Hall v. State

• Citation: 162 A.2d 751,223 Md. 158
• Decision Date: 08 July 1960
• Docket Number: No. 247,247
• Parties: Leonard HALL, Jr., v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 158

223 Md. 158

162 A.2d 751

Leonard HALL, Jr., v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 247.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

July 8, 1960.

Robert J. Dougherty, Baltimore (William R. Sutton, Baltimore, on the brief), for appellant.

John Martin Jones, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen. (C. Ferdinand Sybert, Atty. Gen., and Frank H. Newell, 3rd, State's Atty. for Baltimore County, Towson, on the brief), for appellee.

Before BRUNE, C. J., and HENDERSON, HAMMOND, PRESCOTT and HORNEY, JJ.

BRUNE, Chief Judge.

The defendant-appellant, Leonard Hall, Jr., was indicted on a charge of murder, was found guilty of murder in the first degree by a jury in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, and was sentenced to death. He appeals.

He raises four questions (though not in the order here stated):--(a) whether the trial court erred in admitting into evidence a memorandum of an oral statement by the defendant and thereafter withdrawing it without properly instructing (or informing) the jury as to the ruling; (b) whether oral statements of the defendant were inadmissible by reason of prolonged interrogation, promises, threats and fears; (c) whether two witnesses should have been permitted to read to the jury alleged oral statements of the defendant taken down by them; and (d) whether the defendant was prejudiced by the alleged misconduct and inattention of some of the jurors.

Question (a) appears to be based upon a misapprehension of facts shown by the record. The two judges before whom this case was tried in the Circuit Court conducted a full and lengthy preliminary hearing out of the presence of the jury with regard to the admissibility of two oral statements made by the defendant (each of which statements had been reduced to writing). The court at first ruled that one of these statements (marked for identification as State's Exhibit 30), which had been taken down by Detective Davis, was admissible in evidence, and seems to have been on the point of making a similar ruling with regard to the other statement, a transcript of stenographic notes made by Mr. Perkins, a court reporter, of a police interrogation of the defendant. As a result of a colloquy which began when Detective Davis was on the stand and was renewed during Mr. Perkins' testimony, the court reversed its ruling as to State's Exhibit 30 and did not admit Mr. Perkins' transcript, which was marked for identification as State's Exhibit 32.

When the jury was recalled it was agreed by stipulation of counsel for the State and for the defendant that the testimony taken in open court (but not in the presence of the jury) relating to the admissibility of these oral statements should be read to the jury by the court reporter, Mr. Danker. This was done, but the reading was stopped by the court at the point where the colloquy began which resulted in Exhibit 30 being first admitted but later being held inadmissible. When this point was reached a conference was held between court and counsel for both sides, out of the presence of the jury, as a result of which it was explicitly stipulated that no more of the proceedings before the court but out of the presence of the jury should be read to the jury. The result was to omit the reading of certain testimony of Detective Davis and testimony of Mr. Perkins relating to the respective statements taken down by them. Each of them was then called to testify with regard thereto before the jury.

When Detective Davis was so called, he was first asked whether he had taken notes of his conversation with the defendant at the Parkville Police Station. He replied that he had. He was next asked if he had those notes with him. To this he answered, 'They are admitted as an exhibit, sir.' The court very promptly corrected this statement and made it clear that the notes had been marked for identification as (State's) Exhibit 30, but that they were not in evidence. This was a correct statement of the facts as shown by the record.

The appellant's brief, however, states: 'It is submitted, without authority, that the Appellant was prejudiced when the trial court erroneously admitted into evidence the State's Exhibit No. 30 (E. 265, 266) as being a memorandum of the Appellant's oral statement and thereafter rejecting the Exhibit as documentary evidence. The error could only have been harmful because the jury at one point was advised through the testimony that it was admitted and was not thereafter advised that it was rejected or withdrawn. The impression made upon the jury was unquestionably prejudicial.' Without considering at this point the legal correctness or incorrectness of the trial court's rulings on the admissibility of this exhibit, we think it quite evident from the record that the contentions above quoted from the appellant's brief as to failure of the trial court properly to advise the jury of its rulings are completely lacking in factual support.

