Pettis v. State

PpR Curiam. The Appellants, James Joseph Pettis and Robert Lee Faulds, were convicted of storehouse breaking by Judge Ralph W. Powers, sitting without a jury, in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County. Both Appellants were sentenced to eighteen (18) months in the Maryland House of Correction. The Appellants have challenged the sufficiency of the evidence.

The record indicates that on April 28, 1966, at approximately 3 :15 A.M. Corporal E. J. Nichols of the Prince George’s County Police was routinely patrolling the Riggs Plaza Shopping Center. As he approached the office of the American Finance Corporation of Takoma Park he observed the curtains partially closed and found that a safe normally positioned against the west wall of the office had been moved across a newly waxed floor to a position just inside the front door of the office. The Corporal further testified that he then left his vehicle and examined the front door of the office, finding several fresh pry marks around the latch. Thinking that someone would return, he circled the block, coming to rest approximately three minutes later at a point some two hundred feet from the finance company.

Immediately thereafter he observed a 1955 Chrysler stop in front of the finance company office and saw a man, whom he subsequently identified in court as the Appellant, Pettis, run from the office and jump into the car. Never losing sight of the vehicle, Corporal Nichols pursued it to the southwest corner of the shopping center where he found the Appellant, Faulds, to be the driver, and Pettis the passenger. Both explained that they had stopped in front of the finance company office to place telephone calls from a booth located some twenty feet away from the subject office. Without arresting either of the Appellants, the corporal reentered his vehicle and returned to the finance company office where he found that the safe had been returned to its normal ⁶⁵³ position adjacent to the west wall of the office.

Pie then pursued the Appellants and apprehended them. The manager of the finance company testified that when he-had closed the office at approximately 8:00 P.M. on April 27, 1966, the subject safe was in its normal position, adjacent to the west