Davis v. State

Thompson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Kenneth Davis and Lawrence Stanley Napier, Jr., the appellants, were convicted of grand larceny in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. Judge H. Kemp Mac-Daniel, presiding without a jury, imposed sentences of three and four years respectively. Appellants contend, first, the evidence was insufficient to support their convictions and, second, the trial judge committed reversible error when he permitted a police officer to testify that a particular motor vehicle was registered in the name of Napier.

There was testimony as follows: One Solomon Goldberg, a wholesale watch salesman, registered at a motel located in Pikesville, Maryland. After having coffee, he discovered that his automobile containing two sample cases of watches had been stolen. The automobile was later recovered but both sample cases of watches had been removed from the trunk of the automobile. Goldberg testified one of the sample cases contained an unknown number of 17-jewel Swiss watches and the other sample case an unknown number of one-jewel watches.

He estimated the total number of watches in both cases to be approximately one hundred, with a value of approximately $2,500. Thomas Burl identified Davis in court as being the person from whom he acquired two sample cases of watches as the result of a meeting between them at a produce ⁶⁶⁹ market in the 6400 block of Pulaski Highway. Burl identified a sample case and watches, which had been previously identified by Goldberg, as the same case and watches he had purchased from Davis. Burl also identified Napier as the person accompanying Davis when he delivered the watches to Burl.

Further, Burl testified that at that time he did not know Napier by name, and that Napier said nothing while Burl and Davis talked. Detective John Smith of the Baltimore County Police, who investigated the case, testified that while at the produce market in the 6400 block of Pulaski Highway he observed a 1968 Plymouth station wagon bearing Maryland license tag AH-8849 being driven by Napier with Davis as a passenger. Smith also saw a truck driven by Burl. Both vehicles proceeded to the back of the property where Smith saw Davis take a black case out of the station wagon and give it to Burl.

Later, with a search warrant, the police seized the watches from the truck at Burl’s home in Frostburg. Smith, over objection, also testified that he checked the registration file at the Department of Motor Vehicles on license tag AH-8849 and found the Plymouth station wagon was registered by Lawrence Stanley Napier. The rule is well established that the unexplained possession of recently stolen goods raises an inference of fact the possessor is the thief. Such possession must be exclusive but the cases explain exclusive does not mean exclusively in one person; the possession can be joint.

Tierney v. State, 7 Md. App. 56 , 253 A. 2d 528 ; Graham v. State, 6