BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – The case of a man convicted for kidnapping a woman, raping her, setting her on fire, and leaving her for dead will not be heard by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
38-year-old Juan Nieto is serving a 70-year prison sentence for the 2003 attack in rural Brown County and had challenged the dedication of restitution payments from his prison income.
His conviction for the attack was previously upheld by a state appeals court.
Nieto filed another appeal in 2017 challenging the validity of the restitution order for $258,357.69.
He had filed the appeal on the grounds that there wasn’t a hearing on the issue and the restitution wasn’t incorporated into a judgment of conviction.
The state appeals court denied his appeal last fall, saying he was procedurally barred from raising the issue in the way he did.
“Here, Nieto’s motion offered no reason, much less a sufficient reason, for failing to raise his present claims in his earlier postconviction motions or his first appeal. Nieto is therefore barred from raising them now,” the court wrote.
Nieto’s case was included on Tuesday by the state Supreme Court in a list of appeals it would not hear – leaving the appeals court ruling in place.
