Ex-cop convicted of shooting autistic man’s therapist must report to a probation officer
For shooting at an unarmed autistic man, exNorth Miami police officer Jonathon Aledda avoided jail when a judge sentenced him to something called “administrative probation.” That means he would go unmonitored — not even having to report to a probation officer.
Turns out, the sentence was illegal.
The reason: Florida judges can’t sentence anyone to administrative probation. So Aledda on Wednesday returned to court, and Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Alan Fine had no choice but to change it to regular probation, which means the former officer will have to regularly check in with a probation officer.
Aledda was first sentenced this month for the July 2016 shooting that outraged South Florida and roiled the North Miami police department.
The 33-year-old was fired and is now living in upstate Florida. Judge Fine allowed Aledda to skip paying costs associated with probation supervision.
He was convicted of misdemeanor culpable negligence for shooting three times at Arnaldo Rios Soto, a severely autistic 26-year-old man who was holding a shiny silver toy truck. He missed Soto, but instead hit Charles Kinsey, an unarmed behavioral therapist who was laying on the ground with his hands in the air, begging police not to shoot.
Aledda, at his trial in June, testified that he believed Soto had a gun and was holding Kinsey hostage in the middle of a North Miami street. A motorist had called 911 to report a man who she believed might be holding a gun to his head.
Prosecutors argued that Aledda fired in haste, ignoring a radio dispatch from another cop who had determined the toy was not a weapon.
The jury acquitted Aledda of two felony counts of attempted manslaughter but convicted on the misdemeanor. Prosecutors asked Fine to sentence him to 30 days in jail, plus 11 months of probation, and to leave the conviction intact on his criminal record.
Instead, the judge sentenced him to the one year of administrative probation and 100 hours of community service and ordered him to write a 2,500-word essay on communication and weapon discharges. He also granted Aledda a “withhold of adjudication,” which means Aledda’s conviction will not appear on his criminal record.
A Palm Beach County man illegally exported hundreds of AR-15 parts to a weapons-trafficking organization in Argentina, authorities said.
On Thursday, Cristian Barrera, 47, was charged with conspiracy to violate and attempted violations of the Arms Export Control
Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami.
Barrera illegally exported hundreds of AR-15 assaultrifle parts to Argentina without a required license from the State Department, authorities said. Homeland Security agents in Miami and Argentina worked together to collect a slew of gun and firearm parts.
Search warrants in Florida and Argentina resulted in the seizure of about 52 AR-15s, 189 long arms, 156 handguns, one mortar round, one hand grenade, over 30,000 rounds of assorted caliber ammunition, five vehicles, and $110,000 in cash.
On June 26, Argentina’s National Gendarmeria, the country’s military force, conducted an operation that led to the arrest of several suspects and the seizure of thousands of firearms and explosive materials.
In late June, thousands of assault-style weapons and explosives shipped through the mail from South Florida to South America were seized. This included more than 2,500 AR-15s, handguns, and grenades, along with some military-grade aircraft and tank weaponry.