Issue in Macayo robbery case concerns kidnapping definition

Kim Smith

Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

If victims of a robbery are taken by gunpoint from Point A to Point B within the same building, are they also kidnap victims?

Defense attorney David Amesbury says no. Chief Deputy District Attorney David Wall says yes.

On Wednesday the attorneys took their arguments before District Judge Donald Mosley in the Markus Weatherspoon case.

Prosecutors maintain Weatherspoon, 22, and two other men walked into the Macayo Vegas Restaurant on West Charleston Boulevard on June 14 and robbed it. During the robbery, the men forced an employee who had been clocking out in a back room to the main dining area of the restaurant at gunpoint. They also forced the manager out of her office to the dining area and back again at gunpoint.

Amesbury asked Mosley to dismiss the kidnapping charges filed against Weatherspoon as a result of those alleged acts, calling the charges a "stretch."

If Wall is correct, Amesbury said, "We would have a kidnapping in every robbery."

Wall countered that case law supports such charges whenever such movements increase the risk of harm to the victim.

The employee who was clocking out had a gun held to his head while being moved 20 to 30 feet, Wall said. The other victim was struck repeatedly in her head and face with the gun.

Mosley ruled that the kidnapping issue should be decided by the jury.

In addition to the robbery and kidnapping charges, Weatherspoon and his co-defendants, Darnell Harris, 21, and Tamika Beavers, 20, face attempted murder charges.

Police allege that after the robbery, Harris shot Metro Police Officer Pete Rossi, 26, in the face as he arrived in his patrol car, causing him to lose sight in one eye.

Beavers pleaded not guilty this morning and her trial was set for Nov. 6 in District Judge Mark Gibbons' courtroom.

Weatherspoon is scheduled for trial on March 5 and Harris on Sept. 25.