Floyd v. State

• Decision Date: 10 December 1954
• Docket Number: Nos. 27,28,s. 27
• Citation: 205 Md. 573,109 A.2d 729
• Parties: Samuel David FLOYD v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 573

205 Md. 573

109 A.2d 729

Samuel David FLOYD v. STATE of Maryland.

Nos. 27, 28.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Dec. 10, 1954.

Julius P. Robinson, Baltimore (Bernard F. Goldberg, Ellicott City and Robert B. Watts, Baltimore, on the brief), for appellant.

Ambrose T. Hartman, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Edward D. E. Rollins, Atty. Gen., and Daniel M. Murray, Jr., State's Atty. Howard County, Ellicott City, on the brief), for appellee.

Before BRUNE, C. J., and DELAPLAINE, COLLINS, HENDERSON and HAMMOND, JJ.

DELAPLAINE, Judge.

Samuel David Floyd, a resident of Washington, was indicted by the grand jury of Prince George's County for the rape and robbery of Dorothy Mildred Jones, a resident of Prince George's County, on July 7, 1953. Both cases were removed to the Circuit Court for Howard County, and the accused was tried before that Court sitting without a jury. He was found guilty of rape and was sentenced to death. He was also found guilty of robbery and was sentenced to imprisonment in the Maryland Penitentiary for a term of ten years, the sentence to be suspended on condition that the death sentence is carried out. He appealed from both convictions.

Miss Jones, age 26, was employed by National Airlines as a radio operator at the Washington National Airport. She resided with her sister, Mrs. Virginia Seyforth, and her husband, Harry E. Seyforth, in their home at 3433 79th Avenue in the suburban development known as Forestville. She testified that on July 6, 1953, she finished her work at midnight, and left the airport at about 12:15 a. m. At 1:05 she took a bus on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington on the way to Forestville. She got off the bus at the intersection of Marlboro Pike and Boone's Lane at about 1:30. While walking on Boone's Lane toward her home, she saw an automobile turn into Marion Street. As she approached the intersection of Boone's Lane and Marion Street, a Negro grabbed her with one hand and held a knife in the other. She screamed with fright, but he choked her and threatened to cut her throat if she screamed again. She asked if he wanted money. The Negro replied: 'No! I'll get that later.' He then dragged her across the road and pushed her down on some honeysuckle vines and raped her.

Miss Jones further testified as follows about her horrible experience: 'So after he finished, then he sat up beside of me, and he said, 'How much money you got?' And I said, 'I don't know. I have twenty and a five and some ones.' And he said, 'Where's your pocketbook?' And I said, 'I think it's up there in the middle of the road.' So he went up to hunt it, and then he came back, and he said, 'It's not up there.' Then I noticed a few feet in front of me that it was lying over there, and he said 'Get it.' So I got it and gave him the money. And then he said, 'Is that all you got?' So I opened my wallet and let him see that that was all the money I had. So then he said, 'Don't you leave from here until I'm ready for you to go, because if you do I'll shoot your head off.' He said, 'If you don't believe me, do you want to see my gun?' I saw the butt end of the gun. I couldn't stand to see it any more. And I said, 'I believe you.' Because I thought he was going to shoot me then. So I said, 'How am I supposed to know when you're ready for me to go?' And he said, 'I'll whistle.' So then he walked away, and I sat there a few minutes. I was so weak I couldn't sit up for a while. And then I heard somebody starting away in a car, * * * and then when he started up the pike I sat up and took my shoes off and ran home.'

Mrs. Seyforth testified that shortly after 1:30 a. m. she heard a scream, and about five or ten minutes later she heard a car speeding down the road, and several minutes afterwards she heard her sister sobbing and knocking at the bedroom window. When she opened the door her sister collapsed in her arms. 'Her skirt and her blouse was all wet and muddy,' Mrs. Seyforth said, 'and she had her shoes in her hand when I opened the door, and they were all caked with mud, and her hair was all messed up * * * and she was hysterical.'

Mr. Seyforth called the Prince George's County police. Officers Taylor and Simmons received the call at 1:52 and arrived at 1:55. Miss Jones described the criminal as a tall Negro, with a mustache and short hair and wearing a white T-shirt. The officers immediately took her to the scene of the crime. There they found some articles from her pocketbook lying on the road.

Appellant was apprehended slightly more than one day after the crime. On July 8 at about 3 a. m. Officers Crook and Woodward, of the Metropolitan Police Department, while riding in their scout car in Washington, observed a dark green Hudson sedan that 'answered the description of the information received on the Prince George's rape and robbery.' The officers ordered the driver, a Negro, to stop, and requested him to show his registration card and operator's license. They immediately observed that the Negro, who was wearing army pants with large pockets, 'fitted the general description of the colored man in the case.' The officers took him to the police station, where Officer Johnson promptly formed a lineup of five Negroes, all of about the same build and complexion. Two of them had a mustache. When Miss Jones appeared she instantly identified appellant as the man who had raped and robbed her. 'Yes, there he is,' she exclaimed, 'I can feel that mustache on my mouth now.'

The main contention of appellant on these appeals is that the evidence produced by the State was insufficient to warrant his convictions. He argues at the outset that since there was no moonlight early on the morning of July 7, 1953, and no electric light near the place where the rape was committed, and since the rape lasted only 'between five and ten minutes,' it was not probable that Miss Jones could identify the man who had raped her. We were not convinced by appellant's argument.

In the first place, Miss Jones, who frequently walked on Boone's Lane at night, and often used a small flashlight when she found it necessary, testified that she did not need a flashlight to discern the features of the man who raped her. Although the carnal act lasted only a short time, nevertheless the rapist stood near her and talked to her for some time afterwards, and she avowed that she could 'never forget him in a thousand years.' She also recognized his voice. When the accused was put in the lineup with the other Negroes in the police station in Washington, she immediately identified him beyond any doubt.

In addition to Miss Jones' positive identification, the State produced the testimony of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene O'Brien regarding the 'loud screeching noise' of the automobile. The O'Briens, whose home is at 3500 Boone's Lane, about 100 feet from the place where the rape was committed, were startled by the scream. Mr. O'Brien looked out one window while Mrs. O'Brien looked out another. Mr. O'Brien testified that he saw an automobile parked in front of the house. He stated that it looked like a dark Hudson sedan. Just as he turned away from the window, he heard the slamming of a door of the automobile. Then, when he turned on the electric light on the front porch, he saw the automobile speeding away. Mrs. O'Brien testified that a door of the car made a 'loud screeching noise.' About a week later, when she was shown appellant's automobile, the left...