The defense is facing strong headwinds in the Pablo Lyle trial.
They’re up against the infamous video which shows the Mexican actor slugging the victim, and eyewitnesses who keep telling the jury that Lyle punched 63-year-old Juan Hernandez as Hernandez put his arms up in a defensive posture.
Tuesday, the jury saw Lyle’s account through his interview with a Miami Police detective, which is also not likely to help his cause.
“I’m not saying I didn’t do anything, I did,” Lyle said at one point.
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The security camera video of the 2019 incident, which has been viewed millions of times on social media, shows the telenovela star running up to Hernandez and punching him in the face.
“And he got punched and he fell backwards, to me he was already unconscious in the air, when you get punched you get knocked out, he went backwards and his head hit the pavement,” said witness Carlos Molina.
Molina was filling up at the gas station, heard the commotion, ran over to help, and saw it happen.
“He turning around, raising his hands to defend himself, and he got punched,” Molina said, and then showed the jury how Hernandez had positioned his arms.
“Something like this, he went up to protect his face,” Molina said, holding his arms up.
“He looked crazy, he looked out of control, he looked like something was wrong with him,” said Maria Rizo, another witness, describing Lyle that day.
She saw the incident and like Molina, Rizo also told the jury Hernandez was in a defensive posture.
“Defense mode, he was like, don’t hit me, the way I can describe it,” Rizo said.
Lyle’s attorneys maintain Hernandez was in a fighting stance, and Lyle told police he was protecting his family, thinking Hernandez was going to retrieve a weapon.
But Lyle might’ve undercut his own case when he said this in his police interview, holding his hands up to show Hernandez’s reaction: “He did like that, instant reaction, and I was like, boom, that kick, and threw the right, too.”
The defense was able to show that two witnesses changed their accounts slightly from what they told police to what they told the jury from the witness stand. However, the impact of what they said is likely to be powerful in the eyes of the jurors.
