De Toro v. State, 176
| Decision Date | 19 February 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 176,176 |
| Citation | 177 A.2d 847,227 Md. 551 |
| Parties | Percy DE TORO v. STATE of Maryland. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
W. Emerson Brown, Jr., Baltimore (Brown & Allen, on the brief), Baltimore, for appellant.
Eli Baer, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen. (Thomas B. Finan, Atty. Gen., Joseph S. Kaufman, Deputy Atty. Gen., Saul A. Harris, State's Atty. and John Paul Rogers, Asst. State's Atty., Baltimore, on the brief), for appellee.
Before BRUNE, C. J., HAMMOND, HORNEY, MARBURY and SYBERT, JJ.
After his conviction of murder in the first degree by the court below (sitting without a jury), denial of a new trial by the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, and sentence of death by administration of lethal gas, Percy DeToro appealed on the ground that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the verdict.
Sometime after midnight the appellant awakened Beatrice, the woman with whom he was living in an apartment, and began 'nagging and fussing' with her. He declared 'he was going to hit her in the head with an axe,' although he almost immediately thereafter claimed to have used the words in jest. She got up, saying, '[I]t is no more sleep for tonight,' and 'I didn't know you were that type of man * * * I am going to get me a job sleeping in * * * I'm going to have to * * * because I can't go on like this anymore.' The woman went into the kitchen and began playing cards with a couple who also lived in the apartment. DeToro called to her to come in the bedroom after she had asked him to bring her a cigarette. They argued because he had no job and could not even buy cigarettes. After about five minutes, DeToro came back into the kitchen and picked up a twelve-inch knife or dagger having a rigid blade with a sharp point, and went back into the bedroom. After a few minutes the couple in the kitchen heard the outside door of the apartment close, and a little later heard a moaning sound from the bedroom. They rushed in and found Beatrice dying of a stab wound in the chest, the knife DeToro had taken from the kitchen a few minutes before evidently having been driven in up to the hilt. The woman died before the police arrived. There was testimony that the outside door of the apartment was locked both before and after DeToro left
DeToro gave the policeman a statement in which he claimed he had gotten the knife to cut a cake. He said there was a violent argument and a struggle between him and Beatrice, during which she picked up a pair of scissors and it...
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Smith v. State
...time interval being represented by the time necessary to walk across the room, pick up a gun, raise it and fire it); Detoro v. State, 227 Md. 551, 177 A.2d 847 (1962) (a drunken and jealous quarrel with the time for premeditation being represented by a walk to the kitchen to pick up a knife......
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DeToro v. Warden, Maryland Penitentiary
...an order will be entered denying the relief prayed, and remanding petitioner to the custody of respondent. 1 (a) DeToro v. State, 227 Md. 551, 177 A.2d 847 (1962); DeToro v. Warden, 231 Md. 635, 190 A.2d 783 (1963); Application of DeToro, D.Md., 222 F.Supp. 621 (1964); DeToro v. Pepersack, ......
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Hounshell v. State
...time interval being represented by the time necessary to walk across the room, pick up a gun, raise it and fire it); Detoro v. State, 227 Md. 551, 177 A.2d 847 (1962) (a drunken and jealous quarrel with the time for premeditation being represented by a walk to the kitchen to pick up a knife......