Crossland v. State

• Citation: 252 Md. 70,249 A.2d 153
• Decision Date: 13 January 1969
• Docket Number: No. 42,42
• Parties: Spencer CROSSLAND v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Maryland

Page 70

252 Md. 70

249 A.2d 153

Spencer CROSSLAND v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 42.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Jan. 13, 1969.

Howard B. Gersh, Baltimore, for appellant.

Edward F. Borgerding, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baltimore, for appellee.

Before HAMMOND, C. J., and MARBURY, BARNES, McWILLIAMS, SINGLEY and SMITH, JJ.

BARNES, Judge.

The appellant, Spencer Crossland, was indicted by the Grand Jury of Baltimore City in 1966 on four counts: (1) on having committed a daytime house-breaking, (2) for being a rogue and vagabond, (3) for having committed larceny and (4) for having received stolen goods. The case was tried before Judge James A. Perrott, without a jury, in the Criminal Court of Baltimore. The trial court granted Crossland's motion for a directed verdict at the conclusion of the State's case with respect to the first, third and fourth counts of the indictment because the State had failed to prove ownership of the stolen articles. Crossland, however, was convicted of being a rogue and vagabond under the second count and was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment from January 23, 1967, when Crossland's motion for a new trial was overruled. Crossland appealed to the Court of Special Appeals, contending that the evidence in the case was insufficient to sustain the conviction. The Court of Special Appeals on January 11, 1968 affirmed Crossland's conviction. See Crossland v. State, 2 Md.App. 722, 237 A.2d 85. We granted certiorari on April 11, 1968.

The relevant facts are not in dispute. Police Officer Joseph C. Folio, Sr. on September 1, 1966 while patrolling his post at or near the intersection of Twenty-Third and Boone Streets, in Baltimore City, observed Crossland walking out the front door of a dwelling house located at 524 East Twenty-Third Street. He observed that Crossland was carrying a portable record player in one hand and a transistor radio in the other. Crossland then walked east on the opposite side of Twenty-Third Street to Boone Street, turned the corner, and proceeded south on Boone Street, out of the sight of Officer Folio. The police officer went immediately into the dwelling house from which Crossland had emerged. After receiving 'certain information' from the occupant of the house, Mrs. Maggie Sheppard, he hailed a taxi-cab and directed the driver to drive throughout the neighborhood where he had last observed the appellant. As they approached Boone and Twentieth Streets, Officer Folio saw Crossland place the record player on the sidewalk and start to walk west on Twentieth Street. The Officer then arrested Crossland and in searching his person, discovered a 12-inch screwdriver which was stuck in Crossland's belt. Approximately 5 1/2 minutes had elapsed from the time Officer Folio spoke to Mrs. Sheppard until Crossland was apprehended. Mrs. Sheppard identified the record player as the property of her grandson and stated that it had been in the dining-room window of her home on the day it was taken, that she had not given any one permission to remove it, that she did not see Crossland in her house and that she had never seen Crossland before. There was no evidence of a breaking into the premises.

Count (2) of the indictment was predicated upon the provisions of Code (1957), Article 27, Section 490 defining a rogue and vagabond and providing for punishment for that offense. Section 490 provides as follows:

'If any person shall be apprehended having upon him any picklock, key, crow, jack, bit or other implement, at places and under circumstances from which an intent may be presumed feloniously to break and enter into any dwelling house, warehouse, storehouse, stable or outhouse, or shall have upon him any pistol, hanger, cutlass, bludgeon, or other offensive weapon, also at places and under circumstances from which may be presumed an intent feloniously to assault any person, or shall be found in or upon any dwelling house, warehouse, storehouse, stable or outhouse, or in any enclosed yard or garden or area belonging to any house, with an intent to steal any goods or chattels, every such person shall be deemed a rogue and vagabond, and on being convicted thereof shall be sentenced to the penitentiary for not less than one month nor more than two years, or to imprisonment in jail, at the discretion of the court, for a like term.' (Emphasis supplied.)

As we indicated in Bergen v. State, 234 Md. 394, 199 A.2d 381 (1964), there are four alternative elements or situations in which the statute is applicable:

1. The accused at the time of apprehension possessed tools or implements from which a felonious intent could be inferred; or 2. The accused at the time of apprehension had 'offensive weapons' under similar suspicious circumstances from which a felonious intent could be inferred; or

3. The accused is found 'in or upon' any dwelling house, storehouse, stable or outhouse with an intent to steal any goods or chattels; or

4. The accused is in any enclosed yard or garden or area belonging to any house with intent to steal any goods or chattels.

The State, as appellee, contends that Crossland's conviction can be supported under elements 1 and 3, while Crossland contends that the evidence, which...