Blevins v. State, 146

• Decision Date: 16 February 1970
• Docket Number: No. 146,146
• Parties: Jack Duane BLEVINS, a/k/a Jackie Duane Blevins v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 708

8 Md.App. 708

261 A.2d 797

Jack Duane BLEVINS, a/k/a Jackie Duane Blevins v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 146.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

Feb. 16, 1970.

Certiorari Denied May 11, 1970.

James F. Garrity, of Baltimore, for appellant.

Clarence W. Sharp, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom were Francis B. Burch, Atty. Gen., Donaldson C. Cole, Jr., State's Atty., and Julius A. Jodlbauer, and Asst. State's Atty., for Cecil County respectively, on the brief, for appellee.

Before MURPHY, C. J., and ANDERSON, MORTON, ORTH, and THOMPSON, JJ.

MORTON, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of storehouse breaking and larceny by a jury in the Circuit Court for Cecil County. Concurrent sentences of ten and twelve years, respectively, were imposed.

The record indicates that Home Owner's Supply Company in North East, Maryland, was burglarized during the early evening of October 17, 1968, and a television set, a radio and a number of rifles and shotguns, valued at approximately six hundred ($600) dollars, were taken.

A fifteen year old girl and her twelve year old sister testified that they saw a youth named Smoky Cantler trying to break into the store by prying off the siding of the building with a pipe and, at the same time, observed appellant in front of the building with a girl who later turned out to be Dolores Todd. According to one of the sisters, from where appellant and the girl were standing they could see Cantler 'down the alley' breaking into the building.

A witness, who lived two doors away, testified that although his young son advised him that someone was breaking into the store, he 'paid no attention to him' at first, but that later he observed a man and a girl come out of the alley with an armful of guns, place them in the car and drive away with the girl at the wheel. He obtained the license number of the car which proved to be registered in the name of Dolores Todd. As they drove off, he saw another man come out of the alley and then observed the car being driven back to pick the man up.

A service station operator testified that he observed appellant and Dolores Todd, at approximately the same time as the previous witness had observed then, driving away from the front of the building and subsequently pick up Smoky Cantler who was walking up the street.

Later that evening, according to another witness, he met the appellant, Dolores Todd and Cantler at a bar. He was asked by them if he desired to purchase a gun and after some discussion appellant went out to a car, unlocked the trunk and handed the witness a gun stating that it was worth forty dollars. However, according to the witness, he decided to buy another gun which was handed to him by Cantler and that in the course of the negotiations, appellant stated that 'they are Rip Gibson's guns' (the owner of the burglarized store). The gun purchased by the witness was later turned over to the police and offered in evidence at trial.

The appellant took the stand and denied any participation in the burglary. He also denied telling the town police officer that: 'I didn't rob Gibson. But I know where the guns are at. And you will never get them.' The State, thereupon, recalled the town policeman in rebuttal, who was permitted to testify, over objection, that appellant...