Kendall man confesses to suffocating, raping wife and 8-year-old daughter, police say

A Kendall man confessed to suffocating his wife and raping her 8-year-old daughter inside a West Miami-Dade home, police say.

Alberto Sierra, 28, was charged early Tuesday with the murder of Gladys Machado and her two young daughters, whose bodies were found inside the bedroom closet of a home last week. Machado was also raped, according to an arrest report.

The shocking details cap a furious police investigation into a brutal killing that shocked South Florida. He is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of sexual battery.

Sierra, a convicted felon who was long the main focus of the investigation, confessed after hours of questioning Monday night. Also on Monday, detectives found Machado’s missing car near the Kendall apartment where Sierra was staying with his mother.

According to an arrest report, Sierra accompanied Machado and her daughters to the Mall of the Americas in West Miami-Dade. The on-again-off-again couple began to argue and Sierra, armed with a knife, stabbed her.

Then, he drove the three to the Flagami-area home where the family had lived up until recently. The home was vacant because the couple had split.

According to police, Sierra put the daughters in an adjacent bedroom and suffocated Machado in the master bedroom, then raping her. Then, Miami-Dade police said, Sierra called the oldest daughter to the master bedroom, raping and suffocating her.

Then, police say, Sierra went to the other bedroom and suffocated the youngest daughter as she slept.

The bodies were not found until Tuesday afternoon. A woman who rents an efficiency in the home found Machado and Julia and Daniela Padrino, ages 8 and 4, laid out inside a closet.

A convicted felon with a long rap sheet, Sierra walked into the Kendall substation last Wednesday. After homicide detectives questioned him for several hours, he was allowed to leave. His criminal history includes convictions for drugs and weapons.

But armed with forensic evidence, Miami-Dade homicide detectives called him in for questioning Monday and he confessed.

Machado has a violent past. Back in 2010, Machado told police he bit her arm during a heated argument. Investigators later found him with 79 grams of Ecstasy, a stolen 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol and ammo.

After he was sentenced to one year of probation, he and Machado were married in October 2011.

That same month, Sierra was also investigated by the state’s child welfare agency after Julia told a teacher that her stepdad had bitten her on the arm.

The girls’ biological father asked for sole custody of the children, but the Department of Children and Families closed out its investigation when Sierra was again arrested in November on charges of possessing a firearm by a convicted felon. At the time, he was living with Machado at the same Flagami-area house where she was later found dead.

Officers seized a rifle, a shotgun and ammo. His probation was also revoked and Sierra later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 364 days in a Miami-Dade jail.

In June, Sierra was released from a Miami-Dade jail and had returned to living with Machado. It is not known when the two separated.

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State comptroller Tom DiNapoli accused of ethics violations by Chevron

One of the world’s biggest oil companies is accusing state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli of trading official actions for campaign donations in connection with a massive international lawsuit, The Post has learned.

According to documents being filed this morning with the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics, Chevron Corp. is alleging that DiNapoli has engaged in an “apparent quid pro quo” by accepting thousands in contributions in return for his efforts on behalf of plaintiffs in an environmental case in Ecudaor.

“DiNapoli has apparently misused his official position,” according to the complaint, obtained in advance by The Post. “Comptroller DiNapoli and his office have aided a fraud apparently in return for money, in the form of campaign contributions.”

REUTERS

Tom DiNapoli.

DiNapoli spokesman Eric Sumberg said he could not comment on Chevron’s accusations because he had not seen the complaint.

Sumberg has consistently said there is no quid pro quo between DiNapoli’s actions and the donors. He also said the state Comptroller’s Office staked out its anti-Chevron position years before DiNapoli took over in February 2007 from scandal-scarred Alan Hevesi.

But since taking over as the state’s chief finance officer and head of New York’s $150 billion pension fund, DiNapoli has become one of the most vocal critics of Chevron, issuing news releases and writing op-eds against the company.

Earlier this year, he led an unsuccessful effort to force a restructuring of management at the petroleum giant, a firm in which New York’s pensioners are heavily invested.

And DiNapoli even went so far as to try to enlist the support of then-state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in his efforts against Chevron, according to the complaint. Cuomo didn’t bite.

In its filing, Chevron said DiNapoli’s positions mirror those of a group suing the company in a controversial international lawsuit that could cost billions.

DiNapoli’s efforts, according to Chevron, are the result of at least $60,000 in campaign donations from people connected to the case.

The controversial lawsuit pits Chevron against a group in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, that claims years of oil drilling left them with serious health and environmental problems.

Courts in Ecuador have ordered Chevron to pay $18 billion for “intentional contamination” of the jungle.

