MMA Fighter Will Testify Against Supermarket Mogul In Murder Case

MIAMI, FL — A Miami-Dade County judge on Friday accepted a plea bargain agreement involving former MMA fighter Ariel "The Panther" Gandulla for his role in the grisly 2011 murder of a man who was allegedly having an affair with the wife of a former co-owner of Presidente Supermarkets.

In exchange for allowing Gandulla to plead guilty to the lesser offense of kidnapping, Gandulla agreed to testify against Manuel Marin, the former co-owner of the supermarket chain who allegedly ordered the slaying.

Prosecutors dropped murder charges against Gandulla, who had been on the run in Canada.

Presidente Supermarkets operates nearly 30 stores from Miami-Dade to Palm Beach County in Florida, according to the company website.

"In 2011, Marin engineered a plot to murder Mr. Salazar after hiring several co-defendants to execute the murder," according to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.

Marin was charged with the murder of his wife's lover after being detained in Spain and sent back to South Florida to face charges seven years after Camilo Salazar's slaying.

Fernandez Rundle said it is important that Salazar's death not be lost in the sensational details of the case.

“The June 1, 2011 torture and murder of 43-year-old Camilo Salazar should not be lost within the notoriety of the alleged perpetrators and the lurid details of the crime," she said on Friday.

"Ariel Gandulla’s guilty plea and his willingness to testify in the forthcoming trials of Manuel Marin, Roberto Isaac and Alexis Vila Perdomo will add important evidentiary pieces to our efforts to bring Camilo Salazar’s alleged killers to justice."

Fernandez Rundle noted that the case has all of the elements of "wealth, infidelity, rage, conspiracy and murder," which she described as the makings of Hollywood movies and tabloid headlines.

"Too often lost in such cases are the basic humanity of the victim, the pain of the victim’s family, and the deep commitment of the Miami-Dade Police Department, my assistant state attorneys and our federal partners, such as Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury, to ensure that justice is properly served," Fernandez Rundle added.