Crawford v. State

Orth, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. As a result of a search of the premises 608 West Biddle Street in Baltimore City under the authority of a search and seizure warrant, the police obtained evidence which served as the basis of convictions of Garland Edward Crawford by a jury in the Criminal Court of Baltimore of possession of narcotic paraphernalia (3rd count indictment 2151), and receiving stolen goods (4th count indictment 2156). He seeks reversal only of the judgment under indictment 2156. The search warrant was issued upon affidavit showing probable cause that narcotic drugs and narcotic paraphernalia were being concealed in the premises 608 West Biddle Street.

It commanded the police officer-affiant, ⁶²⁶ with the necessary and proper assistants, to search the premises for the property specified, to seize the property if found, and to arrest any persons found then and there engaged in the commission of a crime. Executing the warrant, the police found appellant alone in a third floor bedroom asleep. They found narcotic paraphernalia on a chair beside the bed and about 29 pawn tickets in the bedroom closet. One of the pawn tickets was for a radio that had been stolen in a breaking and entering and it was this radio which appellant was convicted of receiving.

Appellant presents only one question: “Did the court err in admitting into evidence the pawn tickets which were not particularly described in the search warrant under whose authority they were seized ?” We first note that appellant was also charged with maintaining a nuisance house or common nuisance under indictment 2152 and that indictment was tried jointly with 2151 and 2156. When the State offered the pawn tickets and the court overruled objection to them, it told the jury: “Now, members of the jury I am admitting this evidence consisting of pawn tickets containing as said the name Crawford, only as to the charge contained in indictment #2152 charging the defendant with maintaining a nuisance, a common nuisance, or a nuisance house. It is not being admitted for any other purpose or in any other case at this time.” Then after evidence had been adduced to show a breaking and entering as charged in indictment 2156 and to show that one pawn ticket was for a radio taken in that breaking, that one pawn ticket was admitted also as going to the charges in 2156 and the jury were so told. At the close of all the evidence the court granted a motion for judgment of acquittal as to indictment 2152.

In its instructions to the jury it made clear that only the pawn ticket which was for the radio alleged to have been taken ⁶²⁷ in the breaking and entering charged was before them. The court further charged the jury that if they “should conclude that under the law the officers should not have taken the pawn ticket,