Marshall v. State

Per Curiam. The Appellant, Lee Sanders Marshall, was convicted of armed robbery by Judge Robert B. Mathias, sitting without a jiiry in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, and sentenced to ten years in the Maryland Penitentiary. The record indicates that on December 30, 1966, a delicatessen in Prince George’s County was robbed by two men, one of whom carried a gun. The owner testified that while he and his wife were alone in the store, a man wearing large dark sunglasses and a small brimmed hat came into the delicatessen, pulled a gun and demanded the money in the cash register and the money in the owner’s pockets.

He stated that the gunman was accompanied by another man who wore a mask and held the store entrance door shut with his foot during the robbery. He stated that the Appellant was not one of the two men. The principal witness for the State was Deputy Sheriff Edwin L. Sellers of Prince George’s County who, on the evening in question, was driving past the delicatessen at the time the robbery occurred. Mr. Sellers testified that he observed a blue and white Pontiac automobile parked about one hundred feet from the delicatessen and further noticed two men leave the car, one wearing dark glasses and a hat pulled down almost over his forehead.

Since it was 9:30 at night, the fact that the man ⁷¹⁷ was wearing dark sunglasses with a hat pulled down on his forehead appeared to Mr. Sellers “as being something funny.” As he drove past the Pontiac Mr. Sellers related that the man occupying the driver’s seat “just turned around and kept watching me.” Sellers then drove to the corner, made a U-turn and came back noting the license tag number of the automobile. As he slowly drove past the automobile the second time the driver again “kept watching me all the way until I got past the car.” Sellers noted that the two men he had previously seen “were walking just a little past Rose’s Delicatessen.” Unable to make a U-turn because of icy conditions, Sellers went around the block and as he returned to the parked car it had begun to move with its doors open and the two persons he had previously noticed leaving the automobile were “running down the street and jumping in the automobile” which then took off “at a high rate of speed.” Sellers attempted to give pursuit but was unable to do so because of the hazardous road conditions. He positively identified the Appellant as the driver of the getaway car, stating that he had gotten a good look at his face, taking particular note that he was wearing a diamond shaped goatee. He immediately broadcast a description of the individuals and the car over his police radio and later that same evening, identified a picture of the Appellant from among a group shown to him by the local police.

The Appellant testified in his own behalf, claiming that he was in a restaurant in