TALLAHASSEE -- An appeal court cited a 2005 Florida Supreme Court ruling Tuesday in reversing a first-degree murder conviction for the death of a 2-year-old child.

But the three-judge panel Tuesday asked the justices to take another look at their decision, which applies to non-premeditated murders resulting from child abuse.

The 1st District Court of Appeal judges in a two-to-one decision also reversed Robert Sturdivant's aggravated child abuse conviction and his sentence of life in prison without parole.

The panel, instead, ordered that he be adjudicated guilty of second-degree murder and resentenced. The maximum is life, but parole is possible.

Sturdivant was convicted of killing his girlfriend's son in Springfield, a Panama City suburb, in 2007.