Cothron v. State

• Decision Date: 02 March 1921
• Docket Number: 17.
• Parties: COTHRON v. STATE.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

113 A. 620

138 Md. 101

COTHRON v. STATE.

No. 17.

Court of Appeals of Maryland

March 2, 1921

Appeal from Circuit Court, Montgomery County; Hammond Urner, Glenn H. Worthington, and Edward C. Peter, Judges.

Grace Cothron was convicted of murder in the first degree, and she appeals. Judgment affirmed.

Argued before BOYD, C.J., and BRISCOE, THOMAS, STOCKBRIDGE, ADKINS and OFFUTT, JJ.

John A Garrett, of Rockville, for appellant.

Thomas L. Dawson, State's Atty. for Montgomery County, of Rockville, and Alexander Armstrong, Atty. Gen. (Lindsay C Spencer, Asst. Atty. Gen., on the brief), for the State.

BOYD C.J.

The appellant and her husband, Clarence Cothron, and William Eugene Landers, otherwise called "Gene" Landers, were jointly indicted for the murder of Homer Jones on the 11th day of June, 1919, in Montgomery county, Md. She elected to be tried by the court, and was on the 25th day of May, 1920, convicted by a full bench of that circuit of murder in the first degree. The same day she was sentenced to the Maryland penitentiary for the term of her natural life, and from that judgment this appeal was taken. There are seventeen bills of exception in the record, presenting rulings of the court on the admissibility of evidence.

It is contended in the brief for the appellant that there was no legally sufficient evidence to convict her of that crime; but, as there is nothing before us to raise such question, it is unnecessary for us to discuss it, and we could not properly do so. The first exception was to the offer and introduction of a statement made by the appellant on September 19, 1919, in the presence of the state's attorney for Cecil county, the sheriff and deputy sheriff of that county, and written out by the stenographer of the state's attorney. Later another statement was offered and admitted which was made by her at the Baltimore City jail in the presence of Detective Carey of the Baltimore City police department, which was taken down by a stenographer and afterwards reduced to writing, in the presence of her mother, her stepfather, and the warden of the city jail. Detectives Carey and Dougherty took it to the jail, and in the presence of the matron and warden, the appellant read it over, made some corrections, signed it, and said it was correct. The ruling in admitting that statement in evidence is embraced in the second bill of exceptions. It was shown that there were no promises, threats, or inducements of any kind to influence her to make either of those statements, and there was no proffer by her to prove that they were made by reason of any promises, etc., and they were properly admitted in evidence. There was therefore no error in admitting them, or either of them, even if they be treated as confessions and not as mere statements-a distinction which is made in some authorities cited by the state but which we need not discuss.

Prior to the admission of the last-mentioned statement, evidence of two detectives was given as to oral statements made to them by the appellant in the presence of her husband, when they were on their way from Florida, where they were arrested for what is spoken of as the Weldon murder, and there was no exception taken to that testimony. In order that the questions raised can be better understood, we will first state some of the facts we find in the record which relate to the movements of these parties before, at the time of, and after the murder of Jones. About the 1st of April, 1919, the appellant and her husband came from Florida to Baltimore. She became acquainted with Landers, whom she generally spoke of as "Gene," but sometimes as "John," and testified that she had met him in Baltimore and introduced him to her husband. Her husband and Landers made their plans to rob the Highland Bank in Howard county, Md. She testified that they went three or four times to Laurel, which is not far from the bank, although in a different county, in automobiles driven by colored chauffeurs, and that on the 11th of June, 1919, her husband hired Homer Jones, a colored man, to drive them out in a car which he ran, on which day her husband and Landers intended to rob the bank, and, as she described the plans:

"Gene and Clarence (her husband) were to go in and rob the old man, and I was to stay outside, and if anybody started to go in the bank I was to ask some questions so as to stall them off and keep them from going in the bank. That was the time we went down with Homer Jones."

