MIAMI (WSVN) - A former MMA fighter and an accomplice accused of taking part in a murder in the Everglades have been found guilty.
Roberto Isaac was found guilty on second-degree murder, conspiracy of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon and kidnapping in the El Presidente murder trial, Thursday.
The second defendant, former MMA fighter Alex Vila Perdomo, was found guilty for conspiracy of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon.
Prosecutors said a love triangle led to Miami interior designer Camilo Salazar’s death. His mutilated body was discovered in a rural field in the Everglades in June 2011.
“We’re very satisfied,” prosecutor Gail Devine said. “We thank the jurors very much for their thoughtful work, very, very hard work.”
According to police, Presidente Supermarket co-founder Manuel Marin was so enraged by his wife’s affair with Salazar that he commissioned Perdomo and Isaac to kill.
Shortly after Salazar’s body was found, Marin fled the country, according to investigators.
“He didn’t have to — he didn’t have to die,” Jenny Marin testified on Tuesday.
Michael Walsh, Isaac’s attorney, asked Marin on Tuesday if her husband acted any differently when he arrived home after being gone for several hours that day.
“Did it look like he just lit someone’s penis on fire?” he asked before being objected.
Salazar’s widow could be seen crying in the courtroom after the verdict was read out loud.
Perdomo and Isaac were led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, and while they await sentencing, their attorneys maintain that their clients were wrongly convicted.
“We move for a new trial, and we will file an appeal,” Ted Mastos, Perdomo’s attorney, said.
“Shocked. Disappointed,” Walsh said. “I actually believe he’s innocent, but you know, you spin enough deception out there, and there’s a sucker born every minute.”
Marin — the alleged ring leader — does not go on trial until 2020.
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