What to Know
- Fernando Granados, 24, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the September 2013 killing of Tiffany Cabreja at a hearing Friday
- He'll also be on probation for five years after his prison sentence ends
A man who killed an 18-year-old Homestead woman with a rope around her neck and a bag over her head after smoking crack will be spending 25 years in prison as part of a plea deal reached with prosecutors.
Fernando Granados, 24, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the September 2013 killing of Tiffany Cabreja at a hearing Friday. He'll also be on probation for five years after his prison sentence ends.
"Justice has been served today and I'm happy," Cabreja's mother, Miriam Vasquez, said after the hearing. "This has been a long case, four and a half years and today he pleads guilty.”
Cabreja's body was found at a construction site in southwest Miami-Dade after witnesses reported seeing a body fall out of a commercial truck in the area of Southwest 288th Street and 144th Avenue.
Cabreja was found with a rope tied tightly around her neck and a bag over her face. The cause of death was determined to be strangulation and blunt force trauma, according to an affidavit.
Granados, who was 20 at the time, was arrested after detectives received a tip that he had confessed to a witness that he killed Cabreja, police said. When he was questioned by investigators, Granados said he and an unidentified man picked up Cabreja on Sept. 20 and went to the Leisure City Park where they smoked crack cocaine, the affidavit said.
The three then went to the construction site where Granados attacked Cabreja and put her in a choke hold, the affidavit said. While he was choking her from behind, the other man started hitting her from the front, the affidavit said.
"Mr. Granados advised that he was under the influence of crack cocaine at the time he attacked the victim and was unaware if he killed her," the affidavit said.
Police said Cabreja and Granados knew each other from school.
