(Asheville Citizen-Times) The N.C. Court of Appeals has thrown out the rape and kidnapping conviction of a Henderson County man, ruling that the judge should have given a good reason for closing the courtroom while the victim testified at the defendant’s trial.
Richard Colt Rollins’ Sixth Amendment right to a public trial was violated, according to the ruling.
A jury convicted Rollins, 53, of first-degree kidnapping, second-degree rape, breaking and entering, and resisting arrest in Henderson County Superior Court in September 2010. He was sentenced to at least 17 years in prison.
According to testimony at his trial, on July 4, 2008, Rollins broke into the home of a woman with whom he previously had a relationship, restrained her and raped her. Early in the attack, the woman called a friend who notified police.
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