Mexican soap opera star Pablo Lyle was found guilty Tuesday in the 2019 death of a man he fatally punched in the head in a road rage attack.
Lyle, 35, was convicted of manslaughter by a six-person jury in Miami-Dade, court records show. Lyle, a key actor in the popular Mexican telenovela “Mi Adorable Maldición” (“My Adorable Curse”), faces up to 15 years in prison.
The actor claimed that he had acted in self defense when he ran up and punched 63-year-old Juan Ricardo Hernandez in the head, knocking him to the ground. Hernandez suffered a traumatic brain injury and died four days later.
“Two lives were destroyed by simple roadway anger, a situation we see far too often on our streets and on streets across the country,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement.
Surveillance footage of the attack shows Hernandez get out of his car at a stoplight in Miami after he got upset about Lyle’s brother-in-law cutting him off in traffic.
The brother-in-law, whose name was not released by authorities, was then seen getting out of the vehicle to argue with Hernandez, video showed.
As Hernandez turned around to go back to his own car, Lyle jumped out of the other vehicle, ran nine steps and punched Hernandez in the face.
Lyle, who made the “People en Español” 50 Most Beautiful list in 2015, fled the scene but was later arrested at Miami International Airport, according to his arrest affidavit.
With Post Wires