The jury will begin deliberating the fate of Mexican telenovela star Pablo Lyle on Tuesday morning.
On Monday, jurors heard closing arguments from both sides. Lyle is charged with manslaughter for the death of Juan Hernandez in 2019 after a road rage incident.
A security camera video shows Lyle rushing up to Hernandez and punching him in the face. He died after hitting his head on the pavement.
The day started with Lyle telling the judge he was not taking the stand in his own defense.
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“My decision is to follow the advice of my counsel and I wish not to testify,” Lyle said, without the jury in the room.
The state began its closing argument by grabbing at the jury’s heartstrings.
“Please don’t hurt me," said prosecutor Gabriella Alfaro, pointing at Lyle. "Those were Juan Hernandez’s last words when he was knocked out by this defendant."
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Alfaro told the jurors to trust what they saw on the now-infamous video and what they heard from witnesses, and she was reminded that Lyle is an actor.
“And he wants the detectives to believe that he was scared of Mr. Hernandez, that the images that you’re watching on that video portray fear, but ladies and gentlemen, this video is not a scene from a soap opera. It’s not a scene from a movie, it’s not rehearsed, it’s not scripted," Alfaro said. "It’s real, and it portrays exactly what the defendant was feeling in that moment. It shows you that what he was feeling was not fear — it was anger."
The defense argued that Hernandez started the incident when he got out of his car and pounded on the window of the car Lyle was riding in at an intersection.
“If he’s a victim, he’s a victim of what he did that day because we wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t done that,” said Lyle’s attorney, Phil Reizenstein.
He told the jury that Lyle was defending his family against what he thought was still a threat, even after Hernandez had walked away and was heading back to his car. Reizenstein walked over to his co-counsel, Bruce Lehr, and pounded the table to make his point.
“Maybe I do something to express anger towards him and I’m threatening him,” Reizenstein said. “When does danger exist and when doesn’t it? Does it blink in and out of existence or is it something real and continuous?”
The state pointed out t the jury again that three witnesses testified that Hernandez had his hands up in a defensive posture and there was no reason for Lyle to slug him at that point.
