A Maryland appeals court overturned murder convictions for two men involved in a botched marijuana deal in Rockville in 2022.

A jury convicted Jackson Alexander Garcia, 22, of first-degree murder for the death of Jose Osvaldo Genao Romero and sentenced him in 2024 to life in prison with all but 60 years suspended.

In a separate trial that same year, Malik Jefferson, 27, was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 55 years.

Courts infrequently overturn murder convictions.

“It’s definitely rare, especially a murder case,” said Hermann Walz, a former assistant district attorney in New York City and an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.

In the cases of Garcia and Jefferson, both of Silver Spring, the Appellate Court of Maryland determined on Jan. 29 that a lower court judge, siding with prosecutors, had given jurors improper instructions so that they did not hear defense arguments that could have resulted in different verdicts.

The appeals court ordered new trials for both men.

Deal gone wrong

Garcia, Jefferson and Genao Romero met for a $100 marijuana deal on Feb. 17, 2022, that escalated into a fight.

In addition to murder, a jury convicted Garcia of armed robbery — of a Louis Vuitton bag — use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence, and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

The lower court error related to the timing of the robbery, the appeals court wrote.

The appeals court also determined, in a separate Jan. 29 ruling, that the lower court wrongly prevented the defense from arguing that Jefferson — who fatally shot a knife-wielding Genao Romero — was coming to the aid of Garcia.

In addition to second-degree murder, Jefferson was convicted of use of a firearm in a crime of violence and unarmed robbery.

As of Friday, Jefferson was imprisoned at the Jessup Correctional Institution, and Garcia is confined at the Maryland Correctional Training Center in Hagerstown.

Spokespersons for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office and for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, whose attorneys represented Garcia and Jefferson, declined to comment on the appeal.