DOVER, FL – A Florida jury has sentenced Angel Gabriel Cuz-Choc, 33, to death for the April 2024 murders of a woman and her young daughter in a crime that shocked Hillsborough County. Prosecutors said the Guatemalan national, who entered the United States unlawfully in 2023, brutally beat and killed 36-year-old Amalia Coc Choc de Pec and her 8-year-old daughter, Estrella Anastasia Pec Coc, outside their mobile home on Sumner Road.
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called to the 3700 block of Sumner Road in Dover at approximately 5:25 p.m. on April 24, 2024, after a neighbor discovered a woman lying unresponsive outside. When deputies arrived, they found both victims dead from severe blunt-force trauma—one outside the home and the child inside. Evidence at the scene included a bloody handprint smeared across the trailer’s exterior, suggesting the mother fought to escape during the attack.
Cuz-Choc fled on foot after the killings, sparking an intensive manhunt involving K9 units, aviation, and local deputies. He was later captured and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. During trial, prosecutors described the crime as “unspeakably violent” and said Cuz-Choc had previously been linked to two other homicides in Guatemala.
Key case details:
- Angel Gabriel Cuz-Choc, 33, convicted of murdering Amalia Coc Choc de Pec and daughter Estrella Pec Coc.
- Jury recommended and court imposed the death penalty over life imprisonment.
- Cuz-Choc entered the U.S. unlawfully in 2023 and is suspected in two prior murders abroad.
Sheriff Chad Chronister called the crime “an act of pure evil,” saying it devastated the quiet Dover community. “I’m taken aback by the absolute callousness and evil that transpired when our suspect brutally murdered a woman and young child,” Chronister said.