Edgardo Rafael Cubas Matamoros was born on February 7, 1979, in Honduras. He grew up in the San Miguel neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, the capital city. 

On January 18, 2002, Esmeralda Alvarado, a 15-year-old student, went missing after leaving her boyfriend's house in East End, Houston. After several days of searching, her body was found on January 22, 2002, in a field near the industrial zone on Market Street. She had been kidnapped, raped, and shot in the head.

Later that year, on May 31, 2002, two waitresses named Roxana Aracelie Capulin, 24, and Maria Moreno Rangel, 38, also went missing. They worked at the El Mirador restaurant. Their bodies were discovered on July 1, 2002, inside Capulin's vehicle. Both women had been shot dead, and their eyes and mouths were covered with tape.

Edgardo Rafael Cubas Matamoros, Walter Alexander Sorto, and a teenage boy, Eduardo Navarro, were identified as the perpetrators of these crimes. Cubas was arrested while working at a construction site in Tomball, Texas, on July 2002. Sorto went to a police station and confessed to the crimes, attempting to claim a reward. Navarro, who was 15 at the time, was arrested at his home.

During the investigation, Cubas admitted to killing Alvarado and also confessed to the murders of Capulin and Rangel. The three were charged with the murders, and prosecutors sought the death penalty for Cubas and Sorto. Due to his age, Navarro was tried as an adult but could not receive the death penalty.

In May 2004, Cubas was convicted of capital murder for the death of Esmeralda Alvarado and sentenced to death shortly after. Sorto received a death sentence for the murders of Capulin and Rangel in November 2003. Both men were placed on death row at the Polunsky Unit in Texas. Cubas’s execution was initially scheduled for January 16, 2014, but the date was later rescinded.