King v. State

• Decision Date: 09 January 1953
• Docket Number: No. 56,56
• Citation: 93 A.2d 556,201 Md. 303
• Parties: KING v. STATE.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 303

201 Md. 303

93 A.2d 556

KING v. STATE.

No. 56.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Jan. 9, 1953.

U. Theodore Hayes and Wm. I. Gosnell, both of Baltimore, for appellant.

Ambrose T. Hartman, Spec. Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Edgar Harvey, Acting Atty. Gen., Anselm Sodaro, State's Atty. and Wm. C. Rogers, Jr., Asst. State's Atty., Baltimore, on the brief), for appellee.

Before DELAPLAINE, COLLINS and HENDERSON, JJ.

COLLINS, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment and sentence for the possession of lottery tickets and other lottery paraphernalia. The case comes to this Court on the refusal of the trial judge to exclude certain of this lottery paraphernalia as evidence against the appellant. The appellant and Gladys Traynham were jointly indicted. Gladys Traynham plead guilty to the possession of the lottery paraphernalia, which plea was accepted by the State. The trial then proceeded against King.

The testimony showed that on March 14, 1952, Sergeant Thomas McKenna of the Baltimore Police Department, accompanied by three other officers, McKay, Glass and Livesay, between 11:15 A.M. and 12:25 P.M., were parked in an automobile in the vicinity of Madison Square in Baltimore. They had in their possession a search warrant authorizing the search of the premises at 1017 North Caroline Street, a three-story brick dwelling, and one automobile bearing Maryland license number 150-378 listed to one Madison King, the appellant here, and another automobile bearing Maryland license number 169-235, listed to one Willard King.

About 12:25 P.M. Sergeant McKenna observed a Chevrolet coach, which he later learned bore Maryland license number 169-235, and operated by the appellant, Madison King, parked on Chase Street, two car lengths west of Caroline Street. After a few minutes he observed Madison King walk south on Caroline Street. He hesitated in front of 1017 Caroline Street, looked back and ascended the steps. Sergeant McKenna said he saw the appellant 'put his hands up to the frame as if he may have been ringing the door bell, which I believed he was doing, and I had my car in motion at that time.' He said the door of the house opened and after he had given Officer Glass, who accompanied him, certain instructions, Glass jumped from the seat next to him and went up the steps of 1017 Caroline Street as the appellant was being admitted in the front door. Officer McKay had followed Glass out of the car and McKenna heard Glass say: 'Just a minute, police.' At that time the door was slammed and Glass came 'backwards'. He started pounding on the door and hollered 'police, open up'. Then he kicked the door. By that time Sergeant McKenna was on the steps and called out 'We are police, we have a search and seizure warrant, open the door'. Glass was shouting and banging on the door. Sergeant McKenna said Glass returned to McKenna's automobile where 'he got a hammer and struck the door, forced a panel out of it, I guess about a full two minutes being consumed by that time, maybe a little more. I squeezed through the broken panel in the door. * * * I reached in, I couldn't get it unlocked and I kept going through the paneling. At that time the defendant, Madison King, was opening the second door. There is a vestibule between the outer front door and there is an inner door, a small vestibule, and he said, what is the trouble. I said we are police, you heard us hollering out here. I ran past him and Gladys Traynham who occupies the first floor of 1017 Caroline Street was in the living room which is to the left of the hallway as you enter. She was about five or six feet from a doorway coming from the direction where a small bathroom was located. There is a flush toilet in that bathroom and that is immediately behind the living room. That toilet was flushing, and when I heard the water I immediately ran in there, but it was just going down in the bottom.' He could not identify what went down the toilet. He told Gladys Traynham that he had a search warrant for the premises. She said she had not been in the lottery business 'since Captain Emerson got me'. Gladys Traynham said that King, who was her friend, brought her a New York Daily Mirror that day and every day. Sergeant McKenna then proceeded to search the living room. He then had a conversation with King in the dining room. King, who had an Armstrong Daily Scratch Sheet, said he was a student at Morgan College and intended to go to the race track but did not go because a friend could not accompany him. He said he came to the apartment to try to get Gladys to trade her small television set for a larger one, and that he came to see her frequently, as they were friends. He said he knew that the officers had been following him but he was not in the lottery business.

Sergeant McKenna then searched the dining room. On top of the dining room table he found a small note book with some notations in it and with an indentation where a piece of paper had been torn out. There were indentations of three numbers. Appellant's attorney admitted, at that point, that Sergeant McKenna was an expert on lottery. The Sergeant said the note book had indentations where three numbers were written: 951-25; 116-50; and 333-25. He said from his experience 'they were three lottery numbers with a dollar played on them had been written on a sheet of paper, and that piece of paper had been torn out and just left the indentations of the pencil on the next sheet'. This note book was admitted as State's Exhibit No. 2. He then searched up on the shelf inside a door leading from the dining room and picked up an envelope. On its outside was B-A $17.30. Gladys said the envelope had been there and the note book had been on the table 'since Captain Emerson busted me down, I believe she said last August'. Sergeant McKenna said in his opinion B-A was the station number and $17.30 indicated the 'amount turned into the pick-up man'. This envelope was admitted as State's Exhibit No. 3.

He then went to a little table beside a chair in the dining room, on which there was a telephone. He there picked up an envelope that had 610-2; 016-2; said 116-2 on it. He said these were lottery numbers and showed either two cents or two dollars were placed on them. This was admitted as State's Exhibit No. 4. The Sergeant then picked up from beside the telephone three astrological charts. These charts apparently are used frequently in picking lottery numbers. On the outside of one was 919-C 431-C 25. Sergeant McKenna said: 'Nine nineteen is a lottery number, and shows a twenty-five cent combination was played on that, and 431 is a lottery number and shows a twenty-five cent...