Jackson v. State

Orth, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented on this appeal is whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain the appellant’s conviction of receiving stolen goods. As the appellant was found guilty by the Criminal Court of Baltimore, sitting as a jury, our function is to determine whether the judgment of the trial court was clearly erroneous on the evidence. Md. Rules, 1086.

See Williams v. State, 5 Md. App. 450 . We find that it was. The State produced a store detective for Hochschild Kohn & Co. Inc. who testified that on 16 August 1967 about 4:00 P.M. he was in the store at Howard and Lexington Streets “making my rounds.” He received word to go to the record department. In the record department he saw a young man take a couple of albums and place the munder his jacket.

At that point the appellant and another girl came into the department and approached the young man. He put the records back and all three walked out of the store to Lexington Street. The detective went to the Hochschild Kohn store at Eutaw and Sara-toga Streets. He noticed that the three persons he had seen in the record department had come into the store and “were hanging around these leather coats.” The appellant, who was carrying a large bag, grabbed a leather jacket off the rack and all the detective could see was her “hand go down” because the other girl was holding up a dress, obstructing the view.

The young man “disappeared” and the two girls proceeded toward a door leading from the store. They stopped. The girl again held up the dress and the appellant tried to take the ⁴²⁷ leather (suede) jacket out of the bag she was carrying. The detective arrested the two .girls.

The suede jacket, valued at $69, was identified as the property of Hochschild Kohn & Co. Inc., which was shown to be a corporation as alleged in the indictment. The appellant offered no evidence. The court granted a motion for judgment of acquittal as to the first four counts of the indictment and found the appellant guilty of receiving stolen goods charged in