Chevron has contested the judgment and is countersuing.

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Startups take the stage at South Florida events

NewME brought its first Popup Accelerator to Miami last week, and together with the Knight Foundation and LAB Miami, gave 65 South Florida participants a two-night pitch workshop, a one-on-one mentoring session with a Silicon Valley venture capitalist or NewME expert and the opportunity to present their ventures at Demo Night.

On Wednesday evening, 38 startup teams pitched to a crowd filling the risers of The Light Box Theater in Wynwood, and competed for tens of thousands of dollars in prizes. On the intimate stage, the teams made their two-minute pitches, each one accompanied by a pitch deck of 8 to 10 slides.

“Can’t you feel the energy? This is super exciting,” said Matt Haggman, program director of the Knight Foundation’s Miami office, which has been supporting and funding projects to help the startup community. “What’s going on here clearly shows there is something special happening and we look forward to contributing to it further.”

After the pitches, which were judged by two investors and Angela Benton, founder of NewME, Benton announced the winners:

•  First place: Sew Love, pitched by Sabrina Scandar. Sewlove.co, founded by sisters Sabrina and Silvia Scandar, is a platform for crowdsourcing fashion design. The Scandars want to raise $300,000 to help them continue developing their platform, make some key hires and fire up a marketing strategy. They won a prize package worth $45,000 in goods and services to help them build their startup, plus they were accepted into NewME’s 2013 Accelerator class.

•  Second place: Gozump, pitched by Charleston Malkemus. Gozump is a platform to help people buy homes, which will begin by targeting the military market. “We are Marines on a mission to change the way real estate works forever,” Malkemus pitched. Gozump won $23,000 in goods and services.

•  Third place, Indira, pitched by Carrie Ann Mantha: Indira is a fashion tech platform that creates personalized fashion and decor for weddings. It has a factory running in Little Haiti and is launching next month. Indira won $7,000 in goods and services.

Honorable mentions: ToddlerTV, SkillU, GoGeekster and NightPro. “We thought the judging process would be a lot easier. There was a lot of great technology,” said Benton, speaking Friday by phone after returning to San Francisco, where the NewME Accelerator is based.

All winners received co-working space at LAB Miami, which is soon moving to a larger space in the Wynwood neighborhood. All participants received a one-month “connect” membership to LAB Miami. Read more about the NewME PopUp here.

Many of the PopUp participants said getting the opportunity to mingle with other startups in South Florida was also valuable.

“We were really excited to meet more of the startup tech community,” said Mantha, who moved Indira from New York City to Little Haiti about six months ago. “It is much more dynamic than we realized.”

Last week was also big for other entrepreneurs taking the stage. Several hundred women attended the two-day Women’s Success Summit, where summit founder Michelle Villalobos and her business partner Jessica Kizorek laid out a system for work/life balance (hint: It starts with scheduling in your playtime, involves firing your least-profitable clients and includes developing strong systems for efficiency.)

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Pembroke Pines hosts winter camp for special needs kids

The City of Pembroke Pines is accepting registration for its two-week Winter Camp for special needs children ages 6 through 14.

Participants will engage in indoor and outdoor activities, games, arts and crafts, and other activities.

Participants must be independent in toileting skills and be able to administer, with supervision, their own medications.

The camp will be held at Rose G. Price Park, 901 NW 208th Ave., Pembroke Pines.

The camps will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Dec. 24 and 26 -28; and Dec. 31 and Jan. 2-4.

One week will cost $100; two weeks will cost $175. The fee does not include snacks, lunch or drinks, but it does include camp supplies. Payment is due at time of registration.

For additional information, contact Mary Wilson Palacios, Special Population Coordinator, at 954-450-3663 or mpalacios@ppines.com.

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Worn Out? Stars Step Out in Same Style

Nicki Minaj vs. Julie Bowen

Nicki Minaj stepped out for the 2012 American Music Awards on Nov. 18, 2012 wearing the same neon yellow Monique Lhuillier gown that Modern Family star Julie Bowen wore to the 64th Annual Emmy Awards.Who looks best in the neon style? Cast your vote, below!

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WATCH: Anderson Cooper reacts to explosion live on-air

CNN

Anderson Cooper got jumpy on live TV after a bomb exploded near his report in Gaza.

Anderson Cooper had good reason to get jumpy during a weekend newscast.

The CNN journalist was broadcasting from Gaza City, when a bomb exploded nearby – lighting up the darkness around him and punctuating its presence with a loud boom.

As the bomb exploded, Cooper ducked his head.