A brief outline of the facts of the case pertinent to questions (b) and (c) is as follows:

Anna Gaff, aged 66, resided with her husband John T. Gaff, aged 78, on the premises in which they conducted a tavern on Back Neck River Road, at Essex in Baltimore County. On the night of July 15-16, 1959, Anna Gaff was gagged, bound and stabbed to death in the kitchen on the ground floor of the building. A kitchen knife was found driven into her back up to the handle, and she had been stabbed six times besides. Cigar boxes usually containing some $700 or more in cash, a safe deposit key and other keys with a metal tag bearing Mr. Gaff's name were missing. The tavern had closed before the murder was committed. Mr. Gaff had gone to bed and to sleep in a room on the ground floor somewhat removed from the tavern and kitchen; an aged Negro handyman, who occupied a room in the cellar had also gone to bed and to sleep. Neither heard any sounds during the robbery and murder. Mr. Gaff discovered his wife's body at about three o'clock in the morning of July 16th. The police were promptly notified and arrived on the scene within a few minutes. There were no eyewitnesses of the murder.

On the afternoon of July 16th, while the police were still searching for clues and evidence at the Gaff tavern, the defendant, who had been sitting in the tavern, came up and asked one of the officers if he was working on the case and inquired whether there were any fingerprints. He stated, 'Well, if you got fingerprints you will catch the person who did it.' The defendant told the police officers that he had been at the Gaff tavern the night before, that he knew 'Mom and Pop' well and often came into the place and that he had stopped in to pay his respects. In response to the police sergeant's inquiry he gave his name and gave his address as the Ritz Hotel in Baltimore, and said that the police could get hold of him if they wanted to talk to him. He then left the tavern.

The police sergeant called his lieutenant just after this talk and they agreed that it would be well to get Hall in for further questioning. The police located him at another tavern in the neighborhood, and he then willingly went with them to the Essex Police Station.

Hall was picked up at about 6:25 P.M., questioning began at 8:07 P.M. and it continued until 12:28 A.M. He said that he had recently come from New Jersey and was staying at the Ritz Hotel in Baltimore. The officers had ascertained that there was no hotel of that name in Baltimore and so told the defendant. At least one other discrepancy developed in his statements, but he made no incriminating admissions. Hall agreed to go with the police in their search for the hotel where he was actually staying. On the way he said that maybe he had told the police enough already, that he would not tell them where his hotel was and that he thought he ought to see a lawyer. The police replied that that was his privilege and the subject does not appear to have been pursued further. He also expressed a desire to see a minister, which the police agreed the might do.

Hall proceeded to guide the officers to the Edison Hotel, near Fayette and Gay Streets, in Baltimore. He gave the officers the number of his room and sat in a police car while the 'evidence squad' searched his room. They found the keys and tag and the cigar boxes above referred to under a chair in the appellant's room. The cigar boxes contained over $420 in bills and change and two checks later identified by customers as having been cashed at the Gaff tavern. Just before 1 A.M. on July 17th, while awaiting the result of the search, Hall covered his face with his hands and said to the two detectives with him: 'I am not afraid to die, I just don't want to go to hell.' When informed by the evidence squad that certain evidence had been found in his room, he said: 'If you will take me to a station, I will tell you all about it.' They then set out for the Parkville Police Station and, while en route, Hall said 'I don't know why I did it, I don't know, I just don't know.'

When Hall arrived at Parkville he was taken to an interrogation room where he made a statement between 1:57 A.M. and 2:25 A.M. Detective Davis took very full notes of this statement in longhand--in fact, the entire statement, word for word, he testified. The remainder of this paragraph is based upon Detective Davis' testimony with regard to this statement. In it the defendant described the robbery or larceny in detail and the binding and gagging of Mrs. Gaff. He said that Mrs. Gaff must have gotten the gag loose and started 'hollering for help.' At this point Hall said: 'I don't know what happened. I just don't know what happened.' He further said: 'I must have killed her, but I don't know.' He said he must have grabbed a knife, that he didn't know where it was when he grabbed it, that he had a gun, but didn't want to shoot Mrs. Gaff, that that was why he tied and gagged her. Hall then spoke of a pillow which he took from the Gaffs' bedroom. He later said, 'I took the pillow back to the storeroom...