A California man was killed hours after a jury mistakenly set him free from jail by signing the wrong verdict form.

Bobby Lee Pearson, 37, along with Terrel Minnieweather, 31, of Fresno was accused of burglarizing a home last May and stealing a video system and gun. On Wednesday, a jury found Minnieweather guilty of residential burglary and grand theft but then accidentally declared Pearson not guilty on all charges by signing the wrong court form, SFGate.com reported.

As a result, Pearson was let out of prison and went to his sister's house to pick up his belongings. However, once there he got into a fight with his sister's boyfriend, 35-year-old Willie Gray, who police believed murdered him that same day.

Prosecutor William Terrence said that, despite the bizarre chain of events that led to Pearson's release, Pearson didn't deserve to die.

"There's not a death penalty on a burglary," Terrence said, according to The Associated Press. "I'm not sitting here thinking he got what he deserved."

The two had a history of problems, Fresno police Chief Jerry Dyer said, adding that Pearson was found dead in the street near a steak knife.

Gray was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder. However, according to Dyer, Pearson might still be alive if it weren't for the jury's "mishap."

Terrence, who said that he is still trying to understand the jury's confusion, stated that both he and the judge explained the verdict forms in closing arguments.

"I can't believe it," Judge W. Kent Hamlin in Superior Court said in response to the jury's confusion that led to Pearson's premature release. "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."