Valentino v. United States, 6277.
| Decision Date | 31 October 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. 6277.,6277. |
| Citation | 296 A.2d 173 |
| Parties | Maurice VALENTINO, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee. |
| Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
Bernard W. Kemp, Washington, D. C., appointed by this court, for appellant.
Thomas H. Queen, Asst. U. S. Atty., with whom Harold H. Titus, Jr., U. S. Atty., John A. Terry and Peter C. Schaumber, Asst. U. S. Attys., were on brief, for appellee.
Before REILLY, Chief Judge, and KELLY and PAIR, Associate Judges.
This is an appeal from a conviction in a jury-waived trial for attempted burglary in the second degree (D.C.Code 1967, §§ 22-103, 22-1801(b) (Supp. V, 1972)). Appellant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motions for acquittal and to suppress certain evidence.
The principal prosecution witness was a special police officer who testified that he had been assigned to guard a two-story building at 630 O Street, N.W., which contained some office equipment owned by the District government. The building was under guard because of a previous effort to break into it from the second floor of the adjoining vacant building at 632 O Street. Before going on duty at midnight the officer entered No. 632 and inspected the place where the break-in had been attempted. He noticed that some bricks contiguous to the upstairs room on that side of the party wall had been removed.
The officer also testified to the following occurrences: Several hours later, while on duty at No. 630, he heard banging noises coming from the other side of the party wall adjacent to the second floor. Going outside to investigate, he saw two men who had been standing in the street, start to walk away, singing loudly. He also observed a moving figure behind a second floor window of the building next door, and called up, telling the person inside to come down. Appellant emerged, explained that he had gone into the empty building to look for boxes, but had not heard a noise. The officer flagged down a police car and, together with appellant and three Metropolitan policemen, went upstairs to the second floor of the empty building, discovered that the hole had been enlarged since his midnight visit, and that on the floor there were tools and a quantity of dirt. He recalled that appellant's pants were very dirty.
The testimony of this witness was corroborated by one of the police officers, who had arrived on the scene and accompanied the other officers and appellant on the revisit to the second floor. He testified that after arresting appellant he requested him to turn his trousers over to him so that the dust on the cloth could be matched against the dust in the broken wall. The officer arranged to...
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Massey v. District of Columbia
...attempted by making a hole through a party wall where dust on trousers matched that in area of attempted entry, Valentino v. United States, D.C.App., 296 A.2d 173 (1972); forced entry and trying of doors inside home after throwing a brick through a window, United States v. Whitaker, 144 U.S......
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Freeman v. United States
...held sufficient to prove attempted second-degree burglary); see Baptist v. United States, 466 A.2d 452 (D.C. 1983); Valentino v. United States, 296 A.2d 173 (D.C. 1972); Hebble v. United States, 257 A.2d 483 (D.C. 1969). See also Jones v. United States, 386 A.2d 308 (D.C. 1978), cert denied......
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Parker v. United States, 80-671.
...the suspect's apparent willingness to carry away items of value (clothes) and his attempt to conceal his actions); Valentino v. United States, D.C. App., 296 A.2d 173 (1972) (arresting officer, several hours after a midnight check of the common wall of a building from which bricks had been ......