A jury in Florida found a Cuban guilty of shooting and killing a cyclist -also Cuban- in 2019 in Miami.
Kadel Piedrahita was found guilty of second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a firearm for the events that occurred on August 14, 2019, at the Key Biscayne bridge.
That day, after a violent argument, he shot and killed the cyclist Alexis Palencia, 48 years old, originally from Guantánamo and father of two children. In addition, he shot another cyclist, César Sosa.
The jury took only a few hours to issue its verdict last Monday.
State attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle alleged that Piedrahita killed Palencia in cold blood out of hatred. Days before the crime, the accused had made a live transmission on Facebook in which he threatened his victim.
For his part, Piedrahita, who cried during the trial, stated that he acted in self-defense against attacks from Alexis Palencia and César Sosa, and that he handed a weapon to Palencia.
His defense added that he shot after being attacked by the victim and two other cyclists, Soza and Londono, who were witnesses in the case, and insisted that Palencia had a weapon at the time of the incident.
The sentence for Piedrahita is expected in about two months.
He faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
On August 14, 2019, there was an altercation between Piedrahita, who was on his motorcycle, and the victim. The fight was recorded in a live Facebook broadcast. Although it seems the phone fell, and the image was lost, the sound was not. At the end of the video, the accused can be heard calling emergency services to request an ambulance and confessing that he shot a man.
The killer used to accompany the group of cyclists -known as the "Don Pan" group- of which his 17-year-old son was a part.
A few days later, he was formally charged after voluntarily turning himself in to the police.
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