Dallas motel beheading, coworker charged with capital murder

A 50-year-old motel manager was fatally wounded and beheaded Wednesday morning at a Dallas motel after an argument about a broken washing machine, police said. Officers arrested 37-year-old coworker Yordanis Cobos-Martinez at the scene and charged him with capital murder, according to a Dallas Police Department arrest affidavit.

Police responded about 9:30 a.m. to a report of a stabbing at the Downtown Suites motel on Samuell Boulevard, east of downtown. When officers arrived they found Cobos-Martinez covered in blood and armed with a machete, the affidavit said. Emergency crews pronounced the victim, identified as Chandra Mouli "Bob" Nagamallaiah, dead at the scene.

According to investigators, the confrontation began when Nagamallaiah, who worked as the motel manager, asked Cobos-Martinez and a female colleague not to use a malfunctioning washer. The affidavit says Cobos-Martinez became angered when Nagamallaiah asked the colleague to translate instructions rather than addressing him directly. Surveillance video cited in the affidavit shows Cobos-Martinez leaving a room, returning with a machete and attacking Nagamallaiah, who fled toward the motel office where his wife and...