Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story identified Manuel Marin as Presidente Supermarket’s co-founder, instead he’s a former owner of some Presidente stores.
A former MMA fighter accused in the 2011 killing of a man linked to a former owner of some Presidente Supermarket stores has submitted a guilty plea and agreed to testify against others, according to prosecutors.
In a statement released Friday, Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Ariel Gandulla's guilty plea and willingness to testify will "add important evidentiary pieces to our efforts to bring Camilo Salazar’s alleged killers to justice."
Gandulla will testify against Manuel Marin, Roberto Isaac and Alexis Vila-Perdomo.
Gandulla, 51, was booked into the Miami-Dade jail Tuesday night to face charges of second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and kidnapping, jail records showed.
Gandulla is one of four suspects in the June 2011 killing of Salazar, 43, the alleged lover of the wife Marin, a former owner of some Presidente Supermarkets.
Salazar's body was found on a dirt road in the Florida Everglades in northwest Miami-Dade on June 1, 2011. He was bound, beaten, tortured, had his throat slashed and his body was partially burned, according to a police report.
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Marin was taken into custody in Spain last year after years on the run and is facing trial in Miami on the same charges Gandulla faces. Also accused in the plot is another former mixed martial artist, Vila-Perdomo, and fight trainer and promoter Isaac. Vila-Perdomo and Isaac remain in custody in Miami-Dade.
Marin's son, Yaddiel Marin, was arrested last year after he was accused of helping his father while he was on the run, authorities said. Yaddiel Marin owns and operates many of the supermarkets once operated by his father.
Presidente has been one of the fastest-growing Hispanic grocery chains in the country.
“The June 1, 2011 torture and murder of 43-year-old Camilo Salazar should not be lost within the notoriety of the alleged perpetrators and the lurid details of the crime," Fernandez Rundle wrote. "Wealth, infidelity, rage, conspiracy and murder, all a part of this prosecution, are usually seen as the stuff of Hollywood movies and tabloid headlines. Too often lost in such cases are the basic humanity of the victim, the pain of the victim’s family, and the deep commitment ... to ensure that justice is properly served."
