A 63-year-old man was reportedly killed after being punched by a soap opera star following a road rage incident.
He’s accused of punching Juan Ricardo Hernandez, who fell down and suffered a fatal brain injury, according to the newspaper.
Lyle, once named one of the “most beautiful” people by People en Espanol, was in Miami and was traveling to the Miami International Airport with his family before his car cut off another vehicle on the Dolphin Expressway. When the two vehicles stopped at a light, the driver of the other car, Hernandez, stepped out and banged on a window of Lyle’s car.
The soap star’s brother-in-law stepped out of his vehicle and told Hernandez, “Don’t bang on my window, don’t bang on my window.” Hernandez, he said, was “real aggressive” and was cursing.
The brother-in-law, who was not named, saw his vehicle rolling toward the intersection before running back to stop it.
He didn’t see a physical confrontation between Hernandez and Lyle, the Herald reported. When he got back in the car, Lyle told him to “drive away.”
Then, he saw Hernandez lying in the street when he made a U-turn, according to the report.
Following the incident, the victim was described as “unresponsive” and “intubated” at the time of Lyle’s arrest, said police.
The attack took place on April 1, and the victim died on April 4, according to the report.
The Herald reported that on April 1, Lyle posted bond and was allowed to return to Mexico.
However, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Lisa Walsh said on April 5 that “this Court has become aware by reading The Miami Herald today that the victim of this battery has died and enhanced charges are likely to be filed.”
“Based on this change of circumstances, this Court is rescinding the travel order,” Walsh said.
Other details about the case are not clear.
It is unclear if Lyle has an attorney.
In the arrest affidavit, Lyle told police investigators that he feared for his family’s safety and thought that Hernandez was going to hit him first.
Violent Crime Declined
In September 2018, the FBI said Americans committed fewer violent and property crimes across the United States in 2017, according to statistics. The violent crime rate—including offenses such as murder, robbery, and aggravated assault—dropped by almost 1 percent although it is still about 4 percent above the 2014 rate. The murder rate dropped by 0.7 percent.“There were more than 1.2 million violent crimes reported to [the FBI] nationwide in 2017. There was a 0.7 percent decrease in murders and a 4 percent decrease in robberies from 2016 to 2017. Aggravated assaults increased 1 percent in 2017. The FBI began collecting data solely on an updated rape definition last year, and 135,755 rapes were reported to law enforcement in 2017,” the agency said.
Of the estimated 17,284 murders in 2017, more than half occurred in larger cities—with populations of more than 100,000.
There are fewer than 300 such cities in the United States, and while they account for less than 30 percent of the country’s population, many of them contribute far beyond their share to national crime rates and have done so for years, even decades.
While the national murder rate inched down to 5.3 per 100,000 residents, it spiked by 15 percent in Philadelphia, to a rate of more than 20 per 100,000 residents. Columbus, Ohio, saw a massive 54 percent murder rate increase, reaching nearly 16.3 per 100,000 residents.
