LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas man who had previously been found guilty in the death of a bicyclist has been acquitted after he had appealed his original conviction and was retried.

Justin Van Smith had been found guilty in May by a Little Rock judge and sentenced to 10 months in jail in the October 2017 death of 30-year-old Vincent Lynell Tio Jackson.

Smith, 48 appealed the verdict and the case was sent back before a jury last week in Pulaski County Circuit Court. Jurors acquitted him on Thursday, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported .

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Prosecutors had alleged Smith had been driving a big rig in Little Rock which was dangerously overloaded when it struck Jackson. Smith was trying to pass Jackson but got too close, authorities said.

Smith’s lawyers, Will Wisdom and Lisa Walton-Middleton, told jurors Jackson’s death was a tragedy that Smith could not have prevented. Smith’s lawyers criticized the police investigation, alleging it was based conjecture with no scientific basis.

“He gave him the room, and he doesn’t know why this tragedy happened,” Wisdom said. “He stopped to help. He did everything he was supposed to do.”