State v. Ripley

ELMORE, Judge.

Antonio Lamarquisa Ripley (defendant) was convicted of fifteen counts of second degree kidnapping, seven counts of robbery with a *454firearm, and three counts of attempted robbery with a firearm. Defendant appeals nine of his convictions for second degree kidnapping. For the reasons that follow, we vacate these convictions.

I

At trial, the State presented evidence tending to show that, on 30 May 2003, the then thirty-two-year-old defendant gathered together four young men, who were then all under the age of eighteen, and drove them from Wilmington to Jacksonville, North Carolina in…