Booth v. State

PER Curiam. The principal contention of the appellant (Charles Edwin Booth) is that he was denied his constitutional right of confrontation when he was convicted of armed robbery on evidence that was not before the court. The only other claim is that the evidence relied on by the trial court was insufficient to sustain the verdict. In the hold-up of a liquor store by three men, the one who was armed demanded all of the money ip the store and ordered the proprietor to open the cash register.

When the register was opened, another of the trio removed the money from it and from the pockets of the proprietor. The robbery was immediately reported, and, during the evening in which the hold-up was perpetrated, two of the men (Beale and Brown) were apprehended. However, at an ensuing police line-up, the victim of the robbery was unable to identify either of the captured robbers with certainty (though he later identified them at the trial), but when he was shown a photograph of the appellant, he positively identified him as the robber who had dipped his hand into the till. The appellant managed to evade the police and absconded to New Jersey, but surrendered to the Lakewood police when he learned he was wanted and was thereafter returned to Baltimore for trial.

The victim identified the appellant again at the trial as one of the robbers. A police officer also testified from notes taken by another officer that when the written statements made by the co-defendants (which in fact implicated the appellant) were read to the appellant and he was asked if the statements were correct, he replied that it was “hard for him to say ⁷³ [because he] was pretty high.” Later, however, on direct examination, the appellant, though denying that he had participated in the robbery, further testified that the