Former owner of Presidente supermarkets on trial for tortuous murder of ex-wife’s lover

Two days after the body of his wife’s lover was found with his throat slit and genitals burned, Manuel Marin, the wealthy owner of several Presidente Supermarket stores left his wife, four children, luxurious Lighthouse Point mansion and multimillion-dollar yacht, and all but vanished.

Seven years later, Marin finally surfaced at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain, where the suspected mastermind of the plot that has so far left three associates with lengthy prison terms, was taken into custody by the FBI. He had been considered a fugitive for four years.

This week, state prosecutors seated Marin before jurors and Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Miguel de la O in courtroom 4-1 of the county’s criminal courthouse. He’s facing charges of second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping, which could land him in prison for the rest of his life. It’s the same courtroom where serial killer Ted Bundy was convicted and Jim Morrison, famed front man of The Doors, was found guilty of indecent exposure.

During opening statements Tuesday, Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Jonathan Borst told jurors that the victim, Camilo Salazar was sleeping with Marin’s wife, Jenny Marin, and that her husband believed Salazar deserved the “ultimate” punishment.

“Throat slit. Wrist and hands bound with a belt. Face and hands badly beat, fractured. Set on fire. Camilo Salazar was not just murdered, he was tortured,” Borst said. “This case is about revenge.”

When Borst was done, Manuel Marin’s defense attorney Jose Quinones admitted to jurors that the affair tore the couple apart but also argued that fact was far from proof that his client committed a crime.

“Not a single piece of evidence points to Mr. Marin,” said Quinones. “And no one will come into this courtroom and testify that Mr. Marin killed Salazar.”

Though Manuel Marin is not expected to testify in what could be a lengthy two-week trial, a protege is. Ariel “The Panther” Gandulla, a former MMA fighter who Marin helped get out of Cuba, voluntarily returned to Miami in 2018 after three years on the run in Vancouver, Canada. Gandulla — who admitted to taking part in the kidnapping of Salazar, but says he had nothing to do with the murder — agreed to a 3-year prison term in exchange for his testimony.

Jenny Marin spent almost three hours on the stand on Wednesday. Prosecutors portrayed her as the spurned and submissive wife of the supermarket “boss,” a man who liked to be in control and give orders. The image they painted contrasted with the defense attorney’s attempt to convince jurors that Jenny Marin was manipulative and often got whatever she wanted.

“You told [Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Justin] Funck that you didn’t want to get divorced, but that you didn’t want the affair to end, right?” Quinones asked Jenny Marin.

“Temporarily, you can live a life like that,” she said.

IT BEGAN IN NEW JERSEY

Her romantic history was laid out in court. She had a marketing job and lived in Newark, New Jersey, when she first met her future husband in 1999. They dated for a year. Then Manuel Marin went back to his wife in Miami. Jenny began dating another man and moved to Miami. When that relationship faltered, she became intimately involved with Salazar. But they, too, broke up and she returned to Newark.

In 2004, Manuel Marin showed up at Jenny’s Newark home with his divorce papers and got down on a knee. She accepted his proposal immediately and with it, a big lifestyle change. The couple moved to a penthouse suite facing the ocean in Sunny Isles Beach. By 2008 she had given birth to two boys and they had moved, first, to a home in plush Gables Estates, then to a mansion in Lighthouse Point where they bought the neighboring property, had a second swimming pool and parked their yacht at its dock.

But life wasn’t all it seemed, Jenny Marin said in court. Despite being active socially, she grew “lonely” living with Manuel Marin and once again the romance between her and Salazar blossomed. Her husband caught on to his wife’s lies and common absences. She said it boiled over on Feb. 4, 2011, when she had a doctor’s appointment in Kendall but agreed to first meet Salazar for coffee at Norman Brothers. Her husband followed her there. Then he walked her to his car and drove off angrily, demanding the truth.

“He shouted and asked questions. Why are you still lying to me? Why are you seeing that person? Then he says his name. I was shocked that he knew his middle name,” Jenny Marin said. She told him to slow down and pull over. He did. But her door was too tight against a guardrail to open. So she put the window down and climbed out with her purse and still managed to make her doctor’s appointment.

They didn’t interact much the next few months, Jenny Marin said. Then in late May when Jenny Marin and Salazar were in a Fort Lauderdale hotel room she looked out the window and saw a man on the beach looking their way.

“He was looking up with a camera,” she said.

FATEFUL BIMINI TRIP

On May 29, 2011, the Marin’s and their two children, two others from Manuel Marin’s previous marriage, another couple and Jenny Marin’s father boarded the family yacht and the skipper set sail for Bimini. They were to return May 31, but the weather turned bad. Early the next day on June 1, the yacht departed, with a quick side trip so the kids could swim with some stingrays.

On the yacht Jenny Marin said her husband told her she needed to stop the affair. Then she said he used the Spanish word desgracia, which she took to mean the affair would embarrass her. She said she later learned he meant it could cause “calamity” or “tragedy.”

When the yacht reached the Lighthouse Point home at about 2 p.m., Jenny Marin said her husband said he had to run to one of his stores to take care of something. He returned about 8 p.m. that night. She said he wore the same clothes and though she kept a distance from him, she didn’t notice the smell of alcohol or see any blood.

Police and state prosecutors say Salazar was murdered during those hours. They believe Gandulla, another Cuban wrestler sponsored by Manuel Marin named Alexis Vila Perdomo and Roberto Isaac — who Quinones said is a member of the Latin Kings gang — followed Salazar into Coconut Grove, cuffed him and placed him in a truck. They say Manuel Marin showed up later in his Mercedes with a tarp over the back seat.

They also say that cellphone and cell tower evidence will show that all but Gandulla were at the kill site in a West Miami-Dade field on the edge of the Everglades. Evidence found at the crime scene shows burnt clothing worn by Salazar, the lower half of his body badly burned and deep cuts on his throat. Perdomo and Isaac were found guilty during a 2019 trial, with Perdomo getting a 15-year sentence and Isaac life for Salazar’s murder.

At trial Wednesday, Jenny Marin said she called Salazar repeatedly between June 2 and June 4 and that he never answered. “I was worried,” she said. On June 4, her attorney told her Salazar’s body had been discovered. She said her husband disappeared about that time and that she would soon trace his cellphone to New Jersey, but got no answer when she called. When she checked the family’s safety deposit box, his passport was gone. On June 6, Lighthouse Point police came to her home and said they had found her husband’s car.

Then, Jenny Marin said, her husband finally called her from an international number that she gave police on June 8. “He basically told me he loved me. He wanted to know how the kids were. He said he was working in a kitchen washing dishes.” She said she never asked him where he was.

At trial this week it wasn’t clear if Jenny Marin knew where her husband was. The couple did manage to get divorced with the help of Yadiel Marin, a son from Manuel Marin’s first marriage. In the agreement, between child support and alimony, Jenny Marin received $30,000 a month, the family’s Mercedes and she got to live in the Lighthouse Point home, sell it and keep the profit.

In March 2018, Jenny Marin and her two sons flew to a home they rented in Cuba. Waiting for them there was Manuel Marin. Five months later, he would show up at the Spanish Embassy, be taken into custody and extradited to Miami. When Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Justin Funck asked Jenny Marin if she ever asked her husband “what the hell” he was doing, she said “No.”

“I wanted my kids to see their father,” she said. “It was emotional.”