Pearson, a defendant in a Central California burglary case, walked out of a courtroom a free man after a jury mistakenly... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police rope off the scene where burglary defendant Bobby Lee Pearson was stabbed to death after walking out of a courtroom following a jury's mistake Thursday, June 12, 2014 in Fresno, Calif. Pearson... (Associated Press) 
 
 The jury in the trial of Bobby Lee Pearson, 37, mistakenly signed a not-guilty form Wednesday, and the flabbergasted judge said he had no choice but to order him to be released from jail because the verdict had already been put on the record. "I can't believe it," said Superior Court Judge W. Kent Hamlin after setting Pearson free, according to The Fresno Bee. He was taken to Community Regional Medical Center where he died from his wounds shortly after arriving.During the investigation, police said Pearson went to his mother's house after leaving the jail and got into a fight with his sister's boyfriend Willie Gray. Judge Kent Hamlin had read instructions to them, including one saying that if they couldn't reach a unanimous decision, they should send the judge a note and not sign any verdict forms. That's allowed to come into evidence in a trial. It was later found that eight jurors actually believed Pearson was guilty of the burglary, but because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the law explained to them, they entered a not guilty verdict and even confirmed it when the judge polled them.It turns out, the jury couldn't reach a unanimous decision when it came to Pearson, but two-thirds of them thought he was guilty.
– Bobby Lee Pearson got what was probably the luckiest break of his life on Wednesday when a jury mistakenly set him free after a burglary trial. It soon turned into the unluckiest break of his life: An hour into his accidental freedom, he got fatally attacked, reports ABC30 in Fresno. The strange chain of events began when jurors couldn't reach a unanimous verdict about Pearson. Eight thought he was guilty and four didn't, and at that point—as the judge had explained to them—they should have sent a note saying they were deadlocked. Instead, they signed a not-guilty form. Judge W. Kent Hamlin learned of the mistake only after the verdict had been read into the public record and had to release the career criminal, reports the Fresno Bee. Otherwise, Hamlin would have declared a mistrial and ordered Pearson held for a second trial. "I can't believe it," he said in court. "I can't change it because double jeopardy has already attached. This has never happened to me in more than 100 jury trials that I have done." Upon being released at 11:57pm Wednesday, Pearson went to his mother's house to collect some belongings and got into a fight with his sister's boyfriend, say police. He was stabbed, with a steak knife found next to his body, and was pronounced dead around 1:25am. "There's not a death penalty on a burglary," the prosecutor in Pearson's case tells AP. "I'm not sitting here thinking he got what he deserved." (Click for another unusual courtroom story.)