Mexican Actor Pablo Lyle To Stand Trial In Fatal Road Rage Incident
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A Miami-Dade County judge ruled Mexican actor Pablo Lyle will have to stand trial in the death of a man he punched during a road-rage incident earlier this year.
"The hearing did not conclude today the way we wanted it to, but make no mistake about this, this case is not over," said one of Lyle's attorneys.
His team spent hours trying to convince a judge to throw out a case stemming from a road rage incident back in March.
Lyle's attorneys asked the judge to drop the manslaughter charges against their client.
Lyle, 32, is accused of throwing a punch that killed 63-year-old Juan Ricardo Hernandez. His attorneys contend Lyle threw a punch to defend himself and his family, as per Florida's Stand Your Ground law.
Hernandez suffered a broken skull and internal bleeding and died four days later at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
The incident took place on March 31. Lyle was a passenger in a car driven by his brother-in-law when he cut off Hernandez in the intersection of NW 27th Avenue and 14th Street. At a stop light, Hernandez ran up to the SUV Lyle was in and banged on the window. "He was very angry, his face was distorted with rage and anger," said Lyle's brother-in-law Lucas DelFino, who was driving. "He was banging on the window very loudly," he said.
Lyle was captured on surveillance video running out of the passenger side of the vehicle towards Hernandez. His brother-in-law also got out of the car, but it was not in park and it started rolling into the intersection.
SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS CAPTURED THE PUNCH:
The brother-in-law ran back to the car to stop it from rolling and Hernandez walked back toward his own car. That is when the surveillance video shows Lyle running towards Hernandez. "When I was going toward him I said 'what's wrong with you? "There are kids in the car," Lyle said while on the stand.
He said he at that point he was concerned about what Hernandez would do when he got to his car. "Did you think about what could happen if he got in his car?" his attorney asked. "He could get a gun or use his car as a weapon," Lyle said. "How so," asked the attorney. "Ramming the back of our car," Lyle said. "What's in the back of the car?" he was asked. "My wife, my kids, and my nephew," he said with his voice cracking.
Prosecutors tell a different story.
"A large, strong muscular man ran at and punched an elderly small man in the head could be considered deadly force by your honor," said Rachel Morales-Gellis, prosecutor.
Witnesses who watched this happen in front of them testified too.
"The gentleman went like this like it's not that serious and the next thing I saw was a punch. One blow, the guy went down and never moved again," said witness Maria Rico.
"I hear him just scream, 'no, no, no please don't hurt me.' And as he's doing that he puts his hands up, he puts his hands up like blocking the hit," said witness Jessica Rocha.
Lyle remains on house arrest in Miami without access to his passport.
Lyle was the star of the Mexican telenovela "Mi Adorable Maldición," or "My Adorable Curse." He also stars in a newly released Netflix drama called "Yankee."
A trial date has not been set.
