Edwards v. State

Citation76 A.2d 132,196 Md. 233
Decision Date03 November 1950
Docket Number9.
PartiesEDWARDS et al. v. STATE.
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland

R. Palmer Ingram, Baltimore, for appellants.

Kenneth C Proctor, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Hall Hammond, Atty. Gen., J Bernard Wells, State's Atty., Baltimore City and Alan H Murrell, Asst. State's Atty., Baltimore City, Baltimore on the brief), for appellee.

Before MARBURY, C. J., and DELAPLAINE, COLLINS, HENDERSON and MARKELL, JJ.

MARBURY, Chief Judge.

This is an appeal by two defendants who were convicted in the Criminal Court of Baltimore by Judge France, sitting without a jury. The appellant Nash was found guilty under one indictment charging having in possession and selling lottery tickets, and Edwards was found guilty under the same indictment and also under two other indictments charging making books on races. The sole question is whether evidence obtained from a search of the defendants and their automobile should have been admitted in the trial. It is contended by the appellants that sufficient evidence was not offered to justify the arrest and subsequent search and that such arrest and search was unreasonable and in violation of the Bill of Rights.

The facts shown by the evidence are that the Baltimore City police were given a description of two white men wanted for a holdup of an East Falls, Virginia, bank. The two men were said to have been apparently headed for Baltimore with about $14,000.00 in cash. On that day, or the following day, Sergeant Disney, a member of the Police Department, received information about 7:45 P. M. that there were two strange men visiting different restaurants in the neighborhood of 31st Street and Greenmount Avenue, exchanging roll coin for currency. The Sergeant came across these two men in a seafood restaurant on Greenmount Avenue, and he said they answered the description given him. He asked Nash if he had exchanged any roll coin and he denied it. Edwards said he had, and asked: 'What of it?' and, upon an inquiry from the Sergeant as to where he had gotten it, he replied: 'Saved it in a piggy bank.' The officer took them both to the station-house, and docketed them for investigation, suspected of an armed holdup. They had a car which was titled in the name of Edwards and which was driven by them, with the officers, to the station-house. Edwards was searched and on his person was found a slip with names and addresses on it and telephone numbers, and $8,566.43 consisting of twenty-four $100.00 bills and a number of 50's, 10's and 5's, and some change. After this search was made at the station-house, the officer asked Edwards for the key to his car and was told: 'You have the key; go ahead.' Nash also had a number of slips on him which were found by search, and in the car there were found 45 envelopes and 10 pad books used generally in the numbers game. There were also 34-odd cards of lottery race slips for Tuesday and Wednesday on horses that ran at Pimlico, and adding machine ribbons totaling $4,995.00. After this search had been completed, the Sergeant came back into the station-house, and, under the bench where Edwards and Nash had been sitting, he picked up ten more envelopes, three notebooks, names and numbers corresponding to the first ones, adding machine ribbons totaling $152.00, and race slips.

It does not appear from the record that the appellants were ever charged with the Virginia robbery, and they claim that, as they were arrested without warrant, the...

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