A New York appeals court has dismissed a 16-year state prison sentence and ordered a new trial for a Dunkirk man accused in 2016 of luring a young boy with disabilities from a store.

In a three-page ruling Friday, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Fourth Department, reversed two convictions against Samuel Saeli — second-degree kidnapping and second-degree kidnapping as a sexually motivated felony.

Saeli was sentenced to state prison by then-acting Chautauqua County Court Judge Paul Wojtaszek in September 2018. The Dunkirk man had been convicted on the kidnapping charges three months prior.

The convictions occurred during Saeli’s second trial, which lasted four days; the first trial ended in a hung jury.

Saeli was accused of kidnapping a 13-year-old boy from the Fredonia Walmart parking lot in August 2016. The victim reportedly entered Saeli’s vehicle and left the parking lot, but was reunited with his family about 40 minutes later near Cushing Street in Fredonia.

In their ruling, the justices said Chautauqua County Court erred in denying Saeli’s motion during the trial when he sought to suppress evidence obtained from a search warrant. The evidence, a portion of his internet searches, was discovered when police used a warrant to go through his cell phone.

In his appeal, Saeli said the search warrant lacked “particularity” in that it wasn’t specific to the internet search history.

The appeals court agreed.

“Here, the search warrant simply stated that the police were directed to search defendant’s cellular phone for ‘digital and/or electronic evidence from August 13, 2016, to August 15, 2016. The warrant … contained no language incorporating any other documents or facts. Significantly, the search of the phone was not restricted by reference to any particular crime. Thus, the search warrant failed to meet the particularity requirement and left discretion of the search to the executing officers.”

The justices state that the court should have suppressed the evidence. “Consequently, we reverse the judgment of conviction and a new trial is granted on both counts,” the ruling states.

The court did reject Saeli’s claim that Wojtaszek erred in denying his challenges to four prospective jurors

According to online records, Saeli is currently incarcerated at the Attica Correctional Facility.

Jason Schmidt, Chautauqua County district attorney, disagreed with the court’s decision.

“We have carefully reviewed the Appellate Division’s decision and believe it is legally incorrect based on controlling precedent,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “We are now preparing a submission to New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, seeking to reverse the decision. We have also contacted Fredonia police and the victim’s family in order to prepare for a retrial of Mr. Saeli in the event we do not obtain relief from the Court of Appeals. We are and will be fully prepared to successfully retry this case should it become necessary.”

After the second trial, the victim’s mother told the OBSERVER newspaper that “justice was served for my boy and our family.” The mother also indicated that her son and Saeli did not know each other.

Saeli initially had been charged with second-degree kidnapping, a class B felony, after video footage showed him leaving Walmart with the boy. The District Attorney’s Office later added the sexually-motivated felony charge after a forensic investigation confirmed the presence of Saeli’s DNA present on the boy and his clothing.

During the trial, Saeli’s defense argued that the Dunkirk man had met the victim and his family at a party prior to the abduction and that they had known each other. When Saeli saw the boy by himself at Walmart they hugged and shared a high-five.

During closing arguments, the DA’s office questioned why Saeli took the boy from the store. “Why hide (the boy) for almost 40 minutes?” Andrew Molitor with the DA’s office asked the jury.

Molitor also reminded jurors of Saeli’s internet search history, which revealed that soon after he was released on bail for the kidnapping arrest, he searched for DNA evidence in regards to oral sex.