Dallas County prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against the man accused of beheading a coworker at a Dallas motel last year, according to a notice filed by District Attorney John Creuzot’s office.

Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, 37, was arrested in September 2025 in the beheading death of Chandra Nagamallaiah. Both the victim and Cobos-Martinez were employees at a motel off of Samuel Blvd, where the attack happened.

Investigators previously told NBC 5 that Cobos-Martinez placed the victim’s head in a trash can and was wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt when officers arrested him.

According to the arrest affidavit, Cobos-Martinez was cleaning a motel room with a co-worker when Nagamallaiah told him not to use a broken washing machine. The co-worker told investigators Cobos-Martinez became angry because the victim spoke to her as a translator rather than addressing him directly.

The affidavit says surveillance video showed Cobos-Martinez leave the motel room, retrieve a machete and repeatedly stab and strike the victim.

The indictment alleges he caused Nagamallaiah’s death “by stabbing and by cutting and by chopping.” It further alleges he used multiple weapons, including a knife, an axe, a machete and another sharp object, while attempting to rob the victim.

Records show Cobos-Martinez has a history of escalating violence, with charges that span Florida, California and Texas, including vehicle theft, an attempted carjacking and assault-related cases.

In 2018, he was arrested on an indecency with a child charge in Harris County, but the charge was later dismissed for insufficient evidence. He spent a year in jail for an assault charge related to the case.

Nagamallaiah, known as Bob by friends and family, was described as a selfless and kind person who always had “a kind word and a smile, and who never hesitated to help others in need.”