Kershaw v. State

Collins, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal from a conviction on an indictment charging the appellant with violating the gambling laws. The case was tried by the trial judge without a jury. On April 11, 1951, Officer Hagen and Sergeant Cohen of the Baltimore Police Department, after complaint, went to a dwelling house at 2537 E. Oliver Street, Baltimore.

Sergeant Cohen waited across the street. Officer Hagen, with a book under his arm similar to that used by insurance collectors, knocked at the door. A Mrs. Edith M. Simms, the occupant of the house, came to the front door. Officer Hagen said he took his badge out of his pocket, showed it to her and told her he was from the Police Department, that he was there in answer to a complaint and asked to talk to her.

Officer Hagen said: “She says all right come in”. There was no hallway but a door leading from the vestibule into the living room. Officer Hagen said then: “I walked in the door and it was a living room, the first floor, and she continued back into the dining room and I followed her. * * * When I got to the dining room Sergeant Cohen was behind me. Walked back to the dining room and she continued through the dining room to the doorway between the dining room and kitchen, and on the dining room table I saw an Armstrong scratch sheet that had the results of two races and a Racing Form.

Sergeant Cohen and myself we were in the room and thé Sergeant ¹³⁷ started to talk to her.” Hagen said he does not recall whether a telephone rang in the back room. He denied that Mrs. Simms said “wait a minute”. Sergeant Cohen testified that he saw Officer Hagen go in with Mrs. Simms. He followed them into the dining room. “As I got into the middle room, second room, there was a scratch sheet and a Racing Form on the table, and on a little telephone table was a number of pads with race horse bets.

I asked her whose they were and she didn’t say anything. In a minute or so a man walked in from back in the summer kitchen.” He said Charles Kershaw, the appellant, came in and: “I identified myself and asked his name. He said his name was Charles Kershaw. I asked him if these belonged to him.

He said ‘they did’, and I said do you live here. He said ‘no I live at 23 Overbrook Road’. I said did this woman have anything to do with this? He said ‘no, it is all mine’.

I said how long have you been there. He said ‘two weeks’ * * * ‘Making Book’ * * * I picked the race bets up and took him into the Northeastern Station. I charged him and Mrs. Simms, and at the trial before the Magistrate he took blame for everything.” The pads contained names of horses which ran on April 11, 1951, and represented 181 race bets, $652.00 “in play”. Mrs. Simms testified that she lived in the house with her husband and three children.

She said she had known Kershaw for ten years. Kershaw’s wife was away and he said he was having some work done at his home. He rented her upstairs middle room for $10.00 per week. She gave him permission to use her telephone and the privileges of the kitchen and dining room.

She testified that on April 11th someone came to her door. She said: “Well, I went to the door and I knew I just paid my insurance man and I saw this man standing there with an insurance book. I opened the door and said what is it? He opened the book, and when he opened the book I saw it didn’t have anything on the pages.

Then he pulled out a badge. He said I am an