DANIELA and JULIA PADRINO - 4 and 8 yo - Miami FL

Cops: Mom, 2 kids found slain in walk-in closet of Miami home
Wednesday, Nov 14, 2012

By Steve Litz, NBCMiami.com

MIAMI -- A mother and her two young daughters were found dead in a closet on Tuesday, police said.

A neighbor who has access to the house on NW 4th St. noticed a foul odor around 2:30 p.m. and discovered three bodies in a bedroom walk-in closet, according to Miami-Dade Police. The girls were aged four and eight.

"We have the murder of a woman and two kids, so there is a public safety concern, we know there is somebody out there who did this," Miami-Dade Police spokesman Det. Roy Rutland told reporters. "As far as whether or not this was somebody who knew them, it's still too early to tell, we are exhausting all leads."

Friends identified the mother as Gladys Machado. Olga Espinoza described the woman as friendly, outgoing and pretty.

The children’s father arrived on the scene late Tuesday night. He did not comment.

A six-year-old male relative was found alive at another location, police said.

The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Department will determine the cause and manner of the deaths, police said.

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Mother-2-Daughters-Found-Dead-in-Miami-Triple-Homicide-Police-179212401.html

Voluntarily Appeared To Talk With Police: Miami-Dade Police

Police said they have not identified Alberto Sierra as a suspect or a person of interest

Wednesday, Nov 14, 2012 | Updated 11:06 PM EST

The husband of the mother who was found slain along with her two daughters at 7310 NW 4th St. voluntarily appeared at a police station Wednesday to talk with authorities, Miami-Dade Police said.

Police said they have not identified Alberto Sierra as a suspect or a person of interest in the case.

A neighbor found the bodies of Gladys
Machado and her 4- and 8-year-old daughters inside a bedroom walk-in
closet Tuesday, with police saying they appeared to have been murdered.

The crime has neighbors on edge.

”I mean how can he kill innocent children?” Cristina Gomez said about the case.

Winona Park called it "bone-chilling."

"I never thought something like this would happen here,” she said in Spanish.

NBC 6 Videos

Police have not released how and when the victims were killed. But more details emerged about the victims Wednesday.

According to court records Machado
divorced the father of her three children, who included the two girls
that died and a 6-year-old boy who police said was found alive
elsewhere. That man showed up at the scene distraught Tuesday night and
did not comment.

Neighbors said Machado was living
with Sierra, a man with a long criminal history who she accused of
domestic violence in 2010, according to court and Miami-Dade Corrections
records. That case was later dismissed and she ended up marrying Sierra
last year.

”The two daughters always had a
little car that they would drive – like you know those little kid toys –
and the girls looked happy but there was always something strange about
the man,” Gomez said.

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Husband-of-Mother-Found-Slain-Voluntarily-Appeared-To-Talk-With-Police-Miami-Dade-Police-179398641.html

The above link has a video.

This was an interesting comment posted:

harvicknoone (signed in using yahoo)

I heard their throats were slashed. Mr. Sierra will never breathe free
air again; we all know who did it. Marry a bad boy....pay the hard way,
mamacita Gladys. Bad decisions by all the adults around these children
except for the biological father. Sad for him, knowing he tried to save
the kids' lives, at least he has the little boy.

4 hours ago

My heart breaks for the little girls. I hope they get justice.
William

So very sad. I hope they find the murderer soon.

BabyJ, I think it is the current husband although nothing has been announced yet.

I will never understand it. She married him knowing of his criminal background and propensity for domestic violence.

My heart aches for the father who tried to get custody of these poor children before they were murdered.

It does sound like the current husband Twink. I hope they catch him soon and if he did it is locked up for life or put to death. So very sad.

Family Of Gladys Machado Speaks About Horrific Triple Murder
November 16, 2012 6:00 PM

NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE (CBS4) — For the first time since a horrific tragedy that took the life of Gladys Machado and her two little girls; Machado’s sister and stepmother are speaking out.

“She was so beautiful and happy. I don’t know why someone would ever do something like this,” said Odalys Machado. The bodies of her sister and her two daughters, Daniela,4, and Julia,8, were discovered inside at closet of their home Tuesday at Northwest 4th St. and Northwest 73rd Ave.

The sister and stepmother spoke with CBS4 as Miami-Dade Police crime scene investigators returned to the home Friday night, apparently looking for more evidence.

They refused to say why they had returned to the scene. But some investigators were seen going in to the home, after putting on crime scene boots and gloves. They also sealed off the home once again with yellow crime scene tape and were seen with bags to collect evidence.

