This Friday began the trial for “involuntary manslaughter” against a relatively well-known Mexican soap opera actor due to the death of a Cuban who worked at the Miami airport, in what specialists have described as a case of “rage at the helm.”
It is easily counted. Three years ago, in March 2019, the actor Pablo Lyle was heading to the Miami airport with his children, when the driver of the vehicle, his brother-in-law Lucas Delfino, made a sudden maneuver and crossed his car in front of another, driven by the Cuban Juan Hernandez. As the two cars stopped at a traffic light, Hernandez got out and began banging on one of the other car’s windows.
Delfino got out and started an argument with the Cuban, but it didn’t get any bigger. As he got back into his car, Lyle got out and punched Hernandez, who fell to the ground, hit his head and died four days later at the hospital. Delfino and Lyle left the man abandoned.
The accused, who now faces 15 years in prison, was arrested that same day at the airport when he was preparing to fly to Mexico after being identified by a surveillance video and by a witness who was at the intersection of the two streets. .
Since his arrest, the actor has paid bail. He was sent to home confinement with an electronic shackle.
From the arrest and until this trial, the actor tried to have the case dismissed on the grounds that he felt threatened, along with his children, by Hernández’s aggressiveness. But last year a judge dismissed it.
However, this Friday the prosecution provided some information that seems to clarify what happened. Everything comes from the testimony of Jessica Rocha, whose car was behind Lyle’s and witnessed the events.
“When I saw him pass by my window [al acusado] began to clench his fists and then immediately hit [Hernández]”, said. Surveillance video from a nearby gas station clearly shows Lyle delivering the fatal blow to Hernandez.
Rocha, whose vehicle is seen feet away from the two men, said he heard Hernandez pleading for his life. “I heard the victim say, ‘No, no, please don’t hurt me,'” the witness said.
However, during cross-examination, defense attorney Bruce Lehr brought up some inconsistencies in Rocha’s statement and confronted her about whether she actually saw Lyle hit Hernandez. “All these things I keep asking her about, and I’m like, ‘Is she really sure about that, as sure as she heard Mr. Hernandez say, ‘Please don’t hit me?’ TRUE?” Lehr said. “Correct,” Rocha said.
Lehr noted previous details provided by Rocha that later investigations turned out to be inaccurate.
The prosecution does not have that perception and therefore presented Rocha’s testimony. This Friday’s hearing focused most of the time on discussing and hearing the opinion of Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Méndez on the relevance of hearing Lyle’s testimony.
Lehr wanted it removed because Miami police have no jurisdiction over the airport, which is owned by the county. But the judge dismissed arguing that the two police, county and city, have a collaboration agreement that legalizes the interrogation and the statements.
This trial is a curious case of the relations between two communities that coexist in South Florida: the Cuban and the Mexican. Two communities that have never made very good friends. In the case of the Cuban, the court of public opinion has already condemned the Mexican actor.
The case is followed with interest by the Mexican entertainment press, which is committed to his innocence despite the fact that Lyle has been three years without working in Mexico. It doesn’t matter much that a few years ago he was considered a sexy man by the magazine People in Spanish.
