Opinion ID: 1958816
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: The Evidence Available to the State

Text: At 6:50 a.m. on Sunday, 9 August 1981, the Baltimore County Police Department received a telephone call which they characterized as a breaking and entering of The Sportman's Limited, a store in the vicinity of Reisterstown. The store sold hunting and fishing supