A Mexican telenovela star and Netflix series actor received a five-year prison sentence Friday after punching a man to death during a road rage confrontation in Miami in 2019.
Pablo Lyle’s sentence came four years after he was charged with murder in the death of a man he struck during an encounter in traffic. A jury ultimately found Lyle guilty in October of involuntary manslaughter in the killing of 63-year-old Juan Ricardo Hernández.
The judge who presided over the case, Marisa Tinkler Mendez, handed Lyle the sentence after rejecting the 36-year-old actor’s request for a new trial.
Lyle, who appeared in the Netflix crime series Yankee, had faced a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in prison. He was also ordered to eight years of probation, conflict resolution management and 500 hours of community service for the actor.
The actor has 30 days to appeal his punishment. He has been detained since his 4 October conviction, and that time counts toward completing his sentence.
Dressed in a red jail uniform, Lyle looked calm and expressed repentance during the more than three-hour hearing before Tinkler Mendez gave him his sentence.
“I am very sorry,” Lyle said in Spanish, looking at some of the members of Hernández family who were in the courtroom, among them his son. “I always pray for him and for you, with all my heart.”
Hernández, who was unarmed, suffered a traumatic brain injury after Lyle punched him and died four days later while hospitalized.
Lyle’s lawyers argued that he acted in self-defense. They also said that there were inconsistencies in the evidence during the trial.
Tinkler Mendez on Friday said that Lyle made a “poor decision … out of anger”.
“The evidence shows that the action of Mr Lyle was an act of violence,” Tinkler said. “Mr Lyle has to be held responsible for those actions.”
Security cameras captured the deadly confrontation between Lyle and Hernández.
Lyle’s brother-in-law was taking the actor, his wife and two children to the airport. Their car passed that of Hernández, who stopped at a red light, got out and approached the driver’s window of Lyle’s vehicle to claim that they had unduly blocked his way.
According to security video footage, Lyle and Hernández got into an argument, and the actor punched Hernández in the face. Lyle insisted he was defending himself – he said his children were with him and terrified, and he feared Hernández had a weapon.
At the hearing, Lyle’s wife, his brother-in-law and his sister offered testimony before the judge made her decision public.
On Hernández’s side, his son described him as a very happy, attentive person, with good health and principles. Juan Ricardo Hernández Jr asked the judge to sentence Lyle to the maximum punishment available.
He said that he had been with his father the day before Lyle fatally punched him.
“I didn’t want to believe it was him,” Hernández’s son said of going to the hospital to see his father after he had been punched by Lyle.
The Associated Press contributed reporting