Trout v. State

Per Curiam. The Appellant, Wayne Timothy Trout, was convicted of second degree murder in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, by Judge John E. Raine, Jr., sitting without a jury, and sentenced to eighteen years in the Maryland Penitentiary. In this appeal, the sole question is whether the evidence was .'legally sufficient to sustain the conviction. The record indicates that on March 24, 1966, at approximately 6 :00 P.M., Mrs. Virginia Trout, the wife of the Appellant, was fatally wounded by a .22 caliber bullet that penetrated the cavity of her left eye on an upward trajectory and at an ■angle of about 50 degrees from left to right.

A downstairs neighbor of Mr. and Mrs. Trout, Mr. Joseph Sullivan, testified that on the evening in question he heard a noise and then heard footsteps running across the floor upstairs and down the steps. The Appellant then came to the back ■door of Mr. Sullivan’s apartment and said that his wife had been fooling with a gun and that the gun “went off” and asked Mr. Sullivan to call an ambulance. Having called the ambu ²⁶¹ lance, Mr. Sullivan again met the Appellant coming down the stairs with his four year old daughter and a pistol in his hand. The Appellant’s daughter and the gun were then taken by Mr. Sullivan to his mother’s house.

He then returned to the Trout apartment as the ambulance arrived. When the police reached the scene they placed both Mr. Sullivan and the Appellant in the Sullivan apartment where they were kept for approximately an hour and a half before being taken to the Towson Police Station. The testimony of several witnesses indicated that the Appellant was hysterical, sobbing and completely bewildered. He was so upset that as late as 7:30 P.M. he apparently was not capable of giving his own name.

For a period of several hours following Mrs. Trout’s death the Appellant repeatedly stated that his wife was twirling the pistol on her finger and the pistol discharged, causing her accidental death. Testifying at the trial the Appellant stated that his four year old daughter was playing with the pistol and it was discharged accidentally when he attempted to take the pistol away from her. Mr. George A. Berley, a weapons expert employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, testified concerning the mechanical functioning of the pistol which fired the fatal shot. He stated that the slide on the top of the automatic pistol had to be pulled back to cock the pistol; that the trigger had to be pulled and held in order to discharge the bullet; and that in his opinion, the pistol