Beall v. State

• Decision Date: 09 December 1953
• Docket Number: No. 45,45
• Citation: 101 A.2d 233,203 Md. 380
• Parties: BEALL v. STATE.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 380

203 Md. 380

101 A.2d 233

BEALL v. STATE.

No. 45.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Dec. 9, 1953.

Ignatius J. Keane, Hyattsville (Joseph A. DePaul, Hyattsville, on the brief), for appellant.

Ambrose T. Hartman, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Edward D. E. Rollins, Atty. Gen., Carlyle J. Lancaster, State's Atty., P. G. Co., and Wilmer D. Pyles, Asst. State's Atty., Upper Marlboro, on the brief), for appellee.

Before SOBELOFF, C. J., and DELAPLAINE, COLLINS, HENDERSON and HAMMOND, JJ.

COLLINS, Judge.

This is an appeal by Richard L. Beall, appellant, from judgments and sentences on two indictments charging him on September 28, 1952, with the Statutory crime of assault with intent to murder Roy V. Lilly and his wife, Joyce Lilly. Code, 1951, Article 27, § 14.

The indictments each contained two counts, the first charging the appellant with assault with intent to kill and murder Roy V. Lilly, and the second with assault and battery on Roy V. Lilly. In the other indictment he was charged on the first count with assault with intent to kill and murder Joyce Lilly, and in the second count with assault and battery on Joyce Lilly. From verdicts of guilty and sentences thereon under the first count of each indictment, he appeals to this Court. Thomas Parke was indicted on the same charges, found guilty, and sentenced for assault with intent to kill and murder Roy V. Lilly and Joyce Lilly on the same date. The Beall and Parke cases were tried together by the trial judge sitting without a jury. However, Thomas Parke did not appeal.

The uncontradicted testimony shows, for the purpose of these cases, that shortly after 7 P.M. on September 28, 1952, Richard Beall, the appellant, went into a tavern in Mt. Rainier, Maryland, where he started drinking whiskey and beer. About 11 P.M. that evening Thomas Parke went to the same tavern and was invited by Beall to have a drink. Parke drank beer with Beall. About one o'clock A.M. Beall invited Parke to his home. They walked a distance of about three blocks to 4116 29th Street, the home of Beall's father-in-law, Mr. McAllister. Beall told Parke to wait in front of the house. Beall then went to the back door of that house, broke a large pane of glass in the back door, reached in and unlocked the door. He then went to the front room on the second floor and removed a loaded revolver from a box. He came out of the house. When asked by Parke about the crash of glass he had heard, Beall said he broke the glass to get in the house and that he had a gun. Beall told Parke to come with him. They walked across the street and Beall started toward the Lilly house at 4111 29th Street. Parke then started to wrestle with Beall and told him that he knew he did not live 'in all these places'. Beall put his hand in his pocket and ran up on the porch at 4111, the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lilly, who were painting in the front room of this house which they had just purchased. Mrs. Lilly was standing on the radiator in front of the double window. Mr. Lilly was standing on the floor. Mrs. Lilly saw Parke come up on the front porch. He looked 'sort of glassyeyed' to her. He knocked on the door. She told her husband that someone was at the door and 'to be careful'. As her husband opened the door she got off the radiator and was standing on the floor. Mr. Lilly opened the door. Mr. and Mrs Lilly testified that Parke said: 'You better get on the floor or he will kill you.' Parke testified that he said: 'There is a man outside with a gun; if you don't do what he says, he will kill you.' Mr. Lilly told Parke he did not believe him. He said: 'I think you are kidding.' He shut the door and snapped the double lock. At that time Beall jumped on the porch with a revolver in his hand, made a threatening move, and said: 'Yes, and I mean it, too.' Mr. Lilly called to his wife to 'hit the deck', and he 'took a dive into the kitchen'. Beall then broke the window in the door, reached his hand in and tried to unlock the door. Mr. Lilly was in the kitchen calling for help. Beall then ran over and broke the storm glass and front window. Someone 'yelled': 'If you don't stay in there, he will kill your wife.' Mrs. Lilly then dropped prone on the floor in front of the radiator. The broken glass fell over her while she was lying on the floor over the telephone. The men then wrestled on the front porch. Mrs. Lilly telephoned the police and Beall and Parke, apparently hearing the call, left the porch. The police had had a previous call that a gun had been stolen from 4116 29th Street. When the police arrived they found Thomas Parke walking down the sidewalk, his clothes rumpled and torn. He was intoxicated. There were a number of blood spots on his clothes. Parke asked the police to look around the neighborhood because there was a 'crazy man' who was drunk running around with a gun. Parke testified that before the police came Beall stuck a gun in his ribs and told him to 'move on'. An automobile was coming up the street. Beall told Parke to lie down in front of a hedge and, if he 'opened his mouth', he would 'blow his brains out'. Beall was not found until about noon at his room in Prospect Garden. Later that morning Mr. Lilly found in his front yard Beall's cigarette lighter and a bullet which fitted Mr. McAllister's revolver, an Enfield British make, 38 Caliber short. Mr. Schatz, Chief of Police of Mt. Rainier, testified that the next day Beall's hand was bandaged. Beall told him that he had taken the revolver from his father-in-law's front bedroom, broke the windows at 4111 29th Street, attempted to unlock the door and told Mrs. Lilly to lie down. He did not remember much after that time. Beall also told Mr. Schatz that he had been drinking and 'just went crazy'.

Beall testified substantially as follows. On September 28, 1952, he came home from his work about 6 P.M. His wife was not at home and he called her at her father's address and was told to come up there. On the way to his father-in-law's home he met a friend who asked him to 'have a drink'. He went in the tavern shortly after seven o'clock and started drinking beer and whiskey. Parke, whom Beall had seen before but had never talked to, came in the tavern and the two started drinking 'heavily' together. They staggered down the street. Beall said he did not know Mr. and Mrs. Lilly, had no reason to go to their house, and did not see them until he was later identified by them at the police station in Hyattsville. He does not remember having a 'tussle' with Parke. He remembered having his hand cut and he remembered breaking the windows and cutting his hand. He said he did not see anyone in the house. He did not remember Parke going to the door and having a conversation with Mr. Lilly. He did not remember having the gun until later nor breaking into his father-in-law's house and taking the gun. He did not know why he broke the window at the...