Bradburn v. State

Per Curiam. The appellants Gipe and Bradburn were convicted by a jury of larceny of a metal stand and attached poor box (poor box), of robbing a police officer of his espantoon and revolver, and of assault with intent to murder the officer. Each appellant was sentenced to a term of twenty-one and a half years under the jurisdiction of the Department of Correction. The first contention on appeal is that there was a denial of a speedy trial because the trial was not held as scheduled on February 14, 1967, but postponed to February 20, the six-day lag having been granted at the instance of the State.

The contention approaches the frivolous. Pachmayr v. State, 1 Md. App. 270 . ²⁵⁰ Appellants’ claim that the evidence was insufficient to convict is also lacking in merit. The appellants and one Halcomb were accosted by policeman Custis at about 5 :00 a.m. on May 2, 1964, near or in an alley running east and west through the unit block of Collington Avenue in Baltimore in possession of the poor box (which they abandoned when they fled after beating the officer). St. Andrews The Apostle Russian Orthodox Church (which it was stipulated is a corporate entity) is not far away.

The sexton testified the poor box had stood in the vestibule of the church for twenty years; that the deposits made in it were collected and twice a year given to orphans by the church; and that the box “belongs to the vestibule of the Church,” and was in the church at 1:00 a.m. on May 2 but not at 4:30 a.m. This evidence permitted the jury properly to infer that the church had a property interest in the box of which the appellants had criminally deprived it. See Lee and Freeman v. State, 238 Md. 224 , and Richardson v. State, 221 Md. 85 . The box and stand were marked for identification but never, apparently from oversight, formally admitted in evidence.

A picture of the box did come in without objection, various witnesses referred to it and described it, and the parties and the court seemingly assumed it was in evidence. The corpus delicti was proven, cf. Banks v. State, 228 Md. 130 , and the possession of recently stolen property by the appellants sufficed to support a finding that they had stolen it. Anglin v. State, 244 Md. 652 ; Chittum v. State, 1 Md. App. 205 . The police officer testified that as he was about to take the trio into the station house, and had taken hold of one of them, he was knocked to the ground from behind and his espantoon and revolver were taken from him.

All three continued to hit him, beat him with stick and fists and kick him as he lay on the ground. He was hit on the head repeatedly with his own stick and shot in the face with his own pistol. He was kicked by all three in the face, back and arms. He was taken to the hospital a bloody mess and kept for treatment of multiple lacerations and contusions, including head wounds which required many stitches, and a broken knee.

Appellants argue that the arrest was illegal and their use of force to resist it was justified. If it be assumed that the arrest ²⁵¹ was illegal, the evidence clearly permitted the jury to find that there had been used entirely unnecessary and excessive force, sufficient to show malice and an intent