Bell v. State

Per Curiam. The appellant, fifteen years of age at the time of the alleged offenses, was tried by the court in the Criminal Court of Baltimore, found guilty of the following crimes and sentenced to imprisonment as indicated: Indictment No. 1046 — robbery of (1st count) and assault upon (3rd count) Nova Ellis on 24 February 1966; 3 years as to the 1st count, 1 year on the 3rd count concurrent with 1 st count. Indictment No. 1047 — robbery of (1st count) and assault upon (3rd count) Louise Curtin on 16 February 1966; 3 years as to 1st count, consecutive with indictment 1046, 3 years as to 3rd count consecutive with 1st count. Indictment No. 2818 — assault (2nd count) upon Bonnie Neuwiller on 10 June 1966; 2 years consecutive with 3rd count of indictment No. 1047.

Indictment No. 2819 — robbery with a deadly weapon (1st count) of Muriel Kopacki on 10 June 1966; 15 years consecutive with indictment No. 2818. 1 On appeal he argues only that the lower court erred in denying a motion for judgment of acquittal as to the first count in ²⁷⁸ indictment No. 2819 for the reason that the evidence was not sufficient to show that the robbery of Muriel Kopacki was with a dangerous or deadly weapon. He does not claim that the evidence was not sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the corpus delicti of that robbery and that he was the criminal agent, but he urges that the more severe penalty, authorized by Md. Code, (1967 Repl. Vol.), Art. 27, § 488 and imposed by the court, was improper because the robbery was not with a dangerous or deadly weapon. Muriel Kopacki, an employee of the Maryland State Employment Service, testified that on 10 June 1966 about 8:00 A. M. she was walking up Chase Street across the grass plot by the Baltimore Life Building on her way to work. “I was approached by a young man behind me with a knife and he came up and he said for me to keep walking and don’t scream or I’ll cut your heart out.

We walked over by the wall where the steps are at and he asked me to open my purse. I told him I didn’t have any money except a dollar. When I pulled it out I had $10 and he looked through my purse and we started up the steps toward the Maryland Employment Service. I guess he was going to walk me back.

He told me not to tell anything about it because he’d find out. I told him I wasn’t worried about that. He said, real smart, ‘You’re not, are you.’ He said T always wanted to stab a white woman.’ He turned me around and he said we were going to walk down this alley toward Biddle Street. I told him I wasn’t going to go because he would stab me there.

He said no, he wouldn’t stab me. So we walked down towards Biddle Street. We got down by the alley. He must have changed his mind.

He kept walking me, and we got up by the B & O Building where there is a big hill and there’s a park there and he told me he knew a short cut to get me back to work and walked down the hill. I was expecting at that time, I told him I couldn’t get down the hill, it was too steep. He said O.K., he knew another way. He took me up, I don’t recall the name of the street we were walking, all around through the housing development.

We finally wind up on a side street going toward the Maryland Building. He said that he was going to leave me there.” He took her watch