“I have shock. I am very much in shock. Gladys was such a good person and a beautiful mother,” said Emma Martinez, the stepmother of Gladys Machado.

“The children were so beautiful,” she said. “They used to come to my home on weekends when Gladys was going out to the movies or other places. They were great kids.”

“She was a great mother,” said Odalys Machado. “Her daughters used to come over and play with me all the time, even wake me up in the morning. These are things you never get back.”

“Whoever did this I want them to fess up,” she told CBS4. “Someone needs to pay for this. That’s all I want. I will not be happy until this happens.

Odalys Machado told D’Oench that her father was devastated by this tragedy.

Machado told CBS4 that her sister had been dating another man since she became estranged from her husband, 28-year-old Alberto Sierra.

Sierra stopped by the Kendall Miami-Dade Police station earlier this week and gave police a statement. He was released and police say he is not a person of interest.

Sierra has an arrest record dating back to 2005 that includes arrests for assault with a deadly weapon, selling cocaine and the illegal possession of weapons by a convicted felon.

CBS4 news partner, “The Miami Herald,” also reported that he had been arrested for domestic battery in 2010 after he reportedly bit Gladys Machado on the forearm and stole her gun.

A similar allegation surfaced this week from Michael Padrino, who is Machado’s previous husband and the father of the girls. Padrino was involved in a bitter custody battle with Machado.

In a letter to a Judge in the custody case in October, 2011, Padrino said he felt his childrens’ lives were in danger. He based that after one of his daughters reportedly told a state child welfare worker that Sierra had bitten her on the arm.

But the Judge refused to grant Padrino full custody of the children, saying that while the Department of Children and Families had removed the children from Machado’s home during an investigation, the agency later returned them to the home.

Padrino, who is mourning the loss of his two daughter, has asked for privacy and is declining to comment.

Sierra has also avoided the media. In an interview on Thursday with D’Oench, Sierra’s mother said, “My son is a good person and he is innocent.”

Miami-Dade Police have not said how Machado and her children were killed or if they have any good leads or suspects in this troubling case.

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/11/16/family-of-gladys-machado-speaks-about-horrific-crime/

Family Says Final Goodbyes To Youngest Victims Of W. Dade Triple Murder


November 21, 2012 11:07 PM

MIAMI (CBS4) – Family members of two young victims of a triple murder paid tribute to the little girls Wednesday as they said their final goodbyes.

“It’s not an easy thing to see little caskets,” said Manny Castro.

But that’s exactly what Castro says he and his family endured Wednesday afternoon as they said their final goodbyes to his great nieces, 8-year-old Julia Padrino and 4-year-old Daniela Padrino.

Both girls‚ along with their mother Gladys Machado, were found dead inside a closet at their home in West Miami Dade.

That gruesome discovery was made more than a week ago, but Castro says it wasn’t until Tuesday the medical examiner’s office released the little girls’ bodies.

“Before it was we don’t believe it,” Castro said. “Some said we won’t believe it until we see, and it’s closed caskets but you see the two caskets and have to accept the fact that yes, this is reality and it did occur.”

The girls’ stepfather 28-year-old Alberto Sierra had his first court appearance Tuesday, where he was denied bond.

Sierra is facing three counts of first degree murder and two counts of sexual battery after police say he confessed to suffocating all three and raping Gladys and one of his stepdaughters after they were both dead.

“It’s gruesome and unexplained. You can’t rationalize it but you have to accept it,” said Castro. “We can’t make it go away. It is what it is, but there is a god.”

Sierra is expected back in court in December. Family members of the victims tell CBS4 News they believe in the justice system and that they plan on being there every step of the way for Sierra’s judicial process.

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/11/21/family-says-final-goodbyes-to-youngest-victims-of-w-dade-triple-murder/

Hello,

I am the uncle of Julia and Daniela Padrino. Regrettably I am also the biological half-brother of Gladys Sierra, the woman who took them to their deaths. Our full focus now is getting justice for our nieces and making sure everyone that failed them along the way is held accountable. Any help you can provide us in our efforts will be greatly appreciated.


Thank You

Robert Tejidor

Robert, may I offer you and your family my deepest condolences on the deaths of your precious nieces. May God be with you in your time of sorrow.

We will all be waiting for justice.

If you can, please let me know how your poor nephew is coping.

