White v. State

256 A.2d 174, 7 Md. App. 416, 1969 Md. App. LEXIS 341
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland
DecidedAugust 5, 1969
Docket357, September Term, 1968
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 256 A.2d 174 (White 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
White v. State, 256 A.2d 174, 7 Md. App. 416, 1969 Md. App. LEXIS 341 (Md. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

Anderson, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The appellant, Betty Sue White, was convicted in the Circuit Court for Charles County by Judge Roscoe H. Parker sitting without a jury of assault with intent to murder and attempted robbery with a dangerous and deadly weapon. She was sentenced to serve concurrent indeterminate terms not to exceed eight years under the jurisdiction of the Department of Correction.

On December 30, 1967, at about 10:00 p.m., two men, Aubrey Richardson and Raymond Thomas, entered the Drive-In-Liquor Store near Faulkner, Maryland. At that time Mrs. Lee Levin, the proprietor of the store, Irving Levin, her son, and Steve Sherman, her grandson, were the only other persons present in the store. The two men attempted to rob Mrs. Levin at gunpoint. Irving Levin and Steve Sherman foiled the attempt and prevented Aubrey Richardson from leaving the store. Raymond Thomas escaped through a back door. Irving Levin ran outside to the highway. He observed a white 1966 Ford convertible car on Route 301 about 200 feet north of the driveway to the store. The driver’s door was open and David Richardson was standing beside the car on that side. Irving Levin called, “Hold it right there, you’re covered.” David Richardson fired one shot at Irving Levin with a shotgun; several pellets struck Mr. Levin in the face. Mr. Levin fired back at the man with his pistol. Richardson then fired again. Mr. Levin ran back to the store and called the sheriff’s office. Neither Lee Levin, Irving Levin, or Steve Sherman saw appellant White during the time the attempted robbery and the gunfight were *418 in progress. They first saw her at the sheriff’s, office some hours later.

After the exchange of gunfire, the Ford convertible proceeded north on Route, 301 for several miles, until it came to the Fairway Bar near Bel Alton, Maryland. The car was driven into the parking lot of the Fairway Bar, went behind the Bar and parked on the north side of the Bar facing toward the highway. Deputy Sheriff Robert A. Jameson, who had received a- call to be on the lookout for the car, saw it pull into the parking lot, reported his location, and then drove to the Ford. At that time Deputy Sheriff Charles Thompson’s police car entered the parking lot. Deputy Jameson ran to the passenger side of the Ford, while Deputy Thompson ran to the driver’s side. Deputy Jameson testified that when he reached the car he observed David Richardson seated in the driver’s seat, Raymond Thomas seated in the right rear seat and appellant White seated in the left rear seat. Deputy Thompson testified that David Richardson was in the driver’s seat, and that he could not say where appellant White was sitting. He did not testify concerning Raymond Thomas’ location in the car. While Deputy Jameson was standing at the passenger side of the Ford, Deputy Sheriff Wel-don Wood arrived on the scene in his car and approached the Ford on the passenger side. As he approached, Raymond Thomas emerged from the vehicle, and Deputy Wood placed him under arrest. Deputy Jameson did not testify to where in the car David Richardson, Raymond Thomas, or appellant White was sitting. While Deputy Jameson was near the passenger side he “observed Betty White leaving the car and running along the front side or the front part of the [Fairway] Bar . . . She went into the front side of the Bar and I followed her. By the time I reached the front door of the Bar, I observed her standing at the bar with her back towards me. Upon getting about halfway between the front door and the bar where she was standing, she turned around and looked toward me ... I told her what she was being charged with, and handcuffed her and [went] out the front door *419 with her.” Deputy Thompson also testified that “sometime during the course of events . . . Mrs. White ran from the car or proceeded from the car to the Fairway Bar, where she was followed by Deputy Jameson and another officer.”

Deputy Wood testified that after all of the occupants had been removed from the Ford he searched that vehicle. On the front seat he found a transistor radio, which had several buttons on it, one of which had a design of a car in front of it, which designated to Deputy Wood a “police band.” The radio was turned on when he found it and the button behind the emblem of the car was pushed in. On the “front floorboard” of the Ford Deputy Wood found “the forearm or apron of a shotgun.” Wedged in “the crack in the rear seat” he found “the barrel and stock of a shotgun, which was a 12 gauge Harrington and Richardson, single barrel, the hammer type . . . single shot . . .” On the rear seat of the car Deputy Wood found an overcoat, in one of the pockets of which was “expended 12 gauge Federal shell, a number nine shot.” On the front floorboard he found “an expended 12 gauge number eight Federal Monarch shell” and in the convertible boot of the back seat were “two unexpended 12 gauge number eight shells.”

Deputy Sheriff Donald Poole testified that near dawn on the following morning he went to the Drive-In Liquor Store and walked northward on the shoulder of Route 301. Seventy-two strides north of the driveway to the Drive-In Liquor Store he found an expended 12 gauge shotgun shell. It was stipulated that this shell had been fired from the shotgun found in the Ford.

The State rested its case and the appellant moved for judgment of acquittal, which was denied.

The appellant testified that on December 30, 1967 she had been in Brandywine, Maryland. David and Aubrey Richardson and Raymond Thomas asked her to take them to see Richardson’s mother in Louisa, Virginia. She agreed, but because she was very tired she gave David *420 Richardson permission to drive her car. As they were leaving Brandywine she put back the reclining front seat on the passenger side and went to sleep. She slept until she heard shots, which woke her up. When she woke up she saw David Richardson and Raymond Thomas getting into the car. She asked them what was happening but they were talking between themselves and apparently did not answer her. She said to them, “Well, I have to go to the bathroom.” They drove to the Fairway Bar and when they arrived there she left the car and walked into the Bar. She walked to the bar to ask the bartender where the ladies room was. Two police officers then came up to her, patted her down, and took her to a patrol car.

The appellant denied hearing anyone plan a robbery, and denied having anything to do with the attempted robbery of the Drive-In Liquor Store. She did not know that there was a shotgun in the car until they arrived at the Fairway Bar and she never saw Raymond Thomas with a pistol.

The appellant again moved for judgment of acquittal and the motion was again denied:

The appellant complains on appeal that there was insufficient evidence to convict her as a principal in the attempted armed robbery and the assault with intent to murder.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
256 A.2d 174, 7 Md. App. 416, 1969 Md. App. LEXIS 341, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-v-state-mdctspecapp-1969.