Ford v. State

Thompson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. John Lay Ford, Jr., the appellant, was convicted by the Circuit Court for Queen Anne’s County of the unlawful sale of the drug, LSD. Judge J. DeWeese Carter, presiding without a jury, imposed a sentence of one year. On appeal, the sole question is whether the accomplice’s testimony was sufficiently corroborated.

On December 6, 1969, between 7:15 P.M. and 8:15 P.M., Constance McConnell, age 18, a student at Gunston School in Queen Anne’s County, received a telephone call from the appellant who asked if she wanted to buy any LSD. Miss McConnell testified that after she said that she did not want any, the appellant asked her to see if any of the other girls at the school wanted some at $5. per pill. She approached two students, Nancy Bruce Holland and Laurie Chandlee, who stated they would buy two pills each. When the appellant/called again at 9:00 P.M., he was told that she sold four pills; appellant then said he would drop them off at a post at the entrance to the school between 9:30 P.M. and 10:00 P.M. Miss McConnell found a white envelope containing the pills at the place indicated and distributed them to the two girls.

The appellant called the next day and told Miss McConnell to mail the money to a Kenny Benton in Sudlersville, Maryland. About a week later, the headmaster at the school, Paul Long, found out about the drugs and called the girls into his office. The appellant then called Miss McConnell after her talk to Mr. Long and wanted to know what was happening. He called back twice to learn of any new developments.

Laurie Chandlee, age 17, a student at the Gunston School, testified she met the appellant in New Jersey during the summer of 1969. She talked to him on the ⁶⁵⁶ telephone on December 6, 1969, before she received the pills. It seems that at the time he was trying to reach Miss McConnell, but inadvertently called the wrong dormitory. They discussed the quality of LSD and they talked about mutual acquaintances in New Jersey.

Miss Chandlee said that she was propositioned by the appellant to make weekly sales at the school, but she said, “No.” When she was asked if there was any discussion of the LSD she was going to purchase, she replied, “Yes, I think so. I told him that I wanted two tablets.” She stated that she could not recognize the appellant’s voice over the telephone; however, she did ask him if it Was “Jay” and he said “Yes.” Other witnesses corroborated some details of the crime and a chemist identified the pills as LSD, but there was no other testimony to identify the appellant with the crime or with Miss McConnell at the time of the crime. As we stated in Spies v. State, 8 Md. App. 160, 163 , 258 A. 2d 758 : “It is not sufficient that the accomplice’s testimony be generally corroborated; the corroboration must relate to the identity of the accused in that, as was stated in Boone v. State, supra, at page 19, it tends ‘to show that the accused was either identified with the