Campbell v. State, 71
| Decision Date | 10 December 1959 |
| Docket Number | No. 71,71 |
| Parties | Wallace CAMPBELL v. STATE of Maryland. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Tucker R. Dearing, Baltimore (Paul J Cockrell, Baltimore, on the brief), for appellant.
James O'C. Gentry, Asst. Atty. Gen. (C. Ferdinand Sybert, Atty. Gen., Saul A. Harris, State's Atty., and Joseph G. Koutz, Asst. State's Atty., for Baltimore City, Baltimore, on the brief), for appellee.
Before BRUNE, C. J., and HENDERSON, HAMMOND, PRESCOTT and HORNEY, JJ.
Wallace Campbell was convicted by the court sitting without a jury of assault with intent to rob with a deadly weapon. A codefendant, John Marshall, had pleaded guilty and his testimony, if believed, showed Campbell to be guilty. On appeal Campbell says that there was not evidence materially corroborative of the testimony of the accomplice sufficient to sustain the conviction.
Marshall's testimony was that he and appellant planned the holdup together, that appellant had a pistol and that they acted in concert in attempting to commit the robbery. The details were: he had known Campbell for some months, he sought him out one morning at a house where he was playing cards, both of them needed money and wanted a way to get some, Campbell had shown him 'a little small pistol' and asked if he, Marshall, could get one, he borrowed a sawed-off shotgun, he and Campbell called for a girl they both knew named Odessa Poindexter, the three of them rode around in Campbell's car driven by Campbell, and bought and drank some whisky paid for by Odessa. Getting to the time of the attempted robbery, he continued: they drove down Mosher Street about 11 o'clock at night and Campbell double parked the car in the middle of the block because he had looked in the drug store at the corner and had seen that there were no customers in it, Campbell said to him 'Are you ready, * * * come on'. Campbell told Odessa to wait in the car and said he would get her some beer, the two men walked to the drug store where he waited outside and Campbell went in to ask for the beer and to take care of any attendant who might be in the front part of the store, and that he thereafter walked into the drug store and went to the back to handle anyone in the store who was in the back. The plan agreed to was that the one nearest the cash register would take the money.
Other testimony was that Marshall was greeted by the druggist, who, when he saw the shotgun pointed at him, yelled to his wife to 'hit the floor' and grasped the barrel of the shotgun and deflected it, and tusselled with Marshall for it. During the struggle Campbell ran and then Marshall ran, as the druggist fired at them with his pistol. They ran out of the store and down the street towards the car. Odessa, seeing them running, after hearing the shots, moved over to the driver's seat and started up the car, driving slowly. The two men got into the car and escaped.
Campbell's story was that he knew nothing of the plan to hold up the store, that he had gone in to get some cans of beer, that as he was buying the beer Marshall came in and attempted the robbery.
There was corroboration of Marshall's testimony in the following particulars. A fourteen-year-old girl coming to visit her grandmother across the street saw two men go into the drug store about the time of the happening, heard the shooting, and saw two men run up the street and get into a car. Odessa corroborated the fact that Campbell was driving the car, that he stopped it near the drug store, double parked in the middle of the block, that he said to Marshall 'Come on man, let's go on in,' that Marshall thereupon got out of the car and went with Campbell, that Campbell came back to the car and said he was going to buy beer and asked Odessa if she wanted some, that the two went into the store, and that they came running out of the store and back to the car. She also testified that after Campbell got into the front seat of the car there was a small pistol on the seat which she had not seen there before. The druggist's wife testified, although with some indefiniteness, that Campbell had come into the store ahead of Marshall and had bought beer, and the druggist likewise identified Campbell as having been in the store ahead of Marshall.
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