Local Student Killer Wins New Trial
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) - Costa Rican authorities say a security guard who fatally shot a McLouth, Kansas teenager after mistaking him for an intruder will get a new trial after winning an appeal.
Jorge Guevara was sentenced last year to 15 years in prison for killing 16-year-old Justin Johnston inside a hotel in La Fortuna de San Carlos.
Court spokeswoman Marcela Fernandez confirmed Wednesday that Guevara won an appeal which argued the original trial didn't prove the guard intended to kill the teenager.
Johnston and a group of his friends were returning to his room before dawn through a desolate area when Guevara spotted them and thinking they were thieves opened fire.
Johnston was on a trip to Costa Rica with a dozen other students in the school's Spanish club.
© Associated Press
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