Brunson v. State
Decision Date | 18 February 1970 |
Docket Number | No. 161,161 |
Citation | 261 A.2d 794,9 Md.App. 1 |
Parties | Cedric Ray BRUNSON v. STATE of Maryland. |
Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Jack E. Richards, Baltimore, for appellant.
William E. Brannan, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom were Francis B. Burch, Atty. Gen., Charles E. Moylan, Jr., State's Atty., for Baltimore City, Sandra O'Connor and Hilary Caplan, Asst. State's Attys. for Baltimore City, on brief for appellee.
Before MURPHY, C. J., and ANDERSON, MORTON, ORTH and THOMPSON, JJ.
Appellant, Cedric Ray Brunson, was tried on March 17, 1969 in the Criminal Court of Baltimore by a jury, Judge Solomon Liss presiding, for daytime housebreaking. The jury found appellant guilty and he was sentenced to six years under the supervision of the Department of Correctional Services. Appellant presents three questions on appeal. They are:
1. Was there sufficient evidence to convict appellant of daytime housebreaking?
2. Should the State be bound by Rule 728, Discovery and Inspection?
3. Did the trial judge err in refusing a cefense motion for mistrial?
Appellant does not challenge the State's proof of the corpus delicti of the crime of daytime housebreaking. Appellant challenges as insufficient the quantum of proof of his criminal agency. At trial the only evidence connecting appellant to the crime was two fingerprints, positively identified as appellant's. The prints were found on the door of the house which had been broken into. One was found on the inside of the door and one was foud on the outside of the door.
The Court of Appeals in McNeil v. State, 227 Md. 298, 176 A.2d 338, stated the rule as to fingerprints:
'It is generally recognized that finger print evidence found at the scene of a crime must be coupled with evidence of other circumstances tending to reasonably exclude the hypothesis that the print was impressed at a time other than that of the crime.'
This Court further referred to the statement in McNeil in Lawless v. State, 3 Md.App. 652, 241 A.2d 155, when Judge Orth, speaking for the Court, stated:
In addition to the Lawless case, this Court has considered a dozen other cases dealing with fingerprints as part of, or the sole proof of, the criminal agency of the defendant. Each case must be considered on its own facts. Contrast Musgrove v. State, 3 Md.App. 54, 237 A.2d 804 and Gray v. State, 4 Md.App. 155, 241 A.2d 725 with Hannah v. State, 3 Md.App. 325, 239 A.2d 124 and Thomas v. State, 1 Md.App. 528, 231 A.2d 915. Applying the threefold test we enunciated in Lawless to the instant facts, we find that the circumstances surrounding the fingerprint found on the inside of the door tend to exclude the hypothesis that the print was impressed at a time other than that of the crime. Mrs. Smelkinson testified that the door upon which the appellant's prints were found had been painted three weeks prior to the housebreaking. She further testified that she did not know appellant and had not given him or any other person permission to enter the house on the day in question. The appellant's fingerprint was found on the inside of the door, which squarely places him inside the house. Appellant did not offer any explanation why his fingerprint was found on the inside of the door...
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