Wiggins v. State

Orth, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Rosina DiPaula, single, age 76 years, 5 feet tall, weight 128 pounds, died in Maryland General Hospital on 12 November 1966. The opinion of the Medical Examiner was that she died of broncho-pneumonia complicating extensive head injuries with brain damage and that the manner of death was homicide. Alphonso Wiggins, age 15 years, was charged with her murder.

He was found guilty of murder in the first degree at a court trial in the Criminal Court of Baltimore and sentenced to imprisonment for the balance of his natural life. Rosina DiPaula lived with her elderly sister, Concertina, also single, at 1323 West North Avenue. Rosina was in good health on 4 October 1966, active, with her sister, in their embroidery work which they did in a sewing room on the second floor of their residence. Their brother, Joseph DiPaula, whose practice was to stop by to see them, both in the morning and in the afternoon, about five days a week, visited them at 6:00 P.M. that day.

They were in the sewing room working. He ate a dish of broth they had prepared for him. Concertina asked him to cash Rosina’s social security check in the amount of $68, but he had only $50 which he gave Concertina — “3 tens, 3 five dollars and five one dollar.” As he left the house about 6:30 P.M. he saw a young man, a Negro, standing outside the door on the steps. He was wearing a white jacket with “University of Maryland” on it in blue lettering.

He had a conversation with the boy, “Thinking — hoping he would step down from the steps and go away. But, he did not make any effort.” The boy remained on the steps while DiPaula went to the corner and bought a newspaper in a drugstore. DiPaula watched him and “after a little while he stepped down, he walked toward the curb, he look up and down, then he came towards me.” The boy apparently made a telephone call from a booth on the corner and then walked away. DiPaula remained on the corner, allowing several buses to go by and then took a bus and went ⁹⁸ to his home.

When he got home his wife had received a telephone call about his sisters and he went to the Maryland General Hospital. “They were beyond recognition * * * Their heads were swelled up and they were full of blood, and their hair was full of blood, their dress was full of blood, and they were just in a dying state * * * They were unconscious.” On 4 October 1966 about 6:40 P.M. Sergeant James Osborne and Officer Richard Catania of the Baltimore City Police went to 1323 West North Avenue in response to a call that a burglarly was being committed at that address. The vestibule door to the house was closed but not locked. The main door had been broken, one of the hinges had been torn loose and the door was hanging from the other hinge. They entered and found Concertina DiPaula and Rosina DiPaula in the hallway, each lying in a pool of blood.

Osborne testified, “There was a lot of blood, I estimate maybe three-quarters of a pint or pint around each one of them, and difficult to tell where they were injured, so much blood all mixed up in their hair and all.” Rosina was by the telephone with the receiver in her hand but the phone had been jerked from the wall and “was no longer in operation.” The police heard “a noise out back as if someone was leaving the house” and Catania ran toward the kitchen. Osborne went to the second floor. There was blood from where the sisters were found on the first floor all the way to the sewing room on the second floor. The entire house had been ransacked,- — doors and drawers pulled open, a mattress on a bed on the third floor rolled up and removed from the bed, pillows thrown on the floor, papers strewn about, clothes taken from closets and discarded on the floor, chairs knocked over.

Officer Davis had also received a call about the burglary. He went to the rear of the 1300 block West North Avenue. As he drove up the narrow alley he saw a boy running out of a rear yard of a house in that block. The boy was carrying what appeared to be a shoe box and -a couple of books under his arm.

In his other hand was what appeared to be a gun. As the police car proceeded up the alley the boy fired three shots at it. The boy ran up an intersecting alley. The police commanded him to halt and fired two shots at him but he continued running to ⁹⁹ Etting Street when he was joined by another youth.

They both ran up an alley in the rear of the 2300 block Etting Street and the police lost sight of them. Rosina and Concertina DiPaula were taken to Maryland General Hospital in an ambulance. Antonio Vega, age 13 years, was with the appellant, Willie June and Lee Cephus about 6:00 P.M. on 4 October 1966. Vega was wearing a white University of Maryland jacket.

They went “up on North Avenue” to the super market and June suggested they snatch a pocket book but Vega said he did not want to do that. June then said, “Well we wait until they go in the house then we get their money.” 1 Vega declined to do this and the others asked him to watch for them. He stayed outside the house to “watch out for them * * * If anybody come to tell them somebody coming.” The other three went into the house. After a while he heard somebody scream.

