USA - Florida. Alberto Sierra, 42, Hispanic, sentenced to death

October 20, 2026 - Florida. Miami-Dade County jury recommends death for Alberto Sierra, 42, Hispanic

The man tortured, killed wife and her daughters, 6 and 3,

In August, Sierra confessed to kidnapping his estranged wife Gladys Machado, 29, and her two daughters, Julia and Daniela Padron, 6 and 3, in 2012 

Alberto Sierra appeared in a Miami-Dade County courtroom on Oct. 20, where a jury voted to sentence him to death.

That jury was just 1 vote shy of the 9 needed in the state of Florida to also recommend a death sentence for the murder of 3-year-old Daniela Padron.

Machado and her 2 daughters had been out shopping on Nov. 10, 2012 with Sierra when the 2 began to argue, according to court filings.

The pair were estranged at the time and the father of the 2 girls had at one point sought sole custody fearing for his daughters’ safety because of Sierra’s behavior.

Sierra then kidnapped the 3 at knifepoint, according to court records, and returned to the home they once shared, where the 2 girls were forced to listen as he tortured their mother.

He then placed a plastic shopping bag over Machado’s head and strangled her to death, per the documents.

Once she was dead, Sierra sexually assaulted her corpse. He then used the same bag to strangle the 2 girls, with one of the children forced to watch her sister die.

He then sexually assaulted the body of the 6-year-old girl, according to court documents, before he stuffed all 3 bodies in a closet and left the residence.

It would be 3 days before officials discovered the bodies.

Sierra entered guilty pleas to all 9 counts just days before his trial was set to start: 3 counts each of kidnapping and murder, 2 counts of sexual abuse of a corpse and a single count of armed robbery.

An attorney for Sierra has been fighting hard to spare him from the death penalty, arguing that his client is missing part of his frontal lobe due to a serious accident that occurred when he was 21.

The decision is now in the hands of the judge, who after hearing any lingering arguments will issue a ruling on Nov. 2.