MIAMI (WSVN) - A North Miami Police officer who shot an unarmed behavioral therapist in 2016 took the witness stand ahead of closing statements in his retrial.
Officer Jonathan Aledda faces two manslaughter charges and a culpable negligence charge after he shot Charles Kinsey in the leg.
“He relied on all these erroneous assumptions that he had that were layer, after layer, after layer, and every assumption he made was just flat out wrong,” prosecutor Don Horn said.
Viral cellphone video captured Kinsey lying on his back with his hands in the air while his client with autism played with a sliver toy truck.
“All he has is a toy truck,” Kinsey said in the viral video. “A toy truck. I am a behavior therapist at a group home.”
On Monday, Aledda took the witness stand in his defense.
“It appeared to me that it was a threat, and there’s nothing denying the feelings I had that day, sir,” Aledda testified. “Nothing can change that. I thought the white male had a gun, that was now loaded, was getting angry at the black male, who he was holding hostage against his will.”
The 33-year-old officer would fire his weapon three times.
He was the only officer on the scene that fired his weapon.
When prosecutors told Aledda that everything he thought that day was wrong, Aledda said, “I found that out after the fact, sir.”
Aledda was acquitted of a culpable negligence charge during his first trial that ended in March.
Before the second trial began, he turned down a plea deal that would have given him one year of probation and taken away his credentials to work as a police officer in Florida.
Defense Attorney Jay Kolsky told the jury, “Now, the issue before you is simple. Has the state proved to you beyond the exclusion of every reasonable doubt that Jonathan Aledda is a common criminal? That’s the issue. His actions were to save the life of an individual that day. He was performing his duties as a sworn police officer to protect and serve, had to make a split-second decision and made it.”
Jury deliberation is set to begin at around 6 p.m., Monday.
If convicted, Aledda could face up to 60 years in prison.
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