Pickett v. State

A jury found Reginald Bernard Pickett guilty of kidnapping with bodily injury, child molestation, and enticing a child for indecent purposes. He appeals from the convictions, contending the trial court erred in denying his motion for a directed verdict of acquittal on the kidnapping with bodily injury charge, and in imposing a life sentence on that charge when a life sentence was not mandatory. He also urges that he was denied effective assistance of trial counsel. None of these contentions has merit, so we affirm his convictions. 1. Pickett contends he was entitled to a directed verdict of acquittal on the kidnapping with bodily injury charge because the state failed to present evidence that the victim was abducted. According to Pickett, the evidence showed that the child was not grabbed or forced into the truck, but entered it voluntarily. Pickett was not entitled to a directed verdict of acquittal.

Viewed in a light most favorable to the verdict,1 the evidence shows that on June 17, 2000 a man driving a red pickup truck approached the eleven-year-old victim and his fourteen-year-old brother as they walked down the street. The man asked the boys if they wanted a job helping him move some items to a business he was opening. The younger brother agreed, and the older brother stayed behind. The older brother reported the incident to his grandmother, and the grandmother called police.