Man charged with killing Rickenbacker cyclist takes the stand. Claims self-defense
The man charged with killing a cyclist in an early morning shooting on the Rickenbacker Causeway in 2019 said during cross-examination by prosecutors on Friday that he pulled the trigger in self-defense.
Kadel Piedrahita is accused of shooting Alex Palencia that August during a run-in that took place as a large group of cyclists was riding from South Miami to Key Biscayne and back.
Piedrahita was riding alongside the group on his motorcycle and was captured on video shooting Palencia after an altercation between the two men led them to get off their bikes and confront each other.
He faces charges of second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a firearm.
During questioning by prosecutors, Piedrahita said he grabbed his gun because he was being jumped by several cyclists. “I received several punches in the face that day,” said Piedrahita in Spanish, speaking through an interpreter.
He insisted that he only fired because Palencia had a gun – though the only firearm recovered from the scene that morning was the handgun Piedrahita brought in his own bag.
Piedrahita’s attorney previously told the jury that the “gun had to have been taken out of there” by someone else on the causeway that morning.
“It was removed from the scene before police officers even arrived,” defense attorney Yanelis Zamora said last week.
During cross-examination, Assistant State Attorney Arvind Singh noted that Piedrahita told jurors during his testimony that he immediately put his gun back inside his backpack after the shooting.
“If that’s true, that Alexis Palencia was still alive on the ground … [and] had a gun in his hand, why weren’t you worried that he was going to shoot you,” Singh asked.
Piedrahita said by the time he put his gun away, he felt safe.
Once the prosecutors and defense attorneys had finished questioning and the jurors had stepped out, Zamora asked the judge if they could bring back one of the witnesses, as they insisted there was a second gun.
“Apparently it was an invisible gun, because he’s the only one who saw it,” said Judge Alberto Milian. “There’s no other witness that saw the gun, no other person that’s testified in this matter in the last five years.”
The judge denied their request.
Boiling point
Piedrahita, 41 at the time of the shooting, and Palencia, 49, were no strangers.
Both were regulars of the Don Pan riders, a group of cyclists that took early morning rides to Key Biscayne, departing from the South Miami location of a bakery of the same name.
The two men had been in a long-running, escalating feud. Piedrahita said Friday that Palencia had been harassing and threatening him, but in court, prosecutors played a profanity-laced Facebook Live post from days prior to the shooting in which Piedrahita threatened Palencia.
“You said that you wanted to break Alexis Palencia in two,” Singh said to Piedrahita.”You said ‘Just touch me so I can get even with my anger.’”
Piedrahita told the jury he had only made those remarks on Facebook Live because he could not get in touch with Palencia and that he was only repeating the words that Palencia had previously said to him.
The morning of the ride, Piedrahita, an avid cyclist himself, joined the ride on his motorcycle at the request of his son, who had purchased new wheels. Together, they frequently rode with the Don Pan group.
Piedrahita testified that he did not start the ride with the Don Pan group at the bakery that day. Instead, he later caught up with them on his motorcycle, camera in hand, as he often did to capture their rides on film.
At some point during the ride, Piedrahita pulled up next to Palencia, and the two engaged each other before Piedrahita’s motorcycle came to a stop. Prosecutors said Piedrahita tried to kick Palencia, but Piedrahita told jurors that he only stuck his foot out to maintain his balance, and that he didn’t make contact with the cyclist.
When Piedrahita laid his motorcycle down, Palencia also stopped and got off of his bike. Several other cyclists, including Piedrahita’s son, also stopped.
Piedrahita got up and ran to the other side of the highway, where Palencia was located. A confrontation ensued. Piedrahita says Palencia and two other cyclists began hitting him, though prosecutors questioned that account on Friday.
Singh showed pictures of Piedrahita taken on the day of the alleged attack and asked Piedrahita to point out where he had been injured. Piedrahita said that while there were no obvious, visible injuries on his face, he said his face was in pain and the inside of his mouth was injured.
