed all of the evidence regarding the waitress’s murder and recommended in a 9-3 vote that Andres should be sentenced to die.
Jurors found the crime was heinous, atrocious, or cruel but did not believe it was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner.
Now, it will be up to Judge Zachary James to determine whether or not he should follow the jury’s recommendation.
Andres has a ‘beautiful spirit,’ death row friends say
During Monday’s Spencer hearing, two convicted killers currently on death row, including one who is set to die by the end of April, testified about how great a friend Andres was to them.
Chadwick Willacy, a convicted killer who has been on death row since December 1991 for murdering his next-door neighbor in Palm Bay, spoke in court via Zoom from the Florida State Prison.
In what could be his last chance to testify before he is executed on April 21, Willacy chose to spend his time telling the Miami-Dade Judge he became friends with Andres while on death row. Willacy described his friend as the inmate who would help break up fights in the recreation yard.
Chadwick Willacy
“Guys get into heated conversations or disputes about the game. And sometimes results in scuffles,” Willacy said. “And I’ve been there where Rafael was wanting to help resolve or break guys up from getting ugly.”
Additionally, Andres had convicted killer and death row inmate Williams Sweet also on Zoom to testify about his character.
The 58-year-old smiled when describing Andres, whom he met at the state prison.
“Brother got a beautiful spirit,” Sweet said. “When you get to know the brother, he has something that you don’t normally see in prison.”
Security breach and inmate attack
On Monday, Andres also brought in 12-time convicted felon Kenneth Williams, currently in prison for attempted first-degree murder, to testify.
Williams told the judge he met Andres in 2011 at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, the Miami-Dade County jail.
On top of being inspired by his spirituality and the way he cared for others, Williams told the judge that Andres saved his life.
In 2013, Williams suffered a fractured vertebra and broken ankle when he was caught on video jumping from the second-floor balcony inside the jail.
In the video, cell doors slid open in the hallway of a maximum-security wing as a shirtless Williams appeared. Williams is confronted by an inmate named William Brown and his friends, according to testimony,
Williams backed away from the inmates. As they closed in, Williams decided to jump from the second-floor balcony.
On Monday, Williams told the judge that Andres protected him from the other inmates.
“If Andres would have not intervened, I wholeheartedly feel I would have been stabbed to death. I had no weapon. I couldn’t move,” said Williams.
The Spencer hearing will contine Tuesday. It’s unclear when the judge will issue the sentencing.