Lyter v. State

Murphy, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. On October 28, 1965, the court sitting without a jury found appellant guilty generally on a four-count armed robbery indictment and sentenced him to ten years in the Maryland Penitentiary. He contends on this appeal that his confession was involuntary and, as such, was improperly received in evidence over his objection at the trial. The evidence adduced at the trial showed that at 1:30 a.m. on September 30, 1965, a grocery store in Cumberland was robbed at gun point by two men, later identified as Julio Conejo and Alex Grimes; that the robbers fled the scene in a waiting automobile driven by the appellant; that the appellant and his companions were shortly thereafter apprehended by the police and taken into custody; and that appellant gave a written statement to police containing incriminating admissions, on October 1.

At the trial, the State sought to prove volutariness of appellant’s statement through the testimony of William Baker, a county investigator, who took the statement. Appellant objected to the introduction of his statement on the ground that it was ⁶⁵⁶ the involuntary product of earlier interrogations conducted by Captain James Van of the Cumberland Police Department. Appellant testified that he was first interrogated by Captain Van at approximately 9:30 a.m. on September 30, the interrogation being conducted, for the most part, in Van’s private office without other police officers being present; that Van told him that he had a right to remain silent, that anything he said could be used against him, that any statement he would make would have to be free and voluntary, and that no threats or promises would be made; that Van nevertheless got angry with him at the outset of the interrogation and kicked a garbage can, yelling out “I know you did it, confess”; that Van thereafter told him that he thought he was “a nice boy,” and that his companions had “influenced” him; that while Van repeatedly told him that he couldn’t make any promises, he stated that he had been in Cumberland for about thirty-five years, knew how the court and the State operated, and said “if you cooperate with me, I can cooperate with you”; that Van said he wanted appellant to “get a break, and even though I admitted this crime, he didn’t have nothing against me whatsoever, that he wanted to help me”; that Van said “I can talk to the Judge and I know a lot of people,” and that “I will do all in my power to see that you get off with as light a sentence as possible”; that Van told him about the case of a boy who was involved in seventy breakings and enterings who had confessed to him and who, with Van’s help, got off with only a year’s probation; that Van told him of another man that he got off with a light sentence and said that “after I get them off, I don’t drop them,” and also said that “I even got the man a job after he got out of prison.” Appellant testified that he refused to give a statement at the time of this interrogation because he couldn’t remember anything about the crime, being drunk in the car at the time of its occurrence. He further testified that on the following day, Captain Van again interrogated him, telling him that his companions had confessed, that now he was “really in for it,” and that he, Van, was going to put appellant “so far behind bars you are never going to get out.” Appellant testified that he then became scared and asked whether he, Van, could “still help him out” if he made a statement and that Van stated that “it is a ⁶⁵⁷ little too late” but that “I will see what I can do.” Appellant was then taken to Baker’s office where he promptly made the statement later introduced at his trial.

The appellant testified that he was influenced by what Van had told him and made the statement to Baker for these reasons: “* * * I felt if I make a statement then that he would give me a break because, as he told me about the man with the breakings and enterings, he said seventy breakings and enterings and he confessed and he said they got all of the stuff back, which is the same thing as in your case, they got all the money back. “And that I got him off with a year because I know how the Court works, I know everybody in the court. I can talk to them. I can get you a break. And that is why I made a statement because I thought he was going to help me by this, I wanted to cooperate with him so he would help me.” Captain Van was called to testify after appellant had concluded his testimony on the question of the voluntariness of his statement.

Van testified that he made no promises to appellant, did not threaten him, and did not say that he wanted to help