Today on Friday April 30th, AC (Raymond Merchant) triumphed over the state's futile attempts to paint him as an armed robber. He was facing three charges--aggravated robbery in the 1st degree, attempted aggravated robbery in the 1st degree, and assault in the 2nd degree as a result of being falsely implicated in a robbery that occurred last October. After only two hours of deliberation, the first hour of which was over lunch, the jury reached a consensus verdict of not guilty on all three counts.

Update: Raymond's trial has been rescheduled to begin with jury selection at 9am Monday, April 26th. Please pass this on to any friends and acquaintances of Ray and mark your calendars to come out and support him then!

On December 31st, Raymond Merchant appeared in front of Hennepin County Judge Barnette for a scheduling of his trial date. After brief discussion in chambers, Judge Barnett, the prosecutor, and Raymond's attorney Robert Kolstad settled on trial beginning Monday April 5th at 9am. The trial is expected to last three or four days including jury selection.

Kolstad said of their trial preparations, "This is going to be a tough trial and we have a lot of work to do. There was no actual proof of robbery on Ray, no gun was found, and there was never an actual police lineup of suspects, but we still have our job cut out for us. We're thankful to have a number of volunteers who will help with the investigation."

Update: see RaymondMerchant.com for more support info (from the open publishing newswire) Raymond Merchant is a father of two, Hip Hop artist, and community organizer in South Minneapolis. Missing for several days, friends became worried when Raymond failed to arrive to a show he was scheduled to perform at. After contacting his family, it was confirmed he had been abducted by police just blocks from his home while out for a walk.