State v. Byrd

— Arnell Byrd and David Miller were charged with first degree rape by kidnapping and forcible compulsion, tried together with the same counsel before a jury and convicted. They separately appeal with Miller also filing a personal restraint petition.

The essential facts not in controversy are that about 2 in the morning, after considerable drinking, Byrd and Miller picked up the prosecuting witness who was hitchhiking on a well traveled highway. A police officer later stopped the car because of a minor traffic violation, but noted nothing unusual. The three, with the prosecuting witness sitting…