MIAMI – Kadel Piedrahita was again on the witness stand Friday as he stood trial for the 2019 killing of a cyclist on the Rickenbacker Causeway.
Prosecutor Arvind Singh cross-examined Piedrahita, who took the stand in his own defense on a second-degree murder charge. He’s also facing an aggravated assault with a firearm charge for threatening another cyclist, prosecutors say.
Singh worked to undermine Piedrahita’s testimony to jurors that he shot cyclist Alexis Palencia along the Rickenbacker Causeway on Aug. 14, 2019 in self-defense. The pair, it appears, were already at odds.
An angry selfie video posted by the defendant to Facebook days before the shooting shows him railing against Palencia.
Jurors saw the defendant’s video as he approaches the victim on his motorcycle, where the video shows the defendant kicking the spokes of the victim’s back tire.
Piedrahita told the jury that three people, including Palencia, were attacking him prior to the shooting.
The state presented photos of his face taken hours after the incident.
“I got several punches to my face that day,” Piedrahita testified.
In another video, the state showed that one of the men Piedrahita claimed was punching him prior to the shooting was actually approaching by bicycle after the shooting.
On re-direct, as the defense worked to refocus jurors on their view of the case Piedrahita said he wasn’t trying to kick the victim’s tire but rather that he lost his balance.
Later, after the jurors left the courtroom, the judge did not mince words as he denied a defense request to recall a witness related to a claim made by their client on the stand yesterday that the victim might have been armed.
“I have been handling this case since 2019. He has had, what, four attorneys? So you are the fifth set of attorneys? I conducted the Arthur hearing, and not once during this period did anyone, including your client, ever mention there was a gun,” the judge said. “Apparently, it was an invisible gun because he is the only one who saw it. No other witness has testified in the last five years about seeing that gun. It’s as if it magically appeared.”
The judge added, “No firearm was ever located by anyone involved in this investigation, including officers, detectives, or anyone else who provided statements about that mysterious firearm.”