State v. Beatty

495 S.E.2d 367 (1998)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D met a group of men at a party. They decided to rob South 21, a drive-in restaurant. When they approached the restaurant, the owner, Nicholas Copsis, stood just outside near an open door. The robbers approached this door, put a gun to Copsis' head, and told him to go inside and open the safe. The robbers saw restaurant employees Poulos and Koufaloitis. One robber put a gun to Poulos' head and stood beside him during the robbery. An unarmed robber put duct tape around Koufaloitis' wrists and told him to lie on the floor. Copsis failed to open the safe and a robber shot Copsis twice in the legs. Copsis then opened the safe. The robbers took more than $2,000 and fled. The robbery took approximately three to four minutes. D was indicted for robbery with a dangerous weapon, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, felonious breaking and entering, safecracking, first-degree kidnapping, two counts of second-degree kidnapping, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. In particular, D was found guilty on two counts of second-degree kidnapping. D appealed asserting that his kidnapping convictions should be vacated because there was insufficient evidence of restraint separate and apart from that inherent in the crime of robbery with a dangerous weapon to support those convictions. The Court of Appeals majority disagreed. Judge Wynn dissented on the ground that 'the restraint, in this case, was an inherent and inevitable feature of the commission of the armed robbery' and thus could not support a conviction for second-degree kidnapping. D appealed.