Laster

Defendant has appealed from a judgment which has subjected him to consecutive sentences in state prison for forcible rape in violation of subdivision 3 of section 261 of the Penal Code, kidnaping in violation of section 207, robbery in violation of section 211, and assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury in violation of subdivision (a) of section 245. Judgment was pronounced following a jury trial in which verdicts were returned finding him guilty of each offense.

He makes the following contentions: (1) that all of the convictions should be reversed because his constitutional right to a public trial by an impartial jury was not safeguarded by either court or counsel; (2) that his conviction of robbery should be reversed because there is no evidence that he aided or abetted the commission of the crime of robbery; (3) that his conviction of kidnaping should be reversed because the trial court refused to instruct the jury correctly concerning the element of asportation; and (4) that the court violated the provisions of section 654 of the Penal Code in imposing multiple sentences for offenses which constituted an indivisible course of conduct.

For…