Hopkins v. State, 365
| Decision Date | 16 July 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 365,365 |
| Parties | Leon R. HOPKINS and Ernest R. Terry v. STATE of Maryland. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Morris L. Kaplan, Baltimore (Michael Lee Kaplan, Baltimore, on the brief), for appellants.
Carville M. Downes, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Thomas B. Finan, Atty. Gen., Charles E. Moylan, Jr., and John D. Hackett, State's Atty. and Asst. State's Atty., respectively, for Baltimore City on the brief), for appellee.
Before HORNEY, MARBURY, SYBERT, OPPENHEIMER and BARNES, JJ.
The appellants, Leon R. Hopkins and Ernest R. Terry, with a third person, Martin L. Spriggs, were charged under one indictment with the armed robbery of the manager of a real estate office in Baltimore. The three defendants were tried together by Judge Grady sitting without a jury in the Criminal Court of Baltimore and were all found guilty. After being sentenced to terms in the penitentiary, Hopkins and Terry appealed.
According to the State's evidence, on January 31, 1964, the complaining witness, Robert Katzoff, was working in his real estate office when at approximately 12:40 P.M. three men entered and pretended to be interested in an apartment. Then one of the men threatened Katzoff with a knife and another took his wallet which contained, among other things, $15.00 and his salary check. He was forced to open a safe from which were taken $190.00 in cash, a Masonic apron, a cloth bag with Hebrew lettering on it, a pistol, several checks, and other items. The intruders bound Katzoff's mouth and hands with adhesive tape and then left. After Katzoff was unbound by a tenant in the building he summoned the police and gave them partial descriptions of two of the men, which were broadcast over the police radio. The broadcast said that the two robbers were colored men, and that one was wearing a fatigue jacket and the other a cream colored jacket and khaki pants.
A police sergeant cruising in a patrol car heard the broadcast and a few minutes later saw two colored men within eight blocks of the real estate office 'walking fast, looking around in back of them.' One was wearing a fatigue jacket and the other a cream colored jacket and khaki pants. Believing that they fitted the descriptions, he stopped his car and arrested them without a warrant. The two were Spriggs and the appellant Hopkins. Hopkins was searched when arrested and a small knife was seized from him, and later at the police station $51.00 was taken from him. Two police detectives arrived on the scene and searched Spriggs. A knife and a pistol were taken from him at that time and $50.00 was taken from him at the police station. Hopkins denied any knowledge of the holdup. However, Spriggs admitted that he had participated in it and told the police that he would show them where they could find the third man.
Spriggs then accompanied the police to an address where he told them they would find the third man. Spriggs went inside with the police, who arrested the appellant Terry without a warrant. He denied any knowledge of the holdup. The apartment belonged to a friend of Terry. Terry and Spriggs were taken to the police station where Spriggs gave a written statement naming the two appellants as participants in the holdup. The appellants were then confronted with the statement but both denied any knowledge of the facts contained therein. The police asked Terry whether they could search his apartment. According to them, Terry gave them oral permission to do so and also voluntarily signed a police form authorizing the police to search his residence. Terry then accompanied the police to his apartment where the officers seized a Masonic apron, a cloth bag with Hebrew lettering, a wallet and some checks. Later the police found $77.00 in the apartment.
On this appeal by Hopkins and...
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