MIAMI (WSVN) - It was a big day in the murder trial of a man accused in the fatal 2019 shooting of a bicyclist on the Rickenbacker Causeway, as the defendant took the stand.
7News cameras captured Kadel Piedrahita, once again with a sling around his left arm, as he walked into a Miami courtroom on Thursday for the fifth day of his murder trial.
Piedrahita, 46, is accused of shooting and killing 48-year-old Alexis Palencia on the causeway on Aug. 14, 2019.
The defendant was on his motorcycle next to a group of cyclists at the time.
Piedrahita spoke in Spanish while on the stand Thursday. He said he had prior problems incidents with Palencia.
“‘Let me tell you something, if you do something to my son, I’m not going to respond,” he said when asked what he said to the victim on the day of the deadly ride.
Moreover, the denfendant said, Palencia hit him prior to the shooting.
“At one point, he hit me,” said Piedrahita.
The suspect later became emotional.He was handed several napkins after he broke down in tears.
While Piedrahita has still not gone into more details, earlier on Thursday, physical evidence from the crime scene was shown to the jury.
Crime scene investigator Roniel Williams removed a handgun from an evidence bag while on the stand
“Yes, this is the weapon that I recovered from the scene,” she said.
In addition to the firearm, the jury was shown a dark colored backpack that belonged to Piedrahita.
“Now, Ms. Williams, you said that on the scene you recovered a backpack, Is this that backpack?” a prosecutor asked Williams.
“Yes, it is,” she said.
Inside the backpack, Williams said, were two magazines and bullets.
“Is this a second magazine that you found in the backpack?” a prosecutor asked Williams.
“Yes, it was,” she said.
Piedrahita’s lawyers have argued that the defendant shot in self-defense, but the state brought forward crime scene investigator Howard Davis, who took photos of Piedrahita when he was detained, shortly after the shooting.
Davis showed the jury a picture of what he said was the defendant’s hands. He said the pictures show no evidence of injury.
The state claims Palencia was unarmed, and the suspect had problems with the victim before the incident even happened.
Days before the shooting, Piedrahita posted an angry video to Facebook where he vowed in Spanish to split Palencia in half. It remains unclear why he was so upset.
The trial is set to resume Friday at 11 a.m.
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