HILLSBOROUGH — A jury found the man charged with kidnapping two UNC football players guilty on Monday.
Michael Troy Lewis33 faces at least 23 years in prison for allegedly kidnapping the players in December and attempting to rob them.
Judge Carl Fox issued the sentence which carries a maximum of about 31 years of jail time and is less than the harshest sentence allowed.
Lewis was found guilty of kidnapping and robbery in addition to several other crimes related to the December incident when he and two women allegedly tied up three football players and tried to steal wallets" video games and electronics.
""If you'd broken in this same apartment and stolen this stuff" the most you'd be looking at would be I don't know 10 to 12 months" Fox said, explaining the impact of the kidnapping charge on the sentence.
Prosecutors asked for the strictest sentence possible, arguing that Lewis came to Chapel Hill from Durham intending to commit a robbery. The strictest sentence would have put Lewis in jail for 36 years.
A discrepancy about the legal definition of kidnapping led defenders to announce that they will appeal Lewis' conviction on one kidnapping count.
Jurors asked after several hours of deliberation if they could convict Lewis of kidnapping — a multi-part crime that, by definition, is committed to facilitate another felony — if they found him guilty of a felony other than robbery with a dangerous weapon.
They then used attempted felony larceny as grounds to convict Lewis of kidnapping. The defense opposed that rationale and will appeal the ruling.
The defense has 90 days to appeal.
Lewis stood by previous statements of his innocence, declaring in court that he meant to rob the players but not to kidnap them.
I can only apologize for what I've done"" he said. Nothing happened intentionally.""
Only one player testified to being a victim of a sexual offense" but The Daily Tar Heel isn't naming any players to avoid revealing the identity of a complainant of a sexual offense.
In his closing statement defense attorney Russ Hollers reminded jurors of differences between testimony from witnesses police and the defendant's taped statements.
Hollers said one player said he was blindfolded before a man identified by prosecutors as Lewis held a knife to his throat. The player said the man left but he didn't take off the blindfold until police found him.
But when police investigators photographed the room the knife was lying on top of the blindfold which Hollers said means the player probably moved the items.
Hollers said other discrepancies such as objects that were moved between being photographed and inventoried by police" cast doubt on the players' story.
""The police don't know exactly what happened in there" they can't be sure he said. The three guys they don't know exactly what happened in there" they can't be sure.""
But Assistant District Attorney Morgan Whitney said any time people give accounts of the same story" such as after a car wreck" their memories are different.
""You start asking people what they saw that night" some people are going to say a green car some people are going to say a blue car" he said.
Lewis, who did not testify during the trial, previously had a record of more minor legal infractions. But he said after the jury gave its verdict that he got the message with this incident and plans to change his lifestyle.
I'm not one that just took one time" and I'm not one that's going to take a thousand times he said. I can't rewrite the things that I have done" I can just move forward.""
Monique Jenice Taylor awaits trial for her alleged participation in the incident"" prosecutors said.
Charges against Tnikia Monta Washington have been dropped.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