The "old man" she referred to was connected with the bank and was usually alone about 12 o'clock. She said in the statement that they had told Jones that they were going after a girl, but testified on the stand that Jones knew about the proposed robbery; that Landers said:

"We are all fixed now. The chauffeur is right with us. Jones is right with us. I have promised him so much money to help us get away with the car. He is right on the deal."

Gene and Clarence concluded that there were too many people about the bank, and they abandoned the plan of robbing it that day. They got something to eat, and drove down a road leading off the main road and went into some woods, where they prepared dinner which the four ate. After finishing their dinner and talking for a while, she said she went back to the car. There is conflict between her written statements and her testimony as to who did the shooting and who was with her in the car, as in the statements she said Gene was with her and her husband stayed with Jones and killed him, while in her testimony she said her husband was with her and Gene killed him. She said she heard several shots-thought there were three-and the one who did the shooting called the other, and they moved Jones' body further back. She testified that she asked Gene why he killed Jones, and he said he did not see any show to rob the bank-

"He knew that the chauffeur had noticed it and he was afraid to go back to town for fear the chauffeur might squeal on him, and he said that was why he killed him."

She testified that she did not know that they were going to kill Jones and that she did not see him after she went to the car; that Gene threatened her when she asked some questions.

They returned to Baltimore in Jones' car, and she said "John," as she called him then, got some licenses from the boarding mistress where he lived. They rode out of town, and Landers put the licenses on the car, did something to the old license, and said he had disfigured it. In the statement she stated that she suggested going to Atlantic City, where her mother was, and they could sell the car; but she testified that her husband suggested that. At any rate, they went to Atlantic City and the car was sold, with the aid of her mother. They then went to New York, and in one of her statements she said:

"Gene wanted me to go into the cabarets and pick up men so they could knock them off for their diamonds and money. I did not get anybody, and we went to Coney Island. Gene sat with the driver and pulled him for all the information he wanted about getting money at Coney Island."

She said, in answer to a question asked by her counsel why she did not leave Landers and her husband after Jones was killed:

"I did not get a chance to leave them. If I started-they would not let me get away from them at all. John said he would kill me, shoot me right down."

She was then asked, "After you left John, why didn't you leave your husband?" and replied:

"Why didn't I leave my husband? Why I didn't know what he might do to me. Q. Did he ever say? A. No; why he has, yes, after Weldon was killed he has threatened my life."

She and her husband went to Florida, and on the 14th of July, 1919, they were arrested there and brought back to Maryland, charged with the murder of the man named Weldon. At the trial Detective Dougherty had testified without objection that he did not think he had questioned the appellant as to whether she was in the car when the shooting of Jones occurred, and in explanation of that said,

"The object at that time was to get to the Weldon body, and that is why we did not. I did not hold them to the Homer Jones affair, because at that time there was a mystery. We had Weldon's car and his ring, but did not have his body, and the object of us going along at that time was to find where Weldon's body was."

In her examination in chief she several times spoke of the Weldon murder. She had testified without objection that-

"After the killing of Homer Jones, she, in company with Landers and her husband, went to Atlantic City, and from there to New York, where they were separated from Landers, she and her husband going to Philadelphia."

She was then asked, "Where did you go from Philadelphia?" That was objected to, was overruled, and is presented by the eighth bill of exceptions. She replied that they went from Philadelphia to Florida. We can see no possible objection to that inquiry, as the state undoubtedly had the right to inquire into their movements shortly before and after the Jones murder. As was said by Judge Stockbridge in McCleary v. State, 122 Md. 394, 89 A. 1100:

"If, as claimed by the state, a murder had been committed, the movements and declarations made by the traverser between the time of the commission of the crime and the time of his arrest could hardly be other than important as reflecting upon his culpability vel non."

We can have no possible doubt about the correctness of the ruling in that (eighth) exception.

Before taking up the exceptions numbered from third to seventh, it will be convenient to consider the ninth, tenth, eleventh twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth. They relate to questions asked the appellant on cross-examination, as to what occurred between Philadelphia and Florida and...