Killer who stabbed, strangled La Carreta waitress should get death, jury says
The handyman who beat, stabbed and strangled a La Carreta waitress with a rice cooker cord should return to Florida’s Death Row, a Miami jury said Friday afternoon.
Rafael Andres, 61, pouted as the verdict was read before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Zachary James. Andres was convicted of the brutal Jan. 24, 2005 slaying of Yvette Fariñas, a 31-year-old server at La Carreta’s Miami International Airport location. Andres, a handyman, had been hired to do renovations at the efficiency she lived in with her boyfriend.
Loved ones and supporters of the Fariñas family teared up and comforted each other on hearing the jury’s recommendation. Nine members of the 12-person jury voted to sentence Andres to death.
READ MORE: Death or mercy? Miami jury mulling fate of killer who strangled La Carreta waitress
Andres was granted a new sentencing trial due to constitutional issues surrounding the state’s death penalty. In 2015, a Miami jury condemned Andres to die, also in a 9-3 vote. Prosecutors argued that Andres should be executed due to the brutality of the killing — and a murder Andres previously committed. Defense attorneys said the killer should be spared because years of cocaine abuse damaged his brain and, while in prison, Andres has embarked on a journey of spirituality and redemption.
After the jury’s verdict, Andres will have another hearing and his formal resentencing. James scheduled a hearing in January to finalize those proceedings.
Andres’ 2015 death sentence was the last to land a Miami-Dade inmate on Death Row. In June, a judge spared the life of the Ysrael Granda, the mastermind of a plot to murder the lover of Granda’s long-time girlfriend. A jury had recommended that Granda be sentenced to death.
Just two weeks before Friday’s verdict, another jury spared the life of former Death Row inmate Labrant Dennis. Dennis, 53, was convicted of bludgeoning his ex-girlfriend Timwanika Lumpkins and UM linebacker Marlin Barnes to death with a shotgun in 1996.
READ MORE: Miami jury votes for life, over death, for killer of ex and UM football player
During closing arguments on Thursday, prosecutor Abbe Rifkin urged jurors not to spare Andres by showing him mercy due to Fariñas’ suffering during the killing — and the spending spree Andres went on after the murder.
“This is the fate he coldly, calculatedly ... voluntarily and selfishly chose for an innocent woman whose only crime was having something he wanted to take,” Rifkin said.
Defense attorney Joyce Brenner said Andres was a cocaine addict who has adjusted to prison life and has tried to “make amends the best he knows how.” That, she said, warrants a sentence of life behind bars.
“A person is worth so much more than the worst thing they have ever done,” Brenner said.
In 1988, Andres was convicted of stabbing to death 32-year-old Linda Azcarreta, a friend of his wife. Andres claimed he killed Azcarreta on March 9, 1987, in a frenzy of drug use. He cashed a $100 check meant for her after the murder.
READ MORE: His mother’s murderer: In a Miami courtroom, a son tries to reclaim lost memories
Andres pleaded guilty to the killing and was sentenced to nine years but walked free after just 18 months due to his good behavior while behind bars. Azcarreta’s son Rene Azcarreta, who discovered her body when he was a young child, attended the trial daily.
After the verdict, Rene said he and the Fariñas family felt like they finally got justice — and had a huge weight lifted off their shoulders. Outside, in the court hallway, Rene and Fariñas’ sister Lisbet Fariñas embraced prosecutors, thanking them for their hard work on the case.
“My mother and [Fariñas] are in peace because we were able to get the correct justice, [and it’s] now being served,” Rene told the Miami Herald.
Over the years, Rene and Fariñas’ family has grown close, Rene said, adding that they “lost a daughter but gained a son” in the tragedy. As the family spoke, Andres — shackled and in red jail attire — was being escorted outside the courtroom by corrections officers.
“We are forever connected,” Rene said as a cart with a smiling photo of Fariñas was wheeled away from the courtroom. “Now, it’s closure.”
During the trial, Fariñas’ mother Luisa Moya, father Rene Fariñas, sister Lisbet and her long-time boyfriend Alberto Ruiz detailed their suffering throughout the two decades since Fariñas was killed.
READ MORE: ‘Full of life’: Family of La Carreta waitress brutally murdered recounts their sorrow
“How I have missed you,” Ruiz said while on the stand. “There are not enough words or time to mention how much I have wished you were here. ... My birthdays are no longer happy ones. Nor is Christmas. I am missing part of my soul, and that is you.”
Several jurors looked sad as the loved ones spoke about Fariñas, with one juror wiping away tears from under his glasses with his shirt sleeve.
“Two families joined by a heartbreaking tragedy now have the verdict they hoped for,” Rene Azcarreta told the Herald. “Today brings a measure of justice and the first step toward peace.”
This story was originally published November 21, 2025 at 3:58 PM.
