Coleman v. State

Henderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case, as in State v. D’Onofrio, 221 Md. 20 , we granted leave to appeal in a proceeding under the Post Conviction Procedure Act, Code (1959 Supp.), Art. 27, Secs. 645A-645I, and the two cases were argued successively. Here, the court below denied the petition, which was based upon alleged perjured testimony. The original trial was held on August 26, 1955, the appellant being convicted, by the court without a jury, of breaking and entering, and sentenced to a term of five years.

Appeal was taken to this Court and the judgment affirmed. Coleman v. State, 209 Md. 379. It appeared that certain television sets and radios were forcibly taken from a store in Glen Burnie in the early morning of April 7, 1955. A police officer saw a truck going the wrong ³² way on a one-way street in Glen Burnie at about 1:30 A. M. He hailed it, but the driver drove away.

The truck was abandoned at the “dead end” of the street, and the four occupants fled. Loretta Cox, and Dellavox were picked up in the vicinity shortly thereafter. The police officer could identify only one of the occupants, Myers. The abandoned truck, which had been stolen, contained the stolen articles mentioned above.

Loretta Cox, sixteen years old at the time of the burglary, testified she knew Coleman and the other boys and was with them in the truck. She sat in the truck with Dellavox while Myers and Coleman went to get coffee. She heard a crash and they came back with certain boxes, and drove off. The police chase ensued almost at once.

She had gone for a ride with the three boys, but had heard no previous discussion as to a burglary, and knew nothing about their intentions. The chief contention raised in the case was that Loretta Cox was an accomplice, and that her testimony was uncorroborated. No other witness connected Coleman with the burglary. She was not tried for any crime, but had been before the juvenile court.

There was no evidence as to the outcome of that proceeding. We held that the trial court’s finding that she was not an accomplice was not clearly wrong. The appeal was argued on February 8, 1956. On February 16, 1956, the attorney for the appellant filed in this Court an affidavit purportedly made by Loretta Cox