MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Manuel Marin stands trial on Tuesday in Miami-Dade County court for allegedly devising a gruesome murder-for-hire plot in 2011.
Prosecutors accused the co-founder of The Presidente Supermarket grocery store chain of being behind the murder of Camilo Salazar, an interior designer who had an affair with his wife.
Detectives said the killers tortured Salazar and used gasoline to burn part of his body while the then-prominent Cuban-American businessman was in Bimini. He surrendered in 2018 at a U.S. embassy in Spain.
Marin hired Roberto Isaac, former mixed-martial-arts fighter Alexis Vila Perdomo, and Ariel Gandulla to commit the murder on June 2011 in Miami-Dade, according to prosecutors.
6 p.m. report:
The jury in the cases against Isaac and Vila Perdomo heard the testimony of Marin’s wife Jenny Marin, who described her husband’s reaction after he learned of her affair, and Daisy Lewis Holcombe, Salazar’s wife, who described the anguish she felt after her husband vanished.
The jury also heard from Gandulla who testified against Isaac and Vila Perdomo. They found Isaac guilty of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder and Vila Perdomo guilty of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder.
In December 2019, a judge sentenced Isaac to life in prison and Vila Perdomo to 15 years in prison. As part of a plea agreement, a judge sentenced Gandulla to 36 months in prison.
After prosecutors filed the case against Marin, Presidente Supermarkets released a statement saying he has “had no involvement whatsoever in the company since 2011.”
Local10.com archives
- Oct. 31, 2019: Cellphone records show alleged killer near dumped body
- Oct. 30, 2019: Wife of Presidente Supermarket co-founder describes affair
- Oct. 30, 2019: Widow of victim in murder-for-hire plot testifies in court