2023 was a year filled with captivating criminal trials in South Florida.
NBC6 is looking back at four of those trials, all involving high-profile defendants: a rising rapper, a supermarket chain executive, a popular actor and a school resource officer criticized for his inaction in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.
Here's a look at some of 2023's most widely followed trials.
A rising telenovela star was sentenced to prison this year for fatally punching a man during a road rage confrontation.
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Pablo Lyle, who starred in several Mexican telenovelas and was once named one of the most beautiful people by People en Español, is spending the next five years behind bars after delivering a punch that ended up killing 63-year-old Juan Ricardo Hernández back in 2019 in Miami.
Lyle was on the way to the airport with his family when at a red light, Hernández got out of his vehicle, pounded the window of Lyle's car and accused them of cutting him off.
The next few moments were captured in widely circulated security camera footage — Lyle's brother-in-law, who was driving the car, is seen running after the rolling vehicle after he got out to argue with Hernández. The actor, who was in the passenger's seat, charges toward Hernández and punches him in the face.
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Hernández then falls to the ground and his head smacks against the concrete. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and died four days later.
Lyle's defense team stood firm that his actions were self-defense and that he felt threatened by Hernández. They even attempted to use Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law to dismiss Lyle's charges — the judge denied the request.
"I thought I was defending my family," Lyle said in court at one point.
The defense claimed before the attack, Hernández had his hands in a fighting stance. But prosecutors said his arms were up in a defensive posture, a claim that was corroborated by a witness who also said she heard Hernández beg for Lyle not to hurt him.
After a week-long trial, Lyle was convicted of manslaughter in February. He faced between nine and 15 years in prison but was sentenced to five after the judge noted Lyle’s remorse was genuine. Hernández’s family fought for the maximum sentence.
A supermarket mogul was sentenced to life in prison over a decade after orchestrating the violent killing of the man who had an affair with his wife — an ordeal police had called "a Lifetime movie in real life."
A number of players were involved in the 2011 murder of businessman Camilo Salazar, and all were recruited by former Presidente Supermarkets executive Manuel Marin.
Marin wasn’t convicted in the actual murder of Salazar, but he was found guilty of “setting in motion” the events that led to the gruesome death, a judge said in Marin’s sentencing back in May.
The body of Salazar, who had an affair with Marin’s then-wife Jenny Marin from 2008 to 2011, was found on a dirt road in the Florida Everglades — he was found bound, beaten and tortured, his throat was slashed and his body was partially burned.
Marin enlisted the help of ex-MMA fighter Ariel Grandulla, another former MMA fighter Alexis Vila Perdomo and fight trainer and promoter Robert Isaac. Grandulla, who pled guilty, ended up testifying as part of a plea deal. He told the jury he helped with Salazar’s kidnapping but did not take part in killing him.
Shortly after the murder, Marin fled to Spain, where he remained a fugitive for years until his arrest in 2018.
In his sentencing in May, the judge gave Marin the maximum life sentence on the kidnapping charge, along with 30 years for manslaughter and 15 years for conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
Presidente is one of the fastest-growing Hispanic grocery chains in the country. Marin hasn’t been involved with the company since 2011.
The acquittal of Scot Peterson, a school resource officer who fled to safety instead of helping students during the 2018 Parkland massacre, ignited outrage and frustration not only in South Florida but throughout the country.
The Broward Sheriff’s deputy broke down in tears and wept as he was found not guilty of seven counts of felony child neglect back in June.
On Feb. 14, 2018, Peterson arrived at the 1200 building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as the attack began. The shooter was inside, firing his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, and Peterson was on the opposite side of the hallway. But instead of opening the door, he took cover at a neighboring building.
Prosecutors said that if Peterson opened the door, or looked in a window, or done anything to seek information about the situation, he could’ve helped stop or distract the shooter, therefore preventing fewer deaths and injuries.
“Scot Peterson chose to run,” a prosecutor said.
His actions have earned him the nickname as the “coward of Broward.”
In an interview with NBC6 on the day he was acquitted, Peterson said he couldn’t pinpoint where the gunshots were coming from.
"Of course, if I had known and had the intel and I knew there was a shooter in that building, of course, I would have went in that building," he said. "I mean, that's what police officers are there to do.”
It was the first time a U.S. police officer had been charged with failing to act during a school shooting.
The double murder trial against rising rapper YNW Melly will start all over again after a mistrial was declared earlier this year.
This is the only trial on this list that’s still ongoing, and it’s perhaps the most viral — live streams of his hearings on YouTube have garnered at least hundreds of thousands of views each.
Melly, whose real name is Jamell Demons, faces a possible death sentence if he’s convicted of first-degree murder in the 2018 slayings of Christopher “YNW Juvy” Thomas and Anthony “YNW Sakchaser” Williams. The trio were in the same rap collective.
Prosecutors say Melly, after a late-night recording session, shot Thomas and Williams inside an SUV and he and Cortlen "YNW Bortlen" Henry then tried to make it look like a drive-by shooting.
This past July, after over two weeks of hearings and deliberations, the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision, voting 9-3 for conviction.
The retrial begins in February. It was already delayed after the lead prosecutor was removed from the case after defense attorneys claimed prosecutors didn’t reveal that the lead detective had been previously accused of being willing to lie as he gathered evidence. The motion to recuse lead prosecutor Kristine Bradley stemmed from an alleged Brady violation, which relates to the disclosure of information or evidence in a trial.
It’s yet to be seen if this trial will lead to Melly’s conviction or acquittal — if he’s convicted, he’ll be one of the first to be sentenced under Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' law that no longer requires a unanimous vote by a jury to recommend a death penalty.
Not only did Melly’s trial garner massive public interest, but his single “Murder on My Mind” did, too — the song reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019 after news of his arrest broke.
