A resident of Sparta has left for Washington DC in hopes to attend an appeal hearing for her son, a convicted Blackwater security contractor who is serving a lifetime for first degree murder. Reba Slatten is the mother of Nicholas Slatten who worked for Blackwater in Iraq in 2007. In September, Slatten and three other guards, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty and Paul Slough, were involved in a shooting incident where 14 civilians were killed. Witnesses at the time said the guards opened fire without provocation, while the guards that they had been attacked. Appeals were filed for all four guards last February on the grounds that a key witnessed who testified against them changed his testimony afterward. They also say that prosecutors did not have jurisdiction to even bring the case forward. Judges sitting on the U.S. Court of Appeals will hear the cases Tuesday.