MIAMI – Jury selection was held Tuesday in Miami in the trial of Mexican actor Pablo Lyle, and the actual trial is expected to begin at the end of this week or next week on Tuesday.
The situation at the center of this case happened in March 2019.
Lyle was charged with manslaughter after a punch he threw during a road rage incident turned fatal.
It happened on Northwest 27th Avenue near 14th Street.
Police said Lyle’s brother-in-law, Lucas Del Fino, was driving to the airport when he cut off another vehicle being driven by 63-year-old Juan Ricardo Hernandez.
Hernandez got out of his car and hit the window of the car Lyle was in with his fist.
“We were very close to each other. We were both yelling at each other,” Del Fino said during a hearing in 2019. “I was yelling at him, ‘Don’t touch my car! Don’t you bang on my car!’ I said that in Spanish.”
That’s when video shows Lyle getting out of the passenger seat and punching Hernandez once, knocking him out.
Hernandez was taken to the hospital, but later died from his injuries.
Now, more than three years later, Lyle’s trial is getting ready to begin.
On Tuesday, the judge got to ask potential jurors questions with feedback from the attorneys as they worked to try to find the right group that will sit and hear this case.
But already there were some questions about whether or not jurors had broken the rules, and were discussing the case.
“They were talking about the case -- how they saw it on the news,” one potential juror said.
Lyle’s attorney then asked the judge to strike the panel.
“There was publicity about this matter, it was extensive and that is not evidence,” said Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez. “Anything outside of the courtroom is not evidence.”
The judge did not end up striking that first group of potential jurors right away, but continued with questioning all of them.
They’ll continue with that process until they’re able to agree upon a full set of jurors and alternates.
“Mr Lyle, as he sits here, he’s accused of a crime, but one of the most important rules in this house and rules of criminal law and constitutionalism, that man is innocent,” said Tinkler Mendez.
Local 10 News will be there throughout the process trial to bring you updates every step of the way.