NORTH MIAMI, Fla. – North Miami police Officer Jonathan Aledda was back in court Thursday for the first day of his retrial in the shooting of mental health therapist Charles Kinsey.
Aledda now faces two counts of attempted manslaughter and one count of culpable negligence after a previous jury acquitted him on another count of culpable negligence related to the 2016 shooting.
The jury could not reach a decision on the other three counts, which led to a new trial being set.
"This trial is about an unarmed and disabled boy playing with a toy and the one and only police officer who's sitting right there tried to kill him," the prosecutor said.
"We're asking you to keep an open mind, listen to all the evidence and I think you will come to the same conclusion that we always have said: He shouldn't have ever been charged and he is not guilty," Aledda's attorney said.
Video of the shooting made national headlines.
Arnaldo Rios, then 26, escaped from the group home where Kinsey worked as his caretaker.
Rios, who has severe autism, ended up sitting in the middle of Northeast 127th Avenue at 14th Street with a silver toy truck in his hands.
Kinsey sat beside him to calm him down. But when witnesses called police reporting a man with a gun, things escalated.
As the state's first witness once again, Kinsey recalled the moment he was shot by Aledda, who fired three shots at Rios, one of which hit Kinsey in the leg.
Kinsey testified that neither he nor Rios were armed at the time of the shooting.