Rozzell v. State

• Decision Date: 02 October 1968
• Docket Number: No. 15,15
• Citation: 5 Md.App. 167,245 A.2d 917
• Parties: Eugene ROZZELL v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 167

5 Md.App. 167

245 A.2d 917

Eugene ROZZELL v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 15.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

Oct. 2, 1968.

John D. Hackett, and Edward J. Angeletti, Baltimore, for appellant.

Alfred J. O'Ferrall, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom were Francis B. Burch, Atty. Gen., Charles E. Moylan, Jr., and John H. Lewin, State's Atty., and Asst. State's Atty., for Baltimore City respectively, on brief, for appellee.

Before MURPHY, C. J., and ANDERSON, MORTON, ORTH and THOMPSON, JJ.

ORTH, Judge.

On 19 November 1966 about 1:00 A. M. Officer John M. Worsham, a Baltimore City policeman, responded to a call that a prowler was in the dwelling house at 532 N. Gilmor Street. He was admitted to the premises by the tenant of the first floor apartment. 'I heard someone run down the staircase, a loud crash * * * I continued to hear somebody running through a hall. And I went in pursuit up the staircase. At the time I observed a door to a second floor apartment, the rear floor apartment, broken open * * * The door jamb and all was just broken out, like somebody had run full force into it. At this time I run back through the hall, straight through, which I heard in to the rear of this apartment a scuffling noise, and run back in with my flashlight, and as I did I observed the defendant here crouched between the tub, and, the bathtub, it was a sink there and a bathtub next to the window that was in the rear of the apartment.' The officer took the appellant into the hall and observed what appeared to be blood on his hands and a 'sort of substance on his clothes * * * The substance I believed to be blood was wet, in a wet form.' Worsham turned the appellant over to another officer and '* * * went directly to the third floor from the second floor landing, which I had heard someone run down from. As they entered this door, it is a landing that is sort of a U affair, you go up and you hit another little landing, and then back up into the third floor apartment (the only apartment on the third floor). As I passed I observed The woman was Etta Spencer, age 62 years, height five feet two inches, weight 120 pounds. The diagnosis in the report of the autopsy findings indicated that she had 'multiple (36) stab wounds of the neck, chest, back and arms, with tracks penetrating both lungs, thoracic aorta, hyoid bone and 7th cervical vertebra, and with bilateral hemothorax; * * * contusions, abrasions and lacerations of back, chest, abdomen, neck, arms and scalp; * * * incised wounds (2) of right hand; * * * multiple bilateral rib fractures: (2) Left: 2-7 and 11(b) Right: 2, 3 and 7.' It was the opinion of the Assistant Medical Examiner that '* * * Etta Spencer died of multiple stab wounds of the front and back of the chest. She also had additional multiple stab wounds, bruises, abrasions and lacerations of the neck, chest, abdomen, back, arms and right hand.' The manner of death was 'Homicide-Stabbed by assailant.'

a knife, or a part of a butcher knife, it appeared to be, lying on this landing. And I went directly to the third floor. And as I shoved the door to the third floor there, was a little hard opening, then I observed a woman's body lying there. I pushed the door continually open and stepped in. As we never could really get the door completely open without moving her * * * At the time that I went up there was still hearing a groan from the body * * * and she was bleeding profusely and she was cut so bad that when I shined on her I could see a laceration she had in her back, her organs still moving inward and reflexes from the body.' The body was warm. An ambulance was summoned but by the time it arrived the woman was dead.

