Michael Allen Nakvinda, 41, of Oklahoma City was sentenced in October 1994 to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to a kidnapping and to nine armed robberies. His punishment was the outcome of a deal with prosecutors. He testified against his accomplices.
He admitted his share from the robberies exceeded $370,000 in cash.
He said he was recruited into the gang after an accomplice learned he was a convicted felon.
"You’re ... trying to make the bills ... rent due ... telephone bill due, somebody comes over flashing hundreds and hundreds of dollars ... nice car, saying, ‘Come work with me a couple of days and I’ll make you some money,’ you get tired of bill collectors ... so you go for it,” he testified at one hearing, according to a court transcript.
"There was so much action going on,” he testified.
He said he told the kidnapping victim "if there’s any foul-ups, you will be shot.”
Prosecutors alleged the gang used rape, torture and physical assaults to make victims disclose the location of money, jewelry and drugs. Nakvinda said he did not rape anyone.
"There were no innocent … to my knowledge, only the drug dealers, gangs and their family working for them,” he wrote a judge in 1996 about his victims. "They were the only ones targeted.”
He also has convictions for concealing stolen property in 1988 and for illegal possession of a pistol in 1992, records show.
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