(CNN)A South Florida appeals court Wednesday overturned the conviction of a former North Miami Police Department officer who was found guilty of negligence for
shooting an autistic man's caretaker in 2016, court documents show.
Florida's Third District Court of Appeal
overturned a "conviction for misdemeanor culpable negligence" for Jonathan Aledda after determining it was invalid because prosecutors did not allow testimony during a June 2019 trial from the SWAT commander who trained Aledda, the documents show.
In a statement emailed to CNN, Florida State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said the decision is "disappointing to all who believed that this shooting incident was unnecessary and incorrect." The office may ask the appeals court for a re-hearing, the statement continued.
Eric Schwartzreich and Anthony Bruno, attorneys for Aledda, told CNN, "We look forward to the State dropping the charges or in the alternative to Mr. Aledda being found not guilty."
In July 2016, Aledda was one of 13 officers who responded to a call about a man with a gun, court documents show. When officers arrived, they encountered Arnaldo Rios-Soto, a man with severe developmental disabilities, and his caretaker Charles Kinsey in the middle of an intersection, according to court documents.