Miami Beach abductor must get death penalty

Miami Beach abductor of a young couple - in which a woman was raped and killed and her boyfriend was left for dead - should receive the death penaltydnesday.

Photo: Miami Beach abductor must get death penalty

The jury voted 9-3 for the death penalty for 39-year-old Victor Caraballo, but Circuit Judge William Thomas will make the final decision.

Ana Maria Angel and her boyfriend, Nelson Portobanco, were abducted in 2002 by a group of five men while on a date in the touristy South Beach neighborhood.

Portobanco, then 18, was stabbed multiple times but survived the attack and testified against Caraballo.

Angel's body was found along the Interstate 95 highway. The 18-year-old high school senior had been shot in the head.

Angel's mother, Maria Osorio, said she was satisfied with the jury's recommendation. She was "a tender girl, and I think she would have been at peace," the mother said in Spanish through a relative, who translated.

Caraballo, 39, was convicted last week of first-degree murder, attempted murder, armed sexual battery and two counts of armed kidnapping and armed robbery.

The four other men, including Caraballo's brother, are awaiting trial. They have pleaded not guilty.