Man pleads not guilty to theft by extortion

COEUR d'ALENE - A 28-year-old Spokane man on Thursday pleaded not guilty to a charge of grand theft by extortion in 1st District Court.

Joshua M. Moses - who earlier this year also was charged with first-degree kidnapping, before that was dropped - appeared before District Judge John Mitchell who set Moses' four-day trial on the extortion count for March 9.

If convicted, Moses faces up to life in prison because of previous convictions, including two felonies in Spokane County as an adult.

Moses is being held in Kootenai County jail on $50,000 bond. He has been in custody since July.

It was then that Moses was arrested after a several-hour standoff with law enforcement. Moses was accused at the time of kidnapping Joshua Branam, who was 34 years old at the time.

Police told The Press then that Moses had kidnapped Branam because Branam owed Moses thousand of dollars. It was alleged that Moses took Branam, tied him up in the basement of a home at 204 W. 17th Ave. in Post Falls, struck him with a pistol and eventually contacted the victim's family for money.

Since then, though, Branam changed his story, and the kidnapping charge was dropped, said Anne Taylor, Moses' defense attorney. She said Branam admitted during recent court hearings that he made up the story about being kidnapped by Moses.

Police said Branam's family did pay Moses $2,500, though, handing over the funds in a Walmart parking lot in Post Falls.

The Kootenai County Sheriff's Department, Post Falls police, and SWAT team members surrounded the house on 17th Avenue after having tracked Moses to that location.

Police believed Moses was inside with a gun, which led to the standoff. Law enforcement officers received a tip several hours later from neighbors who had spotted Moses fleeing on foot south toward the Spokane River, where he was captured.