The scream come “out of the house they went * * * It sound more like a women.” Vega was scared. He saw the police coming and hollered police and ran. He went to a cellar on Brunt Street and the appellant, Cephus and Elders were there. 2 Cephus had a cigar box containing “earrings and stuff” and he had some money in his hand. The appellant had a gun and some empty cartridge cases.

The appellant had blood on his hand and wiped it on Vega’s jacket. Vega left, leaving the jacket. Rudolph Matthews, age 14 years, saw the appellant, June and Cephus on 4 October at a sandwich shop at Pennsylvania and Lafayette Avenues. June said they were going to make some money and the three of them went “down North Avenue.” He saw the appellant the next day playing dice with some other boys.

The appellant told him “he made a hustle.” The appellant had money — “fives, ones, tens,” and some jewelry which he said he got and was going to pawn. He had seen the appellant with a gun two or three weeks before. ¹⁰⁰ Allen A. Jones, age 14 years, saw the appellant the early part of October in a group playing “Skelly.” The appellant '“was talking. He said him and Lee (Cephus) was on North Avenue and they went in the lady’s house and took and beat the ladies with brass knuckles and iron pipes, and they was ^saying they were searching for money.” The appellant’s jacket '“had something red on it.” Eugene Golden, age 13 years, also saw the appellant the early part of October. “He (the appellant) say he made a hustle up ■on, he said he was up there, North Avenue, a super market and ■ say when he seen these two old ladies come out, he walked • around the back. At first him and Lee was talking to them, then he say he walked around the back.

He said he seen the lady .going in the market, then he say he walked around the back and tried to get in the door, so he couldn’t get in the door. When he came back around he seen the two old, seen the two ladies, then the lady walked in the house, so he said I planned this. He say I going to play this thick. * * * He said, he say I play this thick. He say when they came to the door I knocked ■on the door and said who is it.

He said, collectors. And when the lady got the door half way open, that is when he say he forced his way in. * * * He said when he broke the chain, he said there was a lady upstairs, he say he hit, somebody hit the lady and say when the lady upstairs heard them scream, then when the other lady upstairs and somebody somebody ■chased them back upstairs. I have forgotten who he say chased her back upstairs. * * * He say, after he told me that, then, that is when he had all that money.” Golden saw money in the ^appellant’s possession; “he had a couple of tens and fives and •ones.” He also saw that the appellant had brass knuckles, a ■gun and a night stick. The appellant told him that he went out the back of the house “and somebody said halt, and somebody ■ shot at him, and he jumped over the back wall.” While he was in the presence of the appellant, Cephus came up and Cephus :and the appellant “got to fussing” and the appellant gave 'Cephus some money.

Jerome Wells, age 13 years, was one of the group shooting '“Skelly.” He heard the appellant say that “he had beat these two old ladies with iron pipe and brass knuckles.” ¹⁰¹ Evidence sufficient to prove the corpus delicti was admitted by stipulation. As part of its case, the State, in addition to the evidence as above summarized, offered a statement made by the accused on 9 November 1966 at Boys’ Village. 3 ***⁸ On the issue of the voluntariness of the statement, the State produced Detective Howard Corbin of the Homicide Squad of the Baltimore City Police Department. Corbin said that he interrogated the appellant in a large office or assembly room at the Village in the presence of Detective William Craig, Detective Edward Chian and John Swenson, a social worker employed at the Village. Prior to questioning, the appellant was “advised that he could remain absolutely silent, that he had a right to an attorney to advise him, or be present with him during the taking of any statement whatsoever.

If he wished to stop on making these statements he could do so at any time he so desired * * * He was also advised that any statement that he made could be used against him in a court of law * * * If he did not have an attorney, or couldn’t afford an attorney, that we would be obligated to appoint counsel for him, and that the counsel would be present during the taking of the statements.” As each right was explained to the appellant he was asked if he understood and he replied that he did understand. When all the rights had been explained to him he was asked whether or not he wanted to make a statement and he said that he did. No threats were made to him, no promises were made and no force of any type or threat of force was used. Swenson testified that he had charge, as a social worker, of the cottage to which the appellant was assigned.

