Trial begins for man accused of 2015 Lehigh Acres triple homicide

Brian Hyde (Photo via Lee County Sheriff’s Office)

A trial began Tuesday morning for a 22-year-old man accused of murdering three people in 2015.

Brian Hyde, 22, is accused of killing his aunt Dorla Pitts, then 37, cousin Starlette Pitts, then 17, and Starlette’s boyfriend Michael Kelly Jr, then 19. Starlette Pitts was six months pregnant.

Detectives called the killing of the Lehigh Acres family extremely violent.

Hyde is from Belize, where a TV station there says this isn’t Hyde’s first encounter with the law. Reports show Hyde was a person of interest in a double murder in 2013, but was never charged.

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