US Man Freed From Nicaragua Jail Back With Family The thought of his wife and 5-year-old son born with Down syndrome is what helped Jason Puracal endure two years in a crowded, bug-infested Nicaraguan prison serving a drug sentence that was later withdrawn when he won an appeal. Now, the 35-year-old Tacoma, Washington man feels ecstatic to be back in the United States a free man and able to see his mother, two sisters, his wife and son, he said in an interview with The Associated Press. It was very overwhelming. It still is very overwhelming," Puracal said. The whole journey has been like a dream or a nightmare, I should say, and it still feels like it's not real. Here I am back in the U.S., back home. Before last week's appeals victory, Puracal was an American serving a 22-year sentence in a Nicaragua maximum-security prison on money-laundering and drug charges that stemmed from a November 2010 arrest at his beachfront real estate office in the surfing town of San Juan del Sur, near the border with Costa Rica. Prosecutors charged that he used his business as a front for money laundering, selling farms on behalf of suspected drug traffickers. A judge convicted him of all charges in August 2011. In prison, Puracal says he was assaulted more than once and was hospitalized for poor nutrition. He lost nearly 30 pounds because other inmates would often take his food. "I was robbed several times," he said. Jason Puracal, just released from two years of imprisonment in Nicaragua, sits for an interview on Monday, Sept. 17, 2012 in New York. Puracal, from Tacoma, Wash., had his 22-year conviction on drug and money laundering charges vacated by a three panel Nicaraguan appellate court. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Close Conditions were harsh, but he endured them hoping to eventually go back to his son, Jabu, and his Nicaraguan wife, Scarleth Flores, who he met in 2006. My son is my life. I was very worried with his development. He has Down syndrome," Puracal said. I was always thinking of him. I knew I needed to endure this to get out and reunite with him. He gave me hope. The Tacoma man says the case against him isn't closed yet. Nicaraguan authorities say they are studying the ruling by a three-judge panel announced last Wednesday before revealing if they will appeal with the Central American nation's Supreme Court. Attorney Fabbrith Gomez could not be reached to speak about what's next for Puracal's defense. Puracal said the U.S. government had to negotiate with the country's immigration authorities to let him exit the country on a long holiday weekend, instead of waiting until Monday. He left the prison Thursday afternoon hunched down in the back seat of a car being driven by his lawyer. They spent the night at a hotel in Managua, the capital, guarded by the country's immigration police. Puracal and his attorney drove to Honduras the next night and then flew from Tegucigalpa to New York on Sunday. I am just so happy to be able to breathe some fresh air. Even New York fresh air," he said. Puracal's case drew the attention of human rights advocates and U.S. lawmakers who defended him and pushed for an appeal hearing after many considered the judicial process flawed with inconsistencies. Court documents say police had intelligence reports that Puracal and 10 other suspects were awaiting the arrival of a vessel containing drugs. Nicaraguan prosecutors charged that Puracal had used the money of suspected drug trafficker Manuel Ponce Espinoza to buy area farms, but didn't explain how the two men were allegedly connected. Ponce testified in court that he didn't know the American, and Puracal said he didn't know Ponce or any of the other nine defendants.