FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A Broward County jury reached a not-guilty verdict Tuesday in the manslaughter case involving a man who testified that he wanted to protect his mother not kill her.
The jury did not side with the detectives and prosecutors who blamed Alexander Deltoro for his 60-year-old mother’s death during a domestic violence tragedy in Margate.
The fatal shooting was just after Deltoro celebrated his 28th birthday dinner with his family on Dec. 14, 2019. There was a conflict in the car that continued at home.
“He took that firearm from his waistband because he was aggravated,” Broward County Assistant State Attorney Courtney Eliza DePersio said on Monday during her closing argument in Broward County Circuit Judge Lorena V. Mastrarrigo’s courtroom.
Attorney Ron Baum defended Deltoro, who testified that he pulled out the gun because he believed his father was armed and was a threat to him and his mother.
“It was an accident, but it’s the why and the how,” Baum said during his closing argument.
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Detectives arrested Deltoro on Dec. 15, 2014, and prosecutors filed the case against him for manslaughter, a first-degree felony; carrying a concealed firearm, a third-degree felony; and battery, a first-degree misdemeanor.
“There wasn’t a second firearm,” DePersio said in court.
County court records show Deltoro’s arraignment was on Jan. 16, 2020, and Broward County Sheriff’s Office correctional deputies released him a day later on a $40,000 bond.
Last year, Deltoro’s defense claimed it was a self-defense shooting, but the judge sided with the prosecution and denied the Stand Your Ground motion to dismiss the case.
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Deltoro testified during his trial and Baum helped to reenact what he said happened.
“When I went to raise the gun, that’s when he came in and he smacked the gun out of my hand, and that’s when it went off,” Deltoro said in court.
The defense explained why Deltoro had reported different versions about how his mother, Cindy Deltoro was fatally shot in the head.
“If his mother makes it and he throws his father under the bus by telling the truth and then Cindy gets upset with him because her husband is back in prison,” Baum said in court.