Coit v. State

Per Curiam. James Coit, the appellant, was convicted of common-law assault and carrying a concealed weapon in the Criminal Court of Baltimore. Judge Thomas J. Kenney, presiding without a jury, imposed concurrent sentences of seven years and six months respectively. Coit contends that it was error to admit a razor into evidence; that it was error to allow an in-court identification; and that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict.

There was evidence from which the trial judge could find: On the afternoon of November 13, 1967, Rufus Wright, while engaged in a discussion with Coit in a tavern in Baltimore, was assaulted and cut about the head and face with a straight razor wielded by Coit. Wright ran out of the tavern to a police station across the street and was taken to the University Hospital where his wounds were treated. Marion Mason, a barmaid, after seeing Coit with “something like a razor,” sounded the burglar alarm; however, she did not actually see the cutting. Police arrived promptly and arrested one Walls who had a knife openly in his possession at the time the police entered the tavern.

Thinking Walls was the assailant, the policemen did not stop Coit who left the premises. Thereafter, Officer Lascóla, acting on information received from eyewitnesses in the tavern and from another officer, Miller, arrested Coit about an hour after the incident and about two blocks from the tavern. His hands and shoes were apparently blood stained. A search incident to the arrest produced a concealed straight razor, also apparently stained with blood, which Wright identified as the razor involved in his cutting.

Coit testified, admitting his presence in the tavern, but denying the ⁷³ cutting. The trial judge struck out the testimony of Wright identifying Coit as the person with whom he had a discussion but admitted the testimony of Marion Mason identifying Coit as the person engaged in the discussion with Wright. She had known Coit previously. Coit first contends that the seizure of the razor was illegal and therefore its admittance into evidence was error.

A policeman may make a warrantless arrest if he has probable cause to believe at the time of arrest that a felony has been committed and that the person arrested has committed the crime. Ramsey v. State, 5 Md. App. 563, 567 , 248 A. 2d 659 . Officer Lascóla,