McDonald v. State

487 A.2d 306, 61 Md. App. 461, 1985 Md. App. LEXIS 309
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland
DecidedFebruary 6, 1985
Docket256, September Term, 1984
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 487 A.2d 306 (McDonald v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Special Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McDonald v. State, 487 A.2d 306, 61 Md. App. 461, 1985 Md. App. LEXIS 309 (Md. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

KARWACKI, Judge.

James Franklin McDonald, the appellant, was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County (Mitchell, J.) of attempted second-degree murder, assault with intent to murder, assault with intent to maim, and battery. The convictions were merged for purposes of sentencing into assault with intent to murder. The trial judge sentenced the appellant to thirty years imprisonment and ordered him to make restitution in the sum of $45,483. In challenging that judgment the appellant contends:

I. The trial court lacked jurisdiction to try the offense;

II. The trial court erred in admitting evidence seized in the search of the appellant’s car and bedroom;

III. The state failed to disclose material and exculpatory evidence;

IY. The trial court erred in admitting photographs of the victim into evidence and in allowing the victim to testify;

V. The trial court improperly instructed the jury; and
VI. The prosecutor committed reversible error in closing argument.

At about 9:00 p.m. on February 22, 1983, the appellant and Sandra Magee arrived at the Flaming Pit Restaurant in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Shortly after 9:00 p.m., Ms. Ma-gee called her daughter, Glenna Magee, and told her that she and the appellant were on their way home. They left the restaurant at about 9:30 p.m. in the appellant’s car, *466 leaving Ms. Magee’s car in the restaurant parking lot. Each had consumed a portion of one drink at the restaurant. At approximately 2:00 a.m. the following morning, the appellant and Ms. Magee arrived at the Germantown, Maryland home they shared with Ms. Magee’s daughters, Glenna and Kimberly, ages 18 and 11 respectively at the time of the occurrence. Glenna witnessed the appellant carrying Ms. Magee into the house. After she noticed that her mother appeared injured, Glenna ran to her boyfriend’s house a mile away to call the police.

When the police • arrived, they were admitted by the appellant. He told the police that Ms. Magee was too drunk to come to the door and then allowed them to come in to check on her condition.

The police saw that Ms. Magee appeared to be seriously hurt. When they inquired about her injuries, the appellant responded that after leaving the Flaming Pit Kestaurant at approximately 1:30 a.m., Ms. Magee’s heel on her shoe broke causing her to fall in the restaurant parking lot. The appellant added that when she attempted to regain her balance, Ms. Magee fell several more times.

Believing that Ms. Magee required medical attention, the police had members of the fire department’s paramedic squad come into the house to treat her. Shortly thereafter, Ms. Magee was taken by ambulance to the hospital. The appellant was then placed under arrest.

At approximately 6:30 p.m. on the day of the appellant’s arrest the police returned to the house and were admitted by Ms. Magee’s daughter, Glenna. The police searched the bedroom shared by the appellant and Ms. Magee and seized several items including bed linen, towels and a wrist watch. After leaving the house the police conducted a visual examination of the exterior of the appellant’s car which was parked in front of the house. The police looked through the windows into the car’s interior and noticed a number of items of possible evidentiary value. The vehicle was then towed to the Germantown police station and impounded. *467 Thereafter the car was photographed and thoroughly searched pursuant to a search warrant.

At trial, evidence was adduced concerning the nature and severity of Ms. Magee’s injuries. Expert medical witnesses testified that Ms. Magee’s injuries could not have been sustained in a fall and were caused by multiple severe blows with a blunt instrument. Further testimony indicated that she suffered significant brain damage and memory loss. Ms. Magee herself testified, but due to the extent of her injuries was unable to remember anything about the night of the incident. Swabbings from the appellant’s fingernails, as well as blood stains from the appellant’s car, the clothing of the appellant and Ms. Magee, and hair samples found in the appellant’s car were sent to the FBI for analysis. Blood which matched that of Ms. Magee was found in the appellant’s car and on the shirt and blue jeans worn by the appellant. The fingernail swabbings were inconclusive. It was determined that of the hair samples taken from the appellant’s car a number had been forcibly removed from the heads of the appellant and Ms. Magee. Forcibly removed human hair which did not match the hair of either the appellant or Ms. Magee was also found in the car.

I.

The appellant charges that the Circuit Court for Montgomery County lacked jurisdiction to hear this matter because the State failed to prove that the crime occurred within the territorial boundaries of Maryland. Questions of jurisdiction, as distinguished from venue, 1 can always be *468 raised for the first time upon appeal. Md. Rule 1085; Tate v. State, 236 Md. 312, 203 A.2d 882 (1964); Bowen v. State, 206 Md. 368, 111 A.2d 844 (1955); Heath v. State, 198 Md. 455, 85 A.2d 43 (1951).

It is fundamental that jurisdiction resides solely in the courts of the state where the crime is committed. Huntington v. Attrill, 146 U.S. 657, 13 S.Ct. 224, 36 L.Ed. 1123 (1892), Urciolo v. State, 272 Md. 607, 325 A.2d 878 (1974), Bowen v. State, supra; 1 Wharton’s Criminal Law § 14 (Toreia 14th ed. 1978); R. Leflar, American Conflicts Law § 111 (3d ed. 1977); 21 Am.Jur.2d, Criminal Law, § 343. It is equally well settled, however, that the situs of the commission of a crime may be established by circumstantial evidence. Breeding v. State, 220 Md. 193, 151 A.2d 743 (1959). In the instant case, the evidence supports an inference that Ms. Magee’s beating by the appellant took place in Montgomery County, Maryland. There was evidence adduced at trial to show that the appellant and Ms. Magee were seen leaving the Flaming Pit Restaurant in Gaithersburg, Maryland at approximately 9:30 p.m. Further, Glenna Magee testified that she observed the appellant carry Ms. Magee into their Germantown, Maryland *469 home at 2:00 a.m. the following morning. The appellant, on the other hand, cannot point to even a scintilla of evidence which would indicate that the crime was committed outside of Maryland. Rather he speculates that the location of the Flaming Pit Restaurant is such that in the period of time during which the whereabouts of the appellant and Ms. Magee could not be shown, they could have traveled into several other states as well as the District of Columbia.

It is incumbent upon the appellant to do more than make a bare allegation that the crime might have occurred outside of Maryland in order to sufficiently generate the issue of lack of jurisdiction. Carroll v.

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Bluebook (online)
487 A.2d 306, 61 Md. App. 461, 1985 Md. App. LEXIS 309, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdonald-v-state-mdctspecapp-1985.