Waldron v. State

Anderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant, John Durgin Waldron, Jr., was convicted of armed robbery in the Circuit Court for Howard County, Judge James Macgill sitting without a jury. He was sentenced to serve thirteen years under the jurisdiction of the Department of Correction, the sentence to be consecutive to any sentence he was then serving. Upon this appeal the sole issue presented for our consideration is whether the trial court erred in denying appellant’s motion for a severance.

On the evening of October 22, 1967, at about 11:00 p.m., Leonard L. Swanson and his wife, Beverly Jean Swanson, were preparing to close the Seven-Eleven branch store in Ellicott City, Maryland. A man came into the store as Mr. Swanson, who was in charge of the store at that time, was about to close and asked, “Am I too late?” Mr. Swanson replied, “No, sir, you’ll be the last one.” The man then produced a pistol and, with the aid of another man who entered shortly thereafter, robbed the Swansons and left them tied up in the store. The appellant and Lawrence Kates were jointly indicted for the robbery and the case was set down for joint trial. It appears that the appellant and Kates were jointly represented by two attorneys at the time of the trial.

Immediately before the trial was to begin, counsel requested separate trials for appellant and Kates. The ground of the motion for severance was that the victims might have greater difficulty identifying one of the defendants than the other, and a severance would preclude any in-court identification based solely on association or on the physical proximity of the defendants at trial. The court, after hearing argument on the motion, denied the requested severance. However, the court did order se ⁵⁷⁴ questration of the witnesses while the defendants were brought into the courtroom.

While the witnesses remained sequestered, the defendants, dressed in civilian clothing, were allowed to sit individually among the spectators rather than at counsel’s table. The