He was present during the entire interrogation on 9 November. No promises were made to the appellant, no force was used on him, no one placed “any hands” on him. “We sat down and talked calmly. The detectives informed the boy of what his rights were, and things like that * * * He under ¹⁰² stood everything * * * that is the way he appeared.” The appellant appeared calm; “his attitude seemed to be one to want to cooperate with the interrogators.” The defense produced the mother of the appellant on the issue of the voluntariness of the statement. She said that the police requested her to come to the police station about 11:00 P.M. on 2 November 1966.

A white officer and a negro officer were with the appellant. She did not know the names of the officers. The white officer left the room and the negro officer asked the appellant if he was ready to make a statement. The appellant said “he didn’t have nothing to tell him.

He told him twice. And as he told him that Alphonso kind of raised his voice at him a little bit, and this colored officer hauled off and slapped him and shoved him in that chair over there and told him not to get smart with him. He done told him he didn’t know nothing about what happened, and said he didn’t have nothing to happen, and he said, furthermore, I didn’t ask you to go get my mother.” He made no statement at that time. She said the police got her another time at night but she did not know the date.

On cross examination she said that it was sometime in November and when she arrived at the police station the appellate told her he did not send for her. On cross examination of her with regard to her first visit at the police station on 2 November, it appeared that the police informed the appellant as to certain of his rights but she could not recall what was said to him in any significant detail. The defense also called Detective Craig. The substance of his testimony was that he had not informed the appellant’s mother that they were going to talk to the appellant on 9 November.

The appellant did not testify on the issue of voluntariness. The trial court found on the evidence before it as to voluntariness that the appellant was advised as to his constitutional rights and that he understood them; that he acquiesced in giving a statement and that the statement was made freely and voluntarily, without any threats and promises. 4 The statement ¹⁰³ was held to be admissible over objection. Corbin testified that the appellant said that Willie June and Gary Cephus (apparently also known as Lee Cephus; he is sometimes referred to as ¹⁰⁴ “Lee” by the appellant) went into the house with him. Willie went in first, the appellant next and Gary last.

The appellant and Lee went into the kitchen. Willie said all the good stuff is upstairs and went to the second floor. A woman came out of the kitchen and Lee struck her. The appellant heard noises upstairs like someone fumbling and fighting.

He pulled the telephone from the wall. Lee told him to do it. Antonio told them the police were coming. Lee ran out the back and the appellant followed.

Willie ran out the front door. The appellant fired two shots at the police and ran. “I got $7.25 or more from the — Willie June told me on Brunt Street that if I told on him he would kill me.” The appellant was asked where he was before going into the house on North Avenue and he said that he, Willie June and Lee sat on the steps of 1323 West North Avenue. A man came out of the house they went in and a lady came out of “the house of the steps we were seated on.” The appellant said they hid “our stuff out in the back yard of 1433 Brunt Street.” They had guns and knives. He said, “I did not tell you anything about Willie June before because I was afraid of him.” At the conclusion of the evidence offered by the State the appellant moved for a judgment of acquittal as to murder in the first degree on the ground that there was not sufficient evidence that the homicide was committed in the perpetration of a robbery “or a felonious crime happening.” The motion was denied.

The defense called .Pearl Stallings who lived at 1326 West North Avenue. Her testimony corroborated the testimony of Joseph DiPaula with regard to the boy standing on the steps of 1323 West North Avenue when DiPaula left that house. She also said she saw the boy a second time and he went in the vestibule door. She neither saw nor heard anything else.

The appellant testified in his own behalf. He denied breaking into or entering the house. He admitted telling the boys who testified for the State that he “knew something about it” but denied he told them that he “did something.” He said he had been hooking school and was arrested on 5 October 1966 for watch stealing. He gave them the names of Lee, Wells, Golden and Matthews as boys “I hang around with.” He said that the ¹⁰⁵ statement he gave the police on 9 November was not a true statement.

He claimed that he made the statement because the police told him at Boys’ Village “that everything is all right, go ahead, tell us the story, get it off your chest. I still denied it; ain’t nothing going to happen, you stay here for a while, everything is okay. So I say, if I give you a story will you leave me alone? Yuh, we leave you alone.

I give them the statement.” 5 In answer to his counsel’s question, “Are you saying now that you had absolutely nothing to do with this crime up on North