The part of a knife seen by the officer was recovered. It 'appeared to be a butcher or a boning knife' with a wooden handle and a V groove in the blade. The blade was broken near the tip and the broken part of the blade was found on the floor by the body. Both parts of the knife, the appellant's clothes and swabbings of the substance on the appellant's hands were examined by the Baltimore City Police Department Crime Laboratory. 'Human blood from a person having International Group B blood' was found on the blade attached to the handle. Human blood, insufficient in quantity for grouping, was found on the appellant's shirt and on the front of his jacket. Human blood from a person having International Group O blood was While waiting for the ambulance Officer Worsham examined the apartment in which the victim was found. 'To the front and as you would walk through the apartment, as you were heading east on the north side, there was a door open. There was a room which appeared to be a spare room, and it had clothing strewed all over this room. And, in a disarranged manner, very disorderly manner, the articles in this room. Directly in front was a door that was opened, which would be due east, through this hallway, a door that was open and it had keys in the lock. Behind it there was a chair in a propped, sort of a propped position, that I had to shove aside myself to get through * * * (A)s I went into the bedroom I observed the bed on my left, which would be north, and on the bed there was a telephone which the receiver was on the bed covered by two pillows, and the base of the telephone and the other was lying on the floor, this was to the stretch cord. There was blood on the bed, the bed in a disarranged manner. * * * I went to a window that was open in the center, there was three windows facing east in the building, the window in the center had blood on the window frame. The sill had blood there * * * The dresser drawers had blood on the front of same, the dresser drawers in this room, there was on the table, a little end table, there was a can of beer, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, which was still cool in nature, as you felt it, that was there, on there. Then I proceeded out of this room back through the hallway, and I observed all the way down the hallway * * * blood on the hall, on the floor, on the wall, on the walls, as though there had been some sort of a struggle and somebody that had rolled along this wall, it appeared, all the way to the rear of the building of this third floor apartment. And as I did, there directly ahead of this hall, as you come out of the hall, you come into an open, would be like a foyer affair, directly ahead was a little bathroom.

found on the right front pocket of his pants. Each of his hands contained human blood but there was not a sufficient amount on the swabs to group it. The autopsy report showed that the blood of Etta Spencer was type B. ¹ * * * There was blood in the bathroom and there was also a screw driver found in the hall as I come back through, and there was blood on the bathroom door, and also on the floor, which appeared as if somebody may have rolled against it and bled as they went in.' There was no blood on the kitchen floor. There were two windows in the kitchen, at the rear of the building, and from one of the windows 'there was a wiring like chicken wire, a quarter inch wire, mesh wire that had been pulled loose from this one window, the pane of glass was broken out on the lower left, and there was blood on this glass and on the frame.' There was 'what appeared to be blood' on a water heater by the window where '* * * someone had put their hand or arm on the water heater and smeared across the top.' Examination of the premises and articles therein by Crime Laboratory personnel were negative as to fingerprints, 'no suitable fingerprints' being found.

The appellant, age 15 years, was charged with the murder of Etta Spencer by an indictment filed 22 December 1966. Counsel was appointed to represent him and at arraignment on 6 January 1967 written pleas of not guilty, not guilty by reason of insanity at the time of the commission of the offense and not guilty by reason of insanity 'at this time' were filed. By order of court the same day he was transferred to Clifton T. Perkins State Hospital to be examined and evaluated as to his responsibility 'at the time of the alleged commission of the offense' and 'as to his mental competency and ability to assist in his own defense.' The conclusion set forth in the report of this examination, filed 17 February, was that the appellant was sane at the time of the alleged offense and competent to stand trial. On 21 March, upon petition by defense counsel, the court ordered the examination of the appellant by a private psychiatrist, Dr. James E. Smith, II. As the examination of the appellant by the staff of Clifton T. Perkins was made prior to 1 June 1967, the effective date of Chapter 709, Acts of 1967, which prescribed new tests for competency to stand trial and for responsibility for criminal conduct, the evaluation of him was under the test enunciated in M'Naghten's Case, 8 Eng.Rep. 718 (1843), then applied in this State. See Bergin v. State, 1 Md.App. 74, 227 A.2d 357. Therefore by order of court of 14 July 1967, it was ordered that he On appeal from the judgment the import of the first two questions presented goes to the finding of the trial court that the appellant was competent to stand trial and to its verdict that the appellant was sane at the time of the commission of the offense. ² He contends that the court erred in its finding as to competency to stand trial and in its verdict of sanity at the time of the commission of the offense.

be examined by the Department of Mental Hygiene to determine his competency to stand trial and his sanity at the time of the alleged offense in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 709, codified in Md.Code (1968 Repl. Vol.) as Art. 59, §§ 7-12. The issue of his competency to stand trial was heard on 23 October 1967 and it was the finding of the court that he was competent to stand trial. The case was tried on 1 and 2 November in the Criminal Court of Baltimore before Judge Anselm Sodaro, presiding without a jury. The verdicts of the court were that the...