Jun 3, 2013 By Nancy Blake for The 4 min read

COMONFORT, Mexico — A Greene County man’s conviction in Mexico in the 2003 killing of a 16-year-old boy was vacated last week.

An appeals court there annulled Dylan Ryan Johnson’s sentence, and returned the case to a lower court for a second trial. The judge’s decision was based on the perception that Johnson’s civil rights were violated because he was not granted sufficient consular visits, which he is entitled to under international law.

The retrial means Mexican prosecutors can attempt to convict Johnson, 30, of Nemacolin, of aggravated murder and rape of the teenager. Shortly after Johnson’s extradition to Mexico to faces those charges earlier this year, the rape charge was dropped, and the killing was reduced to a simple murder charge. A judge convicted Johnson of simple homicide — analogous to voluntary manslaughter in the U.S. — in April, and sentenced him to 13 years in prison.

The rape charge was dismissed and the homicide charge reduced because of lack of evidence. The local prosecutor appealed the reduction in charges but neglected to make the necessary court appearance to follow through with that appeal, so Johnson only went to trial on the simple homicide charge.

Johnson was extradited from the U.S. to Mexico in December, accused of sexually assaulting and killing Hilario Garcia Rosales at a hotel in Empalme Escobedo, a small village in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato. Johnson, who maintains his innocence, has said he spent the summer of 2003 helping his mother build a home near that town but was unaware a murder had occurred, and left Mexico because his tourist visa had expired. Police charged that he fled the country after he killed Rosales.

After the appeals court vacated the sentence, the lower court jurist who sentenced Johnson, Judge Marta Lopez Vargas, ordered that Johnson be brought to her office to make a phone call to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, at which point Johnson’s public defender, Rocio Medina, asked for his immediate release. The judge denied that request.

Johnson will be retried through written arguments. The documents are presented to the judge, who makes her decision behind closed doors. In this “inquisitorial” system — as opposed to the “adversarial” system used in the U.S. — there are no oral arguments by the defense and prosecution, no cross-examination of witnesses and no jury.

With the help of a translator, Johnson’s public defender asked him if he would like to appeal the decision to retry him and provided the paperwork for him to do so. The appeal will run concurrently with the new trial. Medina said she does not expect a different outcome as there is no new evidence and the same 13-year-old witness testimony provided by the prosecution will be presented to the same judge. Because Johnson cannot afford a private attorney, Medina will continue to represent him. The public defender expressed surprise at the appellate judge’s decision, but was not surprised that the case would be retried as opposed to dismissed.

Medina said she believes it will probably be another four months before a decision is reached.

Certified copies of the decision have been sent to the immigration services, the U.S. consul and the prison in San Miguel de Allende, where Johnson is being housed.

The distinction between citizens arrested abroad and those extradited remains murky, and though the U.S. State Department acknowledges that one of its most important tasks is to provide assistance to U.S. citizens incarcerated abroad, Johnson said he has received very little assistance. He said he was put on hold when he called on his initial arrival in Mexico and did not receive a visit until two weeks had passed. At that time, he was given a list of Mexican attorneys to contact. He requested a few basic necessities, but these were denied and that was the last contact until last week when his sentence was vacated, and he once again called the U.S. Embassy and was again given the same list of Mexican attorneys.

Johnson’s wife, Erica, says she has tried to contact everyone on the list for months but has had no response and is doubtful she can afford the legal fees.