Florida weighing death penalty for suspected murderer of Cuban reggaeton star El Taiger

Charles Rabin, Miami Herald on Jan 30, 2025

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MIAMI — Almost four months after Cuban reggaeton star El Taiger was gunned down just before daylight on the doorstep of his Hialeah home, the man accused of shooting him has been charged with first-degree murder by a Miami-Dade grand jury.

Damian Valdez-Galloso, 50, didn’t appear in court Thursday morning. But his attorney Kellie Peterson told Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Milton Hirsch that her client was pleading not guilty, then requested a jury trial. She also asked the state if it would seek the death penalty.

“We have not made that determination yet,” said Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Kimberly Rivera, before asking for, and being granted, a couple of weeks to make a decision.

Valdez-Galloso, who initially fled the state after the assassination, was facing a second-degree murder charge prior to the grand jury indictment. Jurors also charged him with tampering with evidence and felony possession of a firearm.

The accused shooter, who was convicted of having sex with minors over a decade ago and remains a registered sex offender, is behind bars at the Turner Guilford Knight correctional center.

Found in back of Mercedes SUV in Miami

Police initially discovered El Taiger, whose birth name is José Manuel Carvajal Zaldívar, bleeding from the head with a gunshot wound in the back of 2023 Mercedes SUV at Northwest Ninth Avenue and 17th Street in Miami, just before 7 a.m. on Oct. 3. He had been shot in the head.

Zaldivar was alive, but barely. He was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he hung on for about a week, before he died.

After investigating the crime scene, speaking to potential witnesses and viewing surveillance video, police determined that Zaldivar responded to a knock on the front door of his Hialeah home at 5:24 a.m. They said once the door opened, Valdez-Galloso shot Zaldivar in the head.

The defendant dragged Zaldivar’s body to the SUV, cleaned up the crime scene and changed clothes, before taking off about 30 minutes later in the victim’s vehicle, police said.

Accused shooter fled to New York

It took law enforcement almost a month to find Valdez-Galloso, who was finally taken into custody in Brooklyn, New York, on Oct. 29 by federal marshals on an out-of-state warrant for failing to register as a sex offender. He was flown back to Miami and charged with Zaldivar’s death.

Investigators say Zaldivar and Valdez-Galloso were childhood friends. But they aren’t certain what caused the riff that led to the music star’s death.

An immensely popular Cuban artist who collaborated with stars including Bad Bunny, Zaldívar amassed over a million Instagram followers and has been viewed on YouTube more than 385 million times. Some of his passionate fans have appeared at the Miami-Dade criminal courthouse to observe Valdez-Galloso’s courtroom hearings.