A manslaughter charge has been dropped against Miami-Dade Police Officer Jose Mateo, one of the several officers indicted in a 2019 shootout that led to the death of a UPS delivery driver, after a judge sided with his motion to dismiss the case based on Florida’s “stand your ground law”.
The Broward County Judge Ernest Kollra handed out an order Thursday saying “after applying the statutory in case law to the facts of this case and determining the credibility of the witnesses who testified, the court finds the fact in testimony to support the application of immunity under Florida’s ‘stand your ground law.”
Adding, “the court finds that the state has not established, by clear and convincing evidence, that the defendant did not have a reasonable belief to use deadly force and it was necessary to prevent imminent death of his own.”
The charges stemmed from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement saying that the bullets that hit 27-year-old UPS driver, Frank Ordonez were fired by each of the indicted officers.
Civilian Richard Cutshaw was also fatally struck by the gunfire.
It all unfolded when investigators said 41-year-old Lamar Alexander and 41-year-old Ronnie Jerome Hill robbed the Regent Jewelers store in Coral Gables before hijacking the UPS driven Ordonez and led police on a multi-county chase that ended near the busy intersection of Miramar Parkway and Flamingo Road.
The trial played out in court over the course of several weeks, with the prosecution and defense calling a wide array of witnesses to the stand, including bystanders, a FDLE agent and a MDSO sergeant, deputy, and pilot.
7News has reached out to the State Attorney’s Office and Mateo’s attorney, Richard Diaz, for comment.
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