NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- American Eric Volz was freed by a judge on Friday despite an uproar in Nicaragua after an appeals court overturned his conviction and 30-year-sentence in the slaying of his Nicaraguan girlfriend.

The 28-year-old from Nashville, Tenn., accompanied by his mother, was freed from a prison hospital where he was being treated for kidney stones, driven by police-escorted ambulance to sign his release papers, then rushed to the airport where mother and son boarded a flight to Atlanta.

Volz left the country at 2:45 p.m. local time (3:45 EST), State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in Washington.

"We are pleased that the Nicaraguan Appeals Court decision ... has been implemented in accordance with Nicaraguan law," he said.

Live television broadcasts showed a caravan of news media following Volz as he headed toward the airport.

"There will be no further comment until we receive confirmation that Eric is safely out of Nicaragua," Volz family spokeswoman Melissa Campbell said in an earlier e-mail to The Associated Press.

At the airport, news reporters were barred from entering as Volz was escorted through a door usually reserved for traveling presidents or other top government officials.

John Spragens, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., said he was told by State Department officials that Volz was flown out of Nicaragua on a private plane. Spragens did not know Volz's destination.

The news of Volz's release brought a smile to Tennessee Rep. Jim Cooper, who has been working on the release for months.

"I thought Hallelujah because for months and months we've been hoping and praying that he would be safely returned to this country," said Rep. Jim Cooper.

"For months it seems like everywhere, sometimes quietly sometimes not quietly, it seems like someone will hand me a piece of paper that says one word: Eric Volz. People have been keeping him in their hearts and prayers. They know he's been going through an extraordinary tough time, and thankfully it seems to be coming to an end."

An appeals court on Monday overturned Volz's conviction in the November 2006 death of 25-year-old Doris Ivania Jimenez, enraging prosecutors, human rights and women's rights activists who believe Volz is guilty.

Prosecutors said the victim put up a fight, matching scratch marks on Volz's shoulder. They also said he told an assistant to rent a car for him because "someone has died" before he said he learned of her death. The victim's mother said he had threatened to kill her daughter before.

Volz and a Nicaraguan man, Julio Martin Chamorro, were sentenced in February for the death of Jimenez, who was found raped and strangled in a clothing store she owned in Rivas, 55 miles south of Managua. The court upheld Chamorro's conviction in the murder.

A surfer-turned-real-estate-broker who also founded a local magazine in Nicaragua, Volz has claimed his innocence all along, saying he was two hours away from the crime scene at the time.

Volz's release was ordered by the same judge who convicted him, a step that is required by Nicaraguan law.

Judge Ivett Toruno, who convicted Volz, waited four days before agreeing to release him, citing problems with the files.

Volz's attorney claimed the judge was delaying the process to allow time for another appeal. It wasn't clear Friday where that effort stood.