Judge dismisses all but two charges in kidnapping case

BENTON, Mo. -- After more than an hour of testimony Wednesday, Judge Scott Horman dismissed most of the charges against three suspects accused of kidnapping a Sikeston, Mo., man in July.

Andrew Robinett, Bryce Western and Ashley Ivie, all of Sikeston, initially faced felony charges of assault, kidnapping and felonious restraint after Michael Fisher told investigators they kidnapped him from his Sikeston home at gunpoint July 12, took him to Ivie's house and beat him for several hours before he convinced them to take him back home to get them some money.

During a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Horman listened to testimony by two witnesses before dismissing all the charges against Ivie and all but the assault charges against Robinett and Western.

Under cross-examination, Fisher seemed to contradict himself on several details.

Questioned by assistant prosecuting attorney Austin Crowe, Fisher initially said Robinett and Ivie approached him as he was smoking a cigarette on his front porch, where he said Robinett held a camouflage-colored gun to his head while Ivie went to get a car Fisher described as a turquoise Impala or Malibu.

During cross-examination by Ivie's attorney, Curtis Poore, Fisher said he did not see Robinett and Ivie because they came up behind him as he was standing on the porch in total darkness.

Poore asked how Fisher could identify his attackers or determine the color of the gun in the dark.

"It was dark, but you can see things, even in pitch black, up close to you," Fisher said.

Western's attorney, Ella Boone, asked why Ivie and Robinett would have known he was outside at that hour.

Fisher seemed irritated by the question.

"How would I know that they were outside? It was my house," he snapped, drawing an admonition from Horman to answer questions, not ask them.

Fisher told Poore he had communicated with Robinett using a cellphone that belonged to "a female."

"Over the phone, I had been told there might be a conflict that night, but this had been going on for months, so I didn't think anything of it," Fisher said.

Fisher hesitated to describe his relationship to the owner of the phone. He said she was not his girlfriend but refused to call her a friend, although he acknowledged she had been at his home until about an hour before Ivie and Robinett arrived.

Fisher said he and Robinett had agreed "to not be enemies any more" and planned to get together at some undetermined point in the future to discuss an ongoing dispute about a car Fisher had borrowed, which Robinett had never gotten back.

"There was no, 'I'm going to pick you up at this time; be ready,'" Fisher said.

Poore questioned Fisher about discrepancies between his initial statement to deputies -- in which he said Western and Robinett grabbed him while he was smoking and forced him into the car -- and a second statement he gave later, in which he said Western was at Ivie's house when they arrived.

Fisher said he was confused, injured and under pressure by investigators to complete the statement quickly.

"I had a bad concussion. I have medical records of that," he said. " ... I don't even remember what I wrote in that first statement."

Fisher said four defendants were in Ivie's house: Ivie, Robinett, Western and Cody McRoy, who is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on related charges Wednesday.

Fisher did not mention McRoy in his initial statement to investigators.

"I felt like he felt threatened, that if he didn't do something to me, he would get hurt," Fisher said.

Fisher testified he was at the house for six or seven hours and was beaten "everywhere" before convincing his captors to take him home, where he had to wake his sisters to unlock the door for him.

When Robinett's attorney, Ted Liszewski, asked Fisher why he didn't have a key, he said his parents wouldn't let him have one because of "trust issues."

Crowe objected to several questions during the hearing, but Horman overruled most of his objections, saying there were "holes" in Fisher's testimony that needed clarification.

"Some of these holes should have been filled up before we got here today," Horman said.

Deputy Garrett Cook of the Scott County Sheriff's Department testified he saw Fisher the morning after the assault.

"He was pretty shook up," Cook said. "He had bruises and abrasions all over his body."

Cook said Fisher admitted he had taken methamphetamine and marijuana after the assault.

Earlier in the hearing, in response to a question from Liszewski, Fisher said he had been drinking before the alleged kidnapping, but he couldn't remember how much.

Cook said he interviewed Western, who "admitted to assaulting him by striking him with his fist" but said he had not been part of the kidnapping.

Officers searched Ivie's house but did not find a camouflage pistol or any physical evidence to support Fisher's claim of being beaten, although a couch where he said Robinett made him sit was in disarray, Cook testified.

In closing statements, Boone said the only evidence showing Western's role in any part of the crime was his interview with Cook.

"At most, you have my client confessing to the offense of a misdemeanor assault," she said.

Poore noted the lack of any testimony directly implicating Ivie in the kidnapping or assault.

"There is absolutely no evidence Ashley Ivie did anything other than drive a car," he said.

Crowe argued that Ivie was "there for the entire action."

"I don't think she was picking him up to go trick-or-treating," Crowe said.

In his closing statement, Liszewski called Fisher's testimony "horrible."

"What we had today was just horrible. That kid's all over the board," he said.

Outside the courtroom, Liszewski was more blunt.

"I think the kid's full of [expletive]," he said.

Crowe acknowledged parts of Fisher's story were illogical but said he was "consistent" on the key elements of the case: the use of the gun, the claim that he was taken against his will, the beating by multiple suspects and the trip back to his house.

"I'm not alleging this is the smartest interaction or the most cogent, thought-out crime of the century," Crowe said.

Horman dismissed all the charges against Ivie but found probable cause to bind Robinett and Western over for trial on charges of first- and second-degree assault, respectively.

He set their next court date for 9 a.m. Sept. 12 and ordered Robinett held on $5,000 bond.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Sikeston, Mo.