Pierce Hoempler is due in court Oct. 23 after a jury convicted him of killing Hector Rivera and Rivera’s two adult sons.
NORTH MIAMI, Fla. — The man convicted of killing three members of one North Miami family is approaching his next court proceeding, with Pierce Nelson Hoempler due before a judge Oct. 23 as his case shifts from a jury’s guilty verdicts to the question of sentencing.
Hoempler, 36, faces up to three life sentences after being found guilty of first-degree murder for the death of Hector Rivera, 57, and second-degree murder for killing Rivera’s sons, Frank Rivera, 37, and Jeremy Rivera, 33. Reporting after the September verdict says the Oct. 23 proceeding will be used to set the sentencing date. The distinction matters because earlier accounts described Hoempler simply as scheduled for sentencing that day. As of Oct. 21, a final sentence has not been imposed or publicly reported.
The convictions followed a case in which witnesses and physical evidence repeatedly became central to the dispute over whether Hoempler had acted in self-defense. Court records show responding officers found the three victims several yards apart in the courtyard of the apartment complex. A medical examiner later testified that wounds suffered by Frank and Jeremy were potentially consistent with the brothers turning away as they were shot. Hector Rivera suffered multiple gunshot wounds in addition to injuries associated with the physical confrontation that occurred before the gunfire. All three victims were unarmed.
Those findings were considered alongside the account of a neighbor who saw much of the confrontation develop. Andrew Wint testified during a pretrial hearing that he was working on a vehicle when Hector Rivera confronted Hoempler outside the apartment building on Nov. 13, 2023. The men argued and fought on the lawn. Hoempler eventually got on top of Rivera, according to testimony summarized in a later appellate opinion. When Frank and Jeremy Rivera arrived, they went toward their father. Wint said he noticed a firearm behind Hoempler and tried to warn the brothers about it.
According to Wint, Hoempler then drew the handgun and the Rivera men moved away after seeing it. Wint retreated inside his own home because he feared for his family. From there he heard a rapid series of gunshots. The firing stopped briefly before he heard an additional shot. The exact positions of the men and whether Hoempler faced an imminent threat would later become crucial questions as his lawyers sought to prevent prosecution under Florida self-defense law. A trial judge eventually found that the evidence did not support Hoempler’s claim that he was being rushed when he fired.
The dispute in the courtyard had begun after another encounter away from the apartment. Laritza Cruz, a close friend of Hector Rivera, testified that she had been walking home from work when Hoempler followed her slowly on a bicycle and verbally harassed her. She said he also made a threat involving a firearm. Cruz called Rivera. He was with his two young grandchildren at the time, and the children heard the conversation and saw him become upset. Rivera then drove to the complex and went to Hoempler’s door. The trial judge later said Cruz’s testimony could be considered for the limited purpose of explaining how the confrontation started.
The argument at the door became a physical fight. Hector Rivera and Hoempler ended up on the ground, and Hoempler was seen pinning Rivera. Frank and Jeremy then arrived to help their father. Minutes later, the three Riveras had been shot. Hector and Jeremy died at the apartment complex. Frank was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where he later died. The killings transformed an argument between neighbors into a triple-homicide investigation and left Frank Rivera’s two young sons without their father, uncle and grandfather.
Hoempler did not flee the legal issue of justification after the gunfire. He called 911 and told the operator three men were down, saying he had fired because he was rushed. Police body-camera footage from his arrest also recorded him asserting that he had acted because he believed he had no choice. His lawyers later made that claim the basis of a formal request for immunity from prosecution. The defense argued that Florida’s self-defense laws protected Hoempler from being tried for the killings.
A Miami-Dade judge rejected the immunity request after a two-day hearing. The court found that the evidence showed the Riveras were at a distance from Hoempler and were turning or moving away rather than attacking him when he fired. Hoempler challenged that decision in Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal. The appellate judges declined to intervene in March 2025, finding no legal error that justified stopping the prosecution and concluding that the trial court’s factual findings were supported by the record.
The case then proceeded toward a jury trial before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Miguel de la O. Defense attorney Carlos Gonzalez continued to rely on self-defense, including Hoempler’s assertion that the men had rushed him. Prosecutors countered with the lack of weapons on the victims and evidence concerning the direction in which the men were moving when the shots were fired. The jury returned one first-degree murder verdict and two second-degree murder verdicts. Those decisions established Hoempler’s criminal responsibility and ended the self-defense argument as a basis for acquittal at trial.
For prosecutors, the verdict was also the end of a case that had moved through multiple levels of Florida’s court system. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle highlighted the effect on Frank Rivera’s two sons, who were 8 and 10 when the shootings occurred. Her office said Felony Division Chief Elizabeth Utset and Assistant State Attorney Casey Hughes prosecuted the case. Rundle said she hoped the verdict could provide the Rivera family some sense of closure, while recognizing that no court result could undo the deaths.
The different murder convictions carry the case into its final trial-court stage. First-degree and second-degree murder are separate offenses under Florida law, and the sentencing court will address punishment based on the convictions entered against Hoempler. Published reports state that he could receive as many as three life sentences. The court has not yet publicly completed that step, making Friday’s hearing the immediate confirmed development rather than a final sentencing result.
Nearly three years after police filled the North Miami apartment courtyard and relatives gathered to learn what had happened, the basic legal questions have changed. Investigators first had to determine who fired the shots. Judges later had to decide whether self-defense immunity barred prosecution. Jurors then had to decide whether Hoempler was criminally responsible for the three deaths. Those questions have now been answered against him. What remains is the punishment Judge de la O will impose and the date on which that sentence will become final at the trial-court level.
Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.