Illegal Immigrant Sentenced For The Beating & Stabbing Death Of The Mother Of His Children

Tuesday, August 12, 2025, 12:30 P.M. ET. 3 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,

WASHINGTON, DC.- Last Friday, a 43-year-old Honduran man, illegally residing in the District of Columbia, learned he will be nearly 70 years old when he is finally deported back to Honduras, after being sentenced to over two decades in prison, for the 2024, brutal beating, stabbing, and strangling death of the mother of his three children inside her Northwest, D.C. home.

     According to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, on Friday, August 8, 2025, Mario Miguel Banegas Deras, 43, of Honduras, illegally residing in Washington, D.C., appeared in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and was sentenced by Superior Court Judge J. Michael Ryan to 288 months in prison, to be followed by five years supervised relaese after pleading guilty on April 15, 2025, to second-degree Murder While Armed. 

Banegas Deras Will Face Deportation After He Finishes His 24 Year Prison Term

     Upon completion of the term of imprisonment, Banegas Deras will be immediately removed from the United States pursuant to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement warrant for removal.

According To U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro

     According to court documents, on December 15, 2024, shortly around 6:30 p.m., Banegas Deras went to 744 Girard Street in Northwest, D.C., where he had lived with his wife, Maria Magdalena Ayala Guardado, and their three children until around one week before the murder, after Ms. Alaya Guardado told him to leave the home due to continued physical and emotional abuse.

     On that day, Banegas Deras entered the apartment building and made his way to the lower level, where he exited the building at the storage/garage area and attempted to open the garage door. When he couldn’t get into the garage, Banegas Deras reentered the building and lay in wait for his wife, Ms. Alaya Guardado, to make her way into the garage, as she did every day.

     Ninety minutes later, Ms. Alaya Guardado exited the building, unlocked, and entered the garage. Banegas Deras, who had been watching her through a small window, followed her into the garage and immediately closed the door. Once Banegas Deras had Ms. Alaya Guardado trapped inside the garage, he killed her by strangling her, hitting her in the head over fourteen times with a brick, and stabbing her in the neck.

     Thirty-five minutes after closing the garage door, Banegas Deras called 911 and reported that he had just killed his wife by strangling her. Police Officers arrived on the scene and placed Banegas Deras under arrest.

     “This illegal lowlife killed the mother of his children in the most heinous way, after abusing her throughout their relationship,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. “Domestic violence is something we will not tolerate from anyone, particularly those who are not legal citizens of this country who break the law. For any woman in a violent relationship, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE.“