Killer Who Gambled at Florida Casino After Murder Sent Back to Death Row

A Florida handyman who used a murdered woman’s stolen ATM card to gamble at a tribal casino has been sentenced to death for a second time.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Nushin Sayfie on Friday (July 24) reimposed the death sentence on Rafael Andres, now 61, for the 2005 murder of Yvette Farinas, a waitress at La Carreta restaurant near Miami International Airport.

The sentence was overturned in 2018 when the Florida Supreme Court ruled that changes in the state’s death penalty law required a new sentencing proceeding, although it upheld Andres’ murder conviction.

Prosecutors Detail Fatal Attack

According to prosecutors, Farinas hired Andres to carry out repair work at her home and trusted him enough to give him a spare key.

On August 6, 2005, Andres used that key to enter the house while Farinas was alone.

Prosecutors said he attacked the 41-year-old waitress, beating her repeatedly until she revealed the personal identification number for her ATM card. He then stabbed her several times before strangling her with the electrical cord from a rice cooker.

Investigators said Andres attempted to cover up the crime by setting fire to the house before fleeing in his van.

Spending Spree

Prosecutors said he began using Farinas’ debit card to finance a spending spree. Court records show Andres withdrew cash from ATMs, bought supplies at Home Depot, and checked into the Miccosukee Resort & Casino, where the Florida Supreme Court said he went to gamble.

The prosecution alleged he spent more than $1,600 using the victim’s bank card before abandoning his van in rural Miami-Dade County and attempting to evade police. Detectives pieced together his movements through ATM surveillance footage, bank records, and cellphone data.

Prosecutors also presented DNA evidence linking Andres to a bloodstained dishcloth recovered from the victim’s home, while forensic testing found gasoline residue on his shoes consistent with the fire investigators believe was deliberately set.

He was arrested and charged in January 2006.

Prior Homicide

A Miami-Dade jury convicted Andres of first-degree murder, armed robbery, burglary, arson, and grand theft in late 2014 and recommended that he be sentenced to death.

The Florida Supreme Court upheld those convictions in 2018 but vacated the death sentence. The ruling came after changes to Florida’s capital sentencing laws required juries, rather than judges, to make key factual findings supporting a death sentence.

The case returned to court for a new penalty phase, where another jury once again recommended a death sentence.

The judge cited Andres’ prior homicide conviction as an aggravating factor. Andres was convicted in 1988 of fatally stabbing Linda Azcarreta, a friend of his wife, and served about 18 months in prison.

Judge Sayfie on Friday formally reimposed the death sentence, returning Andres to Florida’s death row more than two decades after Farinas was murdered.