Nearly a year after the U.S. Department of Justice decided to seek the death penalty against one of two defendants in the 2023 killings of two teenagers at the Piñones beach in Loíza, the federal prosecution has reversed course. In a brief notice titled "Not to Seek the Death Penalty," filed Tuesday by prosecutor Julián N. Radzinschi, the United States informed the court it will not seek capital punishment against Edwin Yadiel Flores Tavárez, revoking the notice filed as document ECF number 189 on November 14, 2025.
No reason was given. In other recent cases, such as urban music artist CDobleta (Luis Nomar Isaac Sánchez), a similar shift occurred because a plea agreement was being sought; he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and participating in a police officer's murder. Flores Tavárez is charged with the killings of Tanaisha Michelle de Jesús Curet, 15, and Nahia Paola Ramos López, 13, reported on July 25, 2023.
Court records show that on July 7 federal prosecutors told the court they had made a plea offer to the defendants, and the matter was not addressed again until now. Police said at the time that Flores Tavárez and co-defendant José Martínez Serrano kidnapped and shot the girls inside an orange 2018 Toyota Tacoma carjacked from a merchant in Ponce.
On January 6, 2025, prosecutors notified they would not seek the death penalty against Martínez Serrano, also without explanation.