Coop Looters to Appeal

Three of the four men convicted yesterday of a $50,000 Harvard Coop holdup will appeal their cases to the State Supreme Court, their attorneys announced yesterday.

A Harvard man, Julius H. Soble '27, counsel for Theodore W. Voutritsa, and Francis Juggins, representing Anthony Novicki and Jacob Lewis, said that they will base their appeal on Judge Lewis Goldberg's denial of a motion for directed verdict.

Under a directed verdict, the Judge would instruct the jury that there was insufficient evidence to return a verdict of any degree higher than larceny.

Judge's Instruction

In asking the Judge so to instruct the jury, the two attorneys held there was no evidence of force or violence (involved in "robbery") or of use of arms (involved in "armed robbery.")

When Judge Goldberg denied the motion, the attorneys went through the legal motion of "taking exceptions" and are now in a position to appeal the sentence.

All four men were sentenced to 20 to 25 years at hard labor at Massachusetts State Prison.

Chester A. Higley, counsel for Nicholas Mavrides, said he did not expect to make an appeal.

Questions Verdict

Soble said yesterday he could not understand how the jury could find the men guilty of armed robbery. Early Wednesday night, court room opinion had it that the jury would not bring in such a verdict because it had asked Judge Goldberg whether a smoke-bomb used in the robbery was "a dangerous weapon." The Judge replied, "No."

I can't figure what was in the jury's mind when it asked that question," Soble said yesterday. "It seemed that they thought no gun was involved in the taking. I cannot rationalize or reconcile the verdict with their question."

Spectators at the Coop holdup disagreed as to whether a gun was employed. One employee reported, "I didn't see them use a gun;" but two students who pursued the bandits said they had been threatened with "a .32 or .36."

Soble said it would take a few months before the Supreme Court would rule on the forthcoming appeal.

The Coop incident occurred last spring when at least four men escaped with payroll and check funds under cover of smoke bombs.