Published 11/20/2012

Husband charged with killing wife, 2 daughters; bodies were stuffed in closet
By Brian Hamacher, NBCMiami.com

MIAMI -- The husband of a woman found slain along with her two young daughters in their northwest Miami-Dade house has been arrested and charged in their deaths, police said Tuesday.

Alberto Sierra, 28, is facing three counts of first-degree murder, sexual battery on an adult and sexual battery on a minor in the deaths of Gladys Machado and her 4- and 6-year-old daughters, Miami-Dade Police said.
According to an arrest affidavit, Sierra, Machado and the girls went to the Mall of the Americas on Nov. 10 where Sierra and Machado got into an argument.
Sierra armed himself with a knife, and Machado sustained injuries as a result of the argument there, the affidavit said. He then drove Machado and her daughters to a home in the 7300 block of Northwest 4th Street, where he locked the girls in one of the bedrooms and forced Machado into the master bedroom, the affidavit said.

Once in the master bedroom, Sierra suffocated Machado with a plastic bag "and subsequently sexually assaulted her," the affidavit said.

Sierra let one of the girls out of the bedroom and suffocated her, the affidavit said. He suffocated the other daughter with a plastic bag while she slept, then sexually assaulted the other daughter, the affidavit said.

The bodies of Machado and her daughters were found last Tuesday in a closet at the home, police said.

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Sierra and Machado were married but had no children in common and were not living together when the murders took place, the affidavit said.

Sierra, who had been questioned and released by police last week, had been brought in for questioning again Monday night. He was being held without bond Tuesday and it's unknown whether he has an attorney.

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He gave a full confession of his involvement in the three homicides, the affidavit said.

According to court records Machado divorced the father of her three children, who included the two girls that died and a 6-year-old boy who police said was found alive elsewhere.

It was not immediately known if he had an attorney.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/20/15310425-husband-charged-with-killing-wife-2-daughters-bodies-were-stuffed-in-closet?lite=obinsite

I hope he does not get off. He should get castrated and hung by piano wire.
William

William, I just have to have faith that he will be convicted based on what I have read and heard.

Trial Date Set In NW Miami-Dade Triple Murder


January 31, 2013 11:24 AM



Alberto Sierra in bond court on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012. (Source: CBS4)





MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A trial date has been set for the man accused of murdering his wife and two daughters and then stuffing their bodies in a closet in the woman’s northwest Miami-Dade home.

Thursday morning, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Dennis Murphy set Alberto Sierra’s trial date for April 29^th.

Sierra, 28, is facing three counts of first degree murder, three counts of kidnapping, armed burglary and two counts of abusing a human body. A grand jury indictment will allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

Sierra, who reportedly confessed to the murders during questioning by police, filed a written plea of not guilty on November 29th. He was assigned Patrick Nally as his public defender.

The bodies of four-year-old Daniela Padrino, six-year-old Julia Padrino, and their mother Gladys Del Carmen Sierra were discovered in a closet of their home at NW 4th Street and NW 73rd Avenue on November 13^th, 2012.

Miami-Dade Police said all three victims were suffocated with plastic bags; the mother and oldest daughter were sexually assaulted after they were dead.

“It is unexplainable. I have no idea how someone could get something like this in their minds,” said Michael Padrino, the father of the two girls.

Padrino had been involved in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife when she was living with and later married to Alberto Sierra.

In October 2011, the same month that Sierra and Gladys were married, Sierra was reportedly investigated by the state’s child welfare agency after Julia told a teacher that her stepfather had bitten her on the arm.

Padrino asked for sole custody of the children, writing a judge that his daughter’s lives were in danger.

But the Department of Children and Families closed out its investigation when Sierra was arrested in November of 2011 on charges of possessing a firearm by a convicted felon.

At the time, Sierra and Gladys were living together. According to records, police seized a shotgun, rifle, and ammunition. Sierra’s probation was revoked and he was sentenced to 364 days in a Miami-Dade jail after pleading guilty. He was released from jail in late June 2012.

Sierra has a criminal record dating back to 2005 that includes arrests for assault with a deadly weapon, selling cocaine and the illegal possession of weapons by a convicted felon.  In 2010, he was charged with domestic battery after he reportedly bit Gladys on the forearm and stole her gun.

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/01/31/trial-date-set-in-west-dade-triple-murder/

Again! The system lets the children down! Why did DCF allow these children to live with a violent man? They should be held responsible for their deaths along with the murderer.

Florida has a history of failing our children.  Our governor has cut major funding from  an already underfunded agency.

He would rather imprison people than see that they don't become criminals.