JOAN BARRON Star-Tribune capital bureau | Posted: Sunday, February 1, 2004 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - An escapee from the Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp in Weston County more than three years ago lost his appeal on Thursday of a kidnapping conviction before the Wyoming Supreme Court.
Three days after the defendant, Sargent Major, and a companion escaped from the camp on Dec. 4, 2000, they entered the garage of an isolated home owned by an elderly women. When she returned home, the pair took her credit cards and some cash and forced her to accompany them in her car on a cross-country trip.
They drove to Lansing, Mich., where the companion went his own way. Major and the victim then headed back west and were stopped in Junction City, Kan., where Major was arrested and the victim was released unharmed.
Major was initially charged with five felonies. He pleaded nolo contendre to one count of kidnapping. On appeal, he claimed his plea was neither knowing nor voluntary because of his mental illness and contentious relationship with his defense counsel.
The Supreme Court ruled that Weston County District Judge Dan R. Price was right to deny Major's motion to withdraw his plea because Major made the plea voluntarily and knowingly.
The opinion also noted that Major was subject to several psychiatric examinations and was found competent to stand trial.