Shields v. State

PER Curiam. The appellant, Nathaniel Shields, was charged in the first count of the indictment in this case with assault with intent to kill, and in the second count with assault and battery. He was tried in the Criminal Court of Baltimore and was found by the jury not guilty on the first count but guilty on the second. He had a long record of convictions involving crimes of violence and was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment.

On this appeal he challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction and he attacks the sentence as cruel and unusual. The pertinent facts are brief. Nathaniel Shields, aged 65, and his brother, William H. Shields, who lived together in a room which they rented in Baltimore, engaged first in a ⁴⁸⁷ drinking bout and then in two fights in April, 1960. The first fight occurred on the first floor of the house where they lived when William (who also has something of a criminal record) attacked Nathaniel with a knife.

A woman friend of the landlady tried to separate the brothers and got cut for her efforts. Nathaniel then took her to a hospital, returned to the house and went upstairs to change his clothes. As he did so, he called to the landlady to lock the door; but before she could do so, William, who had gone out, re-entered the house and started up the stairs. Nathaniel met him at the head of the stairs and