Hall v. State

Morton, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant went to trial in the Criminal Court of Baltimore (Karwacki, J., presiding) on an indictment charging murder and armed robbery. The jury returned a not guilty verdict on the murder charge, but guilty on the armed robbery charge. In this appeal it is first contended that the trial judge committed reversible error in denying appellant’s motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of all the evidence.

The record indicates that as the victim and her eleven-year old son were leaving a shopping center in Baltimore City about 9:15 p.m. on October 18, 1974, the mother was attacked by two young men. In the course of the attack her purse was stolen and she was shot three times, resulting in her death. The son testified that the assailants were nineteen- or twenty-year old blacks, one of whom had his hair plaited in “cornrows.” He observed them run down ⁵¹ Argonne Drive while he sought help. In a police line-up and at trial, the son was unable to identify the appellant as one of the assailants.

Another witness who lived next door to the appellant on Argonne Drive testified that during the evening of October 18, 1974, he was leaving his house and observed the appellant and an individual named Harris come down an alley. He stated that the appellant had a gun sticking out of one pocket and money out of another pocket. According to the witness, the appellant’s hair was braided in cornrows. He was not sure whether the time was 9:15 p.m. or whether it could have been 8 o’clock.

On Sunday, October 20, 1974, appellant took a bus to the home of his aunt and uncle in North Carolina where, according to the testimony, he was to enter school the next day. The aunt testified that on the day following his arrival appellant told her that he had witnessed an attack on a woman in Baltimore the previous Friday night. He told her that prior to the attack an acquaintance named Maurice had stopped by appellant’s home and when he went outside with Maurice, there were three other individuals. They then walked about two blocks where they encountered a woman and a little boy walking out of a shopping center.

Maurice and one of the individuals grabbed the woman’s pocketbook and when she resisted, the other individual shot and killed her. The appellant told his aunt that he had watched the attack from across the street and did not participate in it. He was told by the individual who fired the shots that he would kill the appellant “if he told.” According to the aunt, appellant said that the gun had been thrown away in the area; that there was $4 and change in the pocketbook; and that each one got 50 cents, although appellant never stated specifically that he himself got 50 cents. The appellant, his mother and one of his brothers testified that appellant was at home with his mother, three brothers and a sister during the entire evening of October 18, 1974.

There was also testimony that the day following the shooting, the police questioned appellant with respect to the murder and robbery and he was then released. The next day ⁵² appellant’s mother and step-father decided to send him to North Carolina to go to school. One week later the police advised appellant’s parents that they wanted to question him further and the parents then had appellant sent back home. The police intercepted the bus he was traveling on in Washington, D. C., where they arrested the appellant and returned him to Baltimore.

In the course of appellant’s testimony he admitted he had told his aunt in North Carolina that a woman in the neighborhood had been killed but denied giving his aunt the details she had testified to, telling the jury simply that he was not there and did not know who had done it. In contending that it was error to deny his motion for judgment of acquittal, appellant asserts that the trial judge “erred by applying the wrong standard in determining the legal sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a conviction in that the trial court looked only to whether there was sufficient evidence from which the jury could infer guilt, rather than whether there was sufficient evidence from which the jury could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt” The record indicates that the trial judge, in response to appellant’s motion at the conclusion of the state’s case, announced: “THE COURT: I appreciate the argument, gentlemen. You have covered the points very well, and I can say I feel there is sufficient evidence from which a jury can infer guilt of the crimes charged in both indictments, and I will therefore deny the motion for judgment of acquittal for the reasons I have expressed in the course of my colloquy with counsel.” The motion was renewed at the close of all the evidence and summarily denied. While the state suggests that the issue is not preserved because the judge’s remarks were addressed to the first motion and not the second, we think the issue should be met.

In appraising “a contention that the evidence was insufficient in law so as to preclude it from being submitted ⁵³ to the jury, the test is whether the evidence either shows directly or supports a rational inference of the facts to be proved, from which the trier of fact could fairly be convinced, beyond a reasonable doubt, of the defendant’s guilt of the offense charged.” Williams and McClelland v. State, 5 Md. App. 450, 459 (1968). See also Metz v. State, 9 Md. App. 15 . It is true, as appellant asserts, the trial judge did state in the course of his assessment of the evidence that “I feel there is sufficient evidence from which a jury could infer guilt of the crimes charged in both indictments * * We think, however, that his failure to recite the magic litany “guilt beyond a reasonable doubt” is not fatal. His failure to do so does not demonstrate, as appellant contends, that he employed the wrong standard in denying the motion for judgment of acquittal.

The trial judge was an able, experienced judge and it is inconceivable that he was unaware that an accused’s guilt “must be established beyond a reasonable doubt.” State v. Hutchinson, 260 Md. 227 (1970). Any thought to the contrary is completely dispelled by looking at his instructions to the jury during which he advised the members: “ * * * The burden of proof is upon the State to prove every element of the crime charged against the Defendant and he is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. * * * While the burden is on the State of establishing every fact material to the guilt of the Defendant, including every circumstance that enters into the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt, that does not mean that the State must prove the Defendant guilty to an absolute or mathematical certainty. “Guilt beyond a reasonable doubt may be based on direct evidence of the facts or it may be based on circumstantial evidence. Circumstantial evidence consists of proof of collateral facts and circumstances from which the existence of the main fact may be inferred according to reason and ⁵⁴ common experiences. * * * For in either case, the jury must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of the guilt of the Defendant.” In any event, the ultimate question is “whether-the State’s evidence was, in fact, legally sufficient to permit the case to go to the jury.” Robinson v. State, 20 Md. App. 450, 456 (1974). We think it was.

There was the witness who, although equivocal on the exact time, saw the appellant on the evening of the crime with a gun sticking out of one pocket and money out of the other. There was the highly incriminating story the appellant related to his aunt upon his arrival in North Carolina. She testified that she could not have learned of the crime from the newspaper because “we don’t get that paper.” There was appellant’s own concession that he told the aunt of the murder. There was his departure for North Carolina shortly after the crime.

There was the testimony of the victim’s young son that one of her assailants had a “cornrow” hair style, contradicted only by the testimony of the appellant that he had a “buckwheat” hair arrangement. “It has been consistently held that in order to overturn a judgment entered on the verdict of a jury for insufficiency of the evidence, it is necessary that there be no legally sufficient evidence or inferences drawable therefrom on which the jury could find a defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Agresti v. State, 2 Md. App. 278, 284 (1968). We cannot make that finding on the record before us. It is next contended that the trial judge erred in