Day v. State

Per Curiam. The appellant was convicted of being a rogue and vagabond in the Criminal Court of Baltimore before Judge Meyer M. Cardin, presiding without a jury, and sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 18 months. On this appeal, the appellant first contends that the evidence was not sufficient to sustain a conviction. Officer John Coleman of the Baltimore City Police Department testified that at about 1:25 A.M. on August 2, 1966, he was patrolling in a radio car with a fellow officer in the vicinity of the Americana Apartments, located in the 6300 block of Green-spring Avenue.

The apartments were a typical modern apartment development with parking areas and sidewalks provided for the tenants and their guests. The officers, while in their car on the parking lot, observed the appellant and a co-defendant, Kenneth Davis, walking on one of the sidewalks toward the entrance at 6316 Greenspring Avenue. The appellant was observed to have dropped something on the ground immediately before the two entered the building. Officer Coleman followed them into the building, and saw them looking at the index of ⁴⁰⁶ tenants in the first floor hall.

From their manner of dress and general appearance, the officers thought that they did not live in the building, and asked them if they were lost and if they needed.any help. Whereupon the appellant said he was looking for a girl named Berrechia whom he had taken to the building the night before. They all looked at the register and apparently there was no Berrechia listed. They went outside.

Upon inquiry by the officer as to where he lived, the appellant produced a chauffeur’s license indicating he lived on Pratt Street. The officer walked over to where he had seen the appellant drop something and found 82 “various keys” tied together with cord. The officer could not say whether they were car keys or house keys. The appellant’s car (about 180 feet away) was searched with his permission.

In it was found a leather bag containing a screwdriver, bent at a 45 degree angle, 276 “various keys” tied together in the same manner as the keys found on the ground, and a pair of gloves. The appellant told the officer that he used those keys in his job of repossessing automobiles. No attempt was made to rebut that assertion. The appellant was searched and had in his possession a penlight or small flashlight.

We stated in Thomas v. State, 1 Md. App. 528, 532 , that Md. Code, Art. 27, § 490 has three distinct parts, by the commission of any one of which, a person shall be deemed a rogue and vagabond: 1) If he “shall be apprehended having upon him any .pick-lock, key, crow, jack, bit, or other implement, at places and under circumstances from which an intent may be presumed feloniously to break and enter into any dwelling house, warehouse, storehouse, stable or outhouse.” 2) If he “shall have upon him any pistol, hanger,, cutlass, bludgeon, or othér offensive weapon, also at places and under circumstances from which may be presumed an intent feloniously to assault any person.” 3) If he “shall be found in or upon any dwelling house, warehouse, storehouse, stable or outhouse, or in any enclosed yard or garden or area belonging to any house, with an intent to steal any goods .or chattels.” It is clear in- the instant case that