Martin v. State

Per Curiam. Edward B. Martin, Jr., the appellant, was tried and convicted by the court sitting without a jury, on the first count of four indictments. The first count of each indictment charged him with robbery with a dangerous or deadly weapon of a different cleaning establishment, threatening a female employee with bodily harm, and proceeding to force her to give him the currency on the premises. The offenses were al ⁴⁰⁹ leged to have occurred on four different days.

In indictments Nos. 2030, 2033, and 2035 the prosecuting witnesses testified to seeing a knife in the hand of the appellant as he threatened them with bodily harm. The court imposed a sentence of twenty years in the Maryland Penitentiary in each case, making the sentences under indictments No. 2030 and 2033 to run consecutively, and the others concurrently. From the judgments entered thereon the appellant appeals. Appellant first contends that the trial court erred in not letting him take the stand in his own defense, but his counsel, with admirable candor, admits no merit in this contention, since, at the close of the State’s testimony no offer was made to place the defendant on the stand in his own defense, and the defendant’s case was closed without any defense testimony.

Gladden v. State, 227 Md. 266, 176 A. 2d 219 ; Brown v. State, 223 Md. 401 , 164 A. 2d 722 . His second contention is that the trial court was in error in finding the defendant guilty on the first count in indictment No. 2032 on the evidence. We find no merit in this contention. The prosecuting witness, Mrs. Mildred Jenkins, testified that appellant kept his hand under his coat