Bichell v. State

Per Curiam. Robert Edward Bichell (Bichell or defendant), claiming prejudicial error in certain rulings on the evidence and that the evidence as a whole was insufficient to sustain his conyiction for conspiracy to commit larceny, seeks a reversal of the judgment and a new trial. On August 14, 1959, at about 12:30 a.m., two Baltimore City police officers apprehended three men who had been tampering with parking meters on St. Paul Street. A further investigation disclosed that other meters in the vicinity had been opened with a key.

None had been damaged. Coins were found scattered on the floor of the automobile they had been driving and there was a bag of coins in the rear of the vehicle. One of the men had several dollars in nickels in his possession. A “pronged key instrument” was also found in the automobile and a second key capable of unlocking the meters was found on the pavement nearby where it had been dropped or thrown.

The officers took the three men to the apartment of one of them, where a fourth man and two women were found. No evidence was discovered there. The six were arrested and subsequently charged along with the defendant Bichell, who surrendered himself through his attorney ten days later. Several of the witnesses, some of them co-defendants, testified that the defendant knew of the larcenies, that he had participated in planning them, that he had made the keys used to open