Bichell v. State

Hammond, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Appellant was convicted by Judge Cullen, sitting without a jury, of two' armed robberies and given two concurrent five-year sentences. On appeal, he argues first that his arrest was illegal and his confession was inadmissible because made while he was in illegal detention, and without the advice of a lawyer, and, second, that there was no evidence that any money was taken in the second holdup. The testimony showed that early in the morning of April 25, 1963, two Little Tavern Shops were entered by a man who ³⁹⁸ “pulled out a gun” and told the waitress on duty to give him the money in the cash register and in the safe.

At one of the Shops an attendant observed and reported to the police the color and license number of the car in which the man with the gun was driven away by another man. Sergeant Mina testified that the police investigation had revealed that the getaway car was owned by one Kaleo and that a man named Albert Lehman and the appellant, Bichell, were at a drinking party with Kaleo and others and took Kaleo’s keys from his pocket and used his car in the holdups. The appellant drove the car, Lehman went in and held up the Shops, and they split the proceeds. The description of the car was “put on the air” by the police and it was soon “picked up” with Kaleo driving it.

As a result, Lehman was arrested and “picked out of line-ups as the man who held the gun on these two girls who were on the witness stand” and Lehman told Sergeant Mina that the appellant was the driver of the getaway car in the two holdups. Thereupon, the Baltimore Police Department put out an official request to neighboring police departments and officials to apprehend one John J. Bichell (the appellant) who was wanted by it for armed robbery. On May 6 Bichell was arrested by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and turned over to a Baltimore policeman. No federal agent testified as to the details of the arrest, but Bichell, who took the stand for the limited purpose of describing how he was taken into custody, said that he was in his brother’s house in Baltimore when six F. B. I. agents came in with a warrant for his brother’s arrest and, after they had knocked the knob off a side door, were let in the front door by “the girl friend” (whether the “girl friend” of the appellant or of his brother does not appear — there was one of each in the house).

After asking appellant who he was, and being told, an agent said it was unfortunate for appellant that he happened to be there with his brother because “we understand the police want you in the City, so we are taking you in too.” Judge Cullen found