Man gets life in prison for killing Texas boyfriend by stabbing him 93 times on date night

A California man who killed his Texas boyfriend by stabbing him 93 times in October 2020 was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison in the murder.

Alexander Yoichi Duberek of San Diego had pleaded guilty in July to one count of interstate domestic violence resulting in the death of 30-year-old Chad Luera.

On Oct. 31, 2020, Duberek went to Luera’s home in Plainview, Texas, talked to his boyfriend’s family and told them about their date, according to federal authorities.

“This defendant looked his boyfriend’s family in the eyes and described the date night he had planned for the two of them. But instead of providing a romantic evening, he carried out a sadistic, premeditated plan to take the life of a 30-year-old man and callously dispose of his body,” said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton in a Thursday news release. “I cannot imagine the horror for this victim and his family. We are proud to bring this killer to justice.”

The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported that Duberek and Luera began dating in September 2019 and Duberek traveled from San Diego to Plainview at least three times during the relationship.

Duberek began telling people he was moving to Texas to live near Luera, investigators told the Avalanche-Journal. But Duberek had lost control of his temper and actually planned to travel to Texas to kill Luera.

Duberek admitted that after arriving at the Lubbock airport in October 2020 he took a cab to a Sam’s Club parking lot, where he purchased a Toyota Camry for $3,000 cash.

He then drove to a Walmart, where he purchased a knife, a hatchet, a gas can, a collapsible shovel, a head lamp, a change of clothing, boots, personal hygiene items, and a first-aid kit.

At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors said that when Duberek arrived at his boyfriend’s house, he told his boyfriend’s family that he planned to take him out to eat and then to a local hotel room to spend the night.

Instead, he killed the 30-year-old and dumped his body on the side of a rural farm road in Hale County.

Following the murder, Duberek fled to Houston, where he sold the car used in the murder to someone outside an auto auction. Investigators later searched the vehicle and found blood in the back seat that matched the victim.

Duberek remained at large for roughly five months before turning himself in to San Diego law enforcement on March 18, 2021. While being booked into jail, he was asked about a tattoo of his boyfriend’s first name on his ring finger; he answered that it was the name of the person he had killed.

“After viciously attacking him, the defendant left this wonderful human life, who he reportedly loved and wanted to marry, on the side of the road, like yesterday’s trash, like his life didn’t matter, to bleed to death,” the victim’s aunt said at the Thursday sentencing. “Why would he extinguish a light that shone so brightly for so many? Why didn’t he just stay in California, move on with his life?”