“Whoa,” he said, smiling momentarily before continuing his live shot. “That was a rather large explosion.”

Cooper later took to Twitter to discuss the precarious situation in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

“Constant whine of drones overhead,” he wrote Sunday. “Sounds like a distant lawnmower.”

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Growing middle class feeds spirits business in Latin America

Diageo executive Randy Millian is proud of the fact that eight out of every 12 times someone pours a standard or premium whiskey in the Latin American and Caribbean region, they’re drinking one of his company’s brands.

That kind of dominance is why the spirits giant is bullish on its future in Latin America, which recently has been the fastest growing region for Diageo worldwide. In 2012, the Latin America and Caribbean region represented 12 percent of Diageo’s net worldwide sales and 11 percent of the company’s operating profit. Diageo hopes Brazil will become one of its top three markets by 2017, behind the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

But getting there hasn’t been easy. During periods of economic and political unrest in the region over the last decade, there were times when it would have been more profitable for Diageo to pull back, said Millian, president of Diageo Latin America and the Caribbean. Yet, the company focused on growing its scotch business across the region and it paid off. Over the last eight years, Diageo has increased sales more than two and a half times and almost tripled its operating profit.

“I believed it would get good,” said Millian, who supervises more than 3,000 employees across the region and 119 in Miami. “But I’m not sure I realized it would get this good.”

Millian has been running the region out of Diageo’s Miami office for more than a decade. But he’s also no stranger to this part of the world. He first lived in Argentina as a child and during his career has done stints in Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico and Costa Rica.

The Miami Herald sat down with Millian during a media day, which was part of a Diageo investor conference in Miami spotlighting the success in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Here is some of what Millian had to say:

Q. Has your growth over the last decade been comparable to Diageo’s growth around the world?

We would definitely be in the top positions in the league within Diageo. That’s one of the reasons they’re focusing on us. Like many corporations, the emerging markets have a huge potential for growth. I’m including Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America. We are seeing higher growth rates than we are seeing in the developed world, especially Europe. Although the U.S. is starting to come back, the growth rates in the emerging markets are significantly higher.

Q. What is driving the growth Diageo is experiencing in Latin America?

The improved demographics. You now have over 50 percent of the population who is middle class. You have had an increase in spending. Not only are there more people in the middle class, but you have more people in the (upper) class. We expect over the next year to have 60 million more people in the (upper) class. They’re also learning to spend money in different ways.

Q. In what countries do you see the most growth or most opportunities for future growth? Is Brazil the main focus?

There has been broad growth in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Peru. We have seen it all over, but those would be the ones we’re focusing on. It’s not just Brazil, it’s throughout the region.

Q. Why did you remain committed to this region over years when there was not a lot of growth and there was a lot of political and economic unrest in some countries?

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Interfaith Thanksgiving service planned for Wednesday night

Members of various faiths in Coral Gables will come together at 7 p.m. Wednesday in a spirit of unity for the annual Thanksgiving Eve Interfaith Worship Service hosted by Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ, 3010 De Soto Blvd., across the street from the Biltmore Hotel.

The Rev. Dr. Laurinda Hafner, senior pastor of the church said, "We invite everyone - no matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey — to a Spirit-filled service that celebrates with words and music the connections found through the awesome diversity, work and fellowship of our community."

The service will be followed by a time of friendship and refreshments that will include a variety of seasonal muffins and preserves and hot cider.

All are welcome.

Nurcracker jazz

The Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, will present a dance-inspired program featuring Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite, at 8 p.m. on Nov. 30, at the university's Gusman Concert Hall, 1314 Miller Dr.

According to Terence Blanchard, artistic director of the Henry Mancini Institute at the university, the work is an upbeat, multi-movement jazz interpretation of "The Nutcracker," by Tchaikovsky, created in 1960 by Duke Ellington and his musical collaborator Billy Strayhorn.

The concert is entitled "Terence Blanchard Presents: A Concert of American Music," and will feature Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, a ballet suite for 13 instruments inspired by ballet music that Copland composed for famed dancer and choreographer Martha Graham in 1944, and two world premieres by Henry Mancini Composition Fellows David Pegel and Rafael da Lima de Piccolotto.

At 7:15 p.m. Blanchard will host a pre-concert talk for young people involved in the institute’s community outreach program, HMI Outbound.

Scott Flavin, resident conductor of the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra and Stephen Guerra, managing director of the Henry Mancini Institute, will conduct the concert.

Tikets are $15 for adults, general admission and $10 for seniors and children and may be purchased via the Frost School’s website, www.music.miami.edu/concerts or by calling 305-284-2400.

‘A Taste of Dance’

The Karen Peterson Dance Company will present "A Taste of Dance," at 7 p.m. on Dec. 1, at Excello, 8700 SW 129th Terr. The event is a fundraiser for the 2013 KPD mixed- ability educational projects.

The cost is $35 per person online at www.karenpetersondance.org and $40 at the door. Call 305-298-5879 for more information.

LGBT seniors

The critically acclaimed documentary "Gen Silent," by filmmaker Stu Maddux, will be screened at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 27, at the Miami Theater Center, 9806 NE Second Ave. in Miami Shores.

The documentary addresses the question, "Do LGBT seniors need to go back in the closet?" because many LGBT seniors face the heart-wrenching decision of whether to enter a nursing home.

The program is presented by Creative Arts Enterprises, in association with Treece Financial Group, and is free and open to the public.

The screening will be followed by a panel of local experts who will address the issues discussed in the film. To view a trailer, go www.gensilent.com. For more information call Ellen Wedner at 305-573-6477 or email her at wednerfriend@hotmail.com. You may also call Michael Vita at 786-586-4286 or email him at michael@davidtreece.com.

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Biden to tour storm-damaged New Jersey today

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ — Vice President Joe Biden is the latest White House official to visit New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy.

Biden is scheduled to tour Seaside Heights and Hoboken on Sunday.

President Obama visited storm-wrecked Atlantic City with Gov. Chris Christie before the election. Two Obama Cabinet officers toured a Federal Emergency Management Agency facility in Middletown on Friday.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan acknowledged in their visit that it could take years to rebuild some areas wrecked by the superstorm, which killed more than 100 people in 10 states but hit New Jersey and New York the hardest.

Christie has not released a damage figure.

Napolitano was also in New Jersey with Christie the week the storm hit.

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Panama Canal’s $5 billion makeover could be boon for South Florida

PANAMA CITY, Panama --
Huge yellow dump trucks resemble Tonka toys in a sand pile as they haul tons of rust-colored dirt and basalt rock from a 56-foot gash in the earth that will become a new access channel in the $5.25 billion expansion of the Panama Canal.

The trucks keep rumbling up muddy terraced slopes as a quick-moving storm blurs the horizon. The rain chases away workers pouring concrete for a mammoth set of locks that will lift super-size ships for their transit across the narrow Isthmus of Panama, but the crews are back in the pit as soon as the sun returns.

By April 2015, it will all be under water — ready for the ever-bigger vessels revolutionizing international trade. The expansion is expected to double the canal’s capacity.

The 2015 target is about six months behind schedule, but U.S. ports are still scrambling to ready their channels for so-called post-Panamax ships and some say they welcome the reprieve. At this point, Baltimore and Norfolk, Va. are the only ports along the Eastern Seaboard with channels deep enough to handle the vessels when they’re fully loaded.

Call it the race for deep water as ports up and down the East Coast, including PortMiami and Port Everglades, and along the Gulf of Mexico make plans to dredge their channels, shore up their docks or rustle up funding for renovations to receive the big ships. Many won’t be ready by the time water floods the new locks.

PortMiami in position to cash in

PortMiami is further along than most and is hoping that early advantage and its position as the first major U.S. port north of Panama will make it a preferred port of call for post-Panamax ships.

Latin American and Caribbean ports also are trying to figure out how to capitalize on the expansion.

As this new phase of canal construction nears completion with 13,000 people working around the clock, there is renewed interest in preserving the history of the old Panama Canal Zone as well as the legacy of those who worked and died building the canal.

While the 50-mile-long Panama Canal has provided a maritime shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific for the past 98 years, it’s just about maxed out.

This year vessels from the four corners of the globe — car carriers from Japan, bulk carriers loaded with soybeans and wheat from the U.S. heartland, oil tankers, towering container ships carrying the output of Chinese factories to U.S. retailers — are expected to move a record 332 million tons of cargo through the waterway, said Jorge L. Quijano, chief executive of the Panama Canal Authority.

That’s only about 20 million tons short of the canal’s capacity, he said. The canal is also popular with cruise lines and dozens of cruise ships are being built that exceed the size limits of the current canal.

But the more immediate problem is that the huge cargo ships increasingly favored for trade with Asia are too wide, too long and too heavy for the current canal.

With a growing number of ships in the post-Panamax category — exceeding the specifications for the largest ship that can fit through the existing locks — the Panama Canal must expand or risk losing market share.

And post-Panamax vessels aren’t even the biggest on the high seas. Post-Panamax Plus ships, such as most U.S. tankers that carry liquefied natural gas bound for Asia, are five times too big for the Panama Canal.

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