![]() "The whole time I was thinking and praying, I hope I make it home alive and second off, that I'd make it home and be able to contact police and not end up in jail," Money said. Money said his truck would only be able to make it to Spruce Pine, fearing for his life the entire time. "It was mine, I paid for it and I didn't feel like someone who hadn't worked for something should have it," said Money. He was determined to keep his truck, but was terrified he would be shot. He has seen his share of challenges, spending a majority of his life in and out of foster care and group homes. Money recently spent some time in jail after being convicted for breaking and entering. I asked him what he was wanted for, and he wouldn't tell me." "But he told me he was sorry about it, but no one was going to give him a ride because he was a wanted felon. "I told him that he didn't have to stand in the middle of the road with a rifle in order to get a ride, all he had to do was stand there with his hand out and his thumb out," Money said. Once the man got in, he told Money he was a felon who needed to get past Asheville to Marion. Money didn't give up his truck, but, out of fear, said he would give the man a ride. Money, who was 17 at the time, said he was driving by the double bridges in Barnardsville when a man wearing a ski mask held up a rifle and demanded his truck. When Stroup was acquitted of murder, the kidnapping charges became the only avenue for ensuring he would be sent to prison, Gammick said.The teenager said he was kidnapped by Phillip Stroupe II on June 21, about a month before Stroupe allegedly kidnapped and killed Thomas Bryson. "We felt the jury would convict him of murder charges," he said. They wanted to handle the murders as part of a larger federal investigation into drug dealing and other killings, he said.Īfter being elected in 1994, Gammick said, he took the case back "because they had not taken action on it" and charged Stroup with capital murder and kidnapping charges.īecause the focus was on the murder charges, both the prosecution and defense either overlooked or downplayed the statute of limitations on the two counts of kidnapping, Gammick said. Gammick was a chief deputy under District Attorney Dorothy Nash Holmes at the time, he said, and objected strongly when she ordered him to turn the case over to the U.S. "It brings a means to an end for me," he told a Reno newspaper.ĭistrict Attorney Richard Gammick blamed federal officials when asked why prosecutors waited until 1995 to file charges against Stroup. Stroup said the cases and conviction have been a nightmare and he agreed to the plea to end the matter. Stroup's father, Bobby Stroup, was convicted of the killings in 2001.ĭeputy District Attorney Terry McCarthy said the kidnap and murder charges would not be refiled. Instead of seeking a new trial, Stroup pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of coercion with physical force and was sentenced to time served. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found near the Mount Rose Ski Area in 1991. ![]() Stroup, 35, was acquitted of murder but convicted of kidnapping Daniel Rasmussen and Jack Strawbridge from a convenience store on Long Street. Polaha, now a fellow Washoe District Court judge, was defeated by Hardesty in the 1998 election but was appointed to the bench by the governor in 1999, elected in 2000 and re-elected last year. "The court finds that in these respects, counsels' representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness under prevailing professional norms," Hardesty said in his order dismissing the kidnapping charges and granting a new trial. The time limit on kidnapping is three years. Washoe District Judge James Hardesty on Thursday said Stroup's trial lawyers, Jerry Polaha and Marc Picker, failed to defend him properly because they didn't realize that the statute of limitations on the kidnapping charge had expired by the time Stroup was charged in 1995. Roger Stroup's release from prison is imminent, his attorneys said. RENO - A judge has thrown out the conviction of a man sentenced to four life prison terms for the 1991 kidnapping of two Carson City men killed along the Mount Rose Highway. ![]()
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