A New Jersey man accused of sexually assaulting a minor cannot face a second trial because a partial verdict may have acquitted him the first time he was tried, a New Jersey appeals court unanimously ruled Thursday.
The three-judge panel’s decision found double jeopardy protections in the Fifth Amendment blocked the retrial of Fredy Hernandez, who a Superior Court judge earlier said must stand before a second jury after the first reached a verdict on one charge against him but deadlocked on the other.
The jury’s partial verdict was not read before the judge declared a mistrial, and it’s unclear whether they declared Hernandez guilty or not guilty, nor is it clear on which charge the jury reached an accord.
“The State cannot retry defendant unless it can demonstrate, with certainty, that the jury did not acquit him of either offense. That demonstration is impossible here,” Appellate Judge Mark Chase wrote for the unanimous panel.
The Fifth Amendment bars the government from trying a person for the same offense more than once, a doctrine called double jeopardy.
An Atlantic County grand jury indicted Hernandez on charges of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child in November 2023.
He was accused of having sex with a 12-year-old girl but disputed her age in court, arguing prosecutors failed to present evidence — like a birth certificate or testimony from her mother — to confirm it.
On their second day of deliberations, the jury told the trial judge they had reached a decision on one charge but deadlocked on the other.
The trial judge did not ask the jury which count they agreed on, nor did it retrieve their verdict sheet. Precedent barred the court from reconvening a jury that had already been dismissed.
“The jury cannot be ordered to return and announce which count it had a verdict on, and it would be mere speculation for us to determine which count the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on,” Chase wrote.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office did not return comment. The Office of the Public Defender called the decision a win for fairness.
“We are pleased that the Appellate Division reaffirmed the constitutional principle that every person is protected against double jeopardy,” Assistant Deputy Public Defender Colin Sheehan, who argued the case. “The constitutional guarantee against being tried twice for the same offense is a fundamental safeguard of fairness in our justice system.”
