Two children witnessed a confrontation that took their father, uncle and grandfather before a jury convicted the North Miami gunman.
NORTH MIAMI, Fla. — The September murder verdict against Pierce Nelson Hoempler resolved a criminal trial nearly three years after three members of the Rivera family were killed outside their North Miami apartment complex, but it also brought renewed attention to two children who lost three close relatives in a single afternoon.
Hoempler, 36, was convicted of first-degree murder for killing Hector Rivera, 57, and second-degree murder in the deaths of Hector’s adult sons, Frank Rivera, 37, and Jeremy Rivera, 33. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said after the verdict that Frank Rivera’s sons, then ages 8 and 10, were present when the shootings occurred. In a matter of moments, she said, the children lost their father, their uncle and their grandfather. Hoempler now faces up to three life sentences, with an Oct. 23 hearing expected to determine the timing of sentencing.
The family dimension was present even before the gunfire. Court records show Hector Rivera’s two young grandchildren were with him on Nov. 13, 2023, when he received a call from a close friend, Laritza Cruz. Cruz later testified in a pretrial hearing that she had encountered Hoempler while walking home from work and called Rivera afterward. The children overheard the conversation and saw their grandfather become upset, according to the appellate record. Rivera then drove to the apartment complex, where he went to Hoempler’s door. The children remained nearby as an argument between the two neighbors became physical.
The confrontation drew more members of the family into the scene. A neighbor, Andrew Wint, testified that Rivera and Hoempler argued and began fighting in the yard. At one point, Hoempler was on top of Rivera. Frank and Jeremy arrived as the struggle was unfolding and moved toward their father. Wint said he noticed a handgun tucked behind Hoempler and tried to warn the brothers. His testimony later became significant because he described Frank and Jeremy as going around Hoempler to reach Hector rather than attacking Hoempler. After the gun came out, Wint said, the three Rivera men created distance between themselves and Hoempler.
Wint went inside because he feared for his own family. He then heard multiple shots in quick succession, followed by a pause and another shot, according to the court record. Responding officers found the victims spread across the apartment courtyard. Hector Rivera and Jeremy Rivera died at the scene. Frank Rivera was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center and later died. None of the three men was armed. Medical testimony presented during later proceedings also indicated that injuries to Frank and Jeremy could be consistent with them turning away when they were shot.
Hoempler’s account was different. After the shooting, he called 911 and reported that three men were down, telling the operator that he had fired after being rushed. Police body-camera video recorded during his arrest also showed him arguing that he had no choice. That claim was not simply an explanation offered at the scene; it became the main legal defense in a case that would move through both the trial court and a Florida appeals court before jurors ever heard the murder charges.
Before trial, Hoempler asked a judge to dismiss the prosecution under Florida laws that can provide immunity when deadly force is lawfully used in self-defense. The trial judge held a two-day hearing and heard from prosecution witnesses, including Wint and a medical examiner. The judge denied immunity. The ruling found that the evidence did not show the Riveras rushing Hoempler when he fired and instead supported a finding that they were separated from him and moving or turning away. The judge also concluded there was no imminent threat that would justify deadly force under the circumstances described in the hearing.
Hoempler then took the issue to the Third District Court of Appeal. In March 2025, the appellate panel declined to prevent prosecutors from taking the case to trial. The judges said the lower court’s factual findings had support in the evidence and found no legal error that required intervention. The ruling did not decide Hoempler’s ultimate guilt; that remained for the criminal trial. It did, however, mean that he could not avoid prosecution based on the immunity claim he had presented before trial.
When the case reached a jury in 2026, defense attorney Carlos Gonzalez again argued self-defense and pointed to Hoempler’s statement that the men had rushed him. Prosecutors focused on the fact that all three Riveras were unarmed and on evidence concerning where the men were positioned when they were shot. The jury returned guilty verdicts on all three killings, finding Hoempler guilty of the most serious charged degree in Hector Rivera’s death and of second-degree murder in the deaths of Frank and Jeremy. The verdict meant jurors rejected the claim that the shootings were legally justified.
For the Rivera family, the legal process followed years of grief that began before investigators had finished processing the North Miami courtyard. News footage from the immediate aftermath showed relatives and friends embracing and crying as police remained at the apartment complex. The unusual scale of the loss was evident from the start: a father and two adult sons had died in the same dispute, while younger members of the family were left to absorb the deaths of three relatives at once. Hector Rivera, who was originally from Puerto Rico, had spent much of his life working in construction and was remembered in an obituary as a loving father and loyal friend.
The prosecution’s public statement after the verdict placed that loss at the center of its response. Rundle described the killings as senseless and said she hoped the outcome could give the family some measure of closure. The verdict could not reverse what the children and other relatives witnessed or lost, but it established criminal responsibility after almost three years of motions, hearings, appeals and trial preparation. It also moved the case from a dispute over what happened in the courtyard to a narrower question for the court: what punishment will follow the jury’s findings.
That next step has not yet been completed. Although some early coverage described Hoempler as scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 23, later reporting states that the Oct. 23 proceeding is a hearing at which his sentencing date is expected to be set. He remains convicted of three murders and faces as many as three life sentences. Until the court imposes sentence, the September verdict remains the latest completed milestone in a case that began with one family arriving to help one another and ended with three of its members dead.
Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.