State v. PIERCE

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Harman, C.:

This appeal arises from convictions by a jury of Vernon S. Pierce, Richard Alexander, Henry Davis, Noel D. Newsom, Fred M. Johnson, John H. Manning, Leonard Harrison and Samuel Jarvis Hunt of varying degrees of robbery.

By way of background we may state that as a result of certain events occurring at a Wichita motel on October 17, 1968, appellants and Harold Cole were charged with certain criminal offenses. All nine persons were initially charged with two counts of kidnapping, one count of conspiracy to kidnap, two counts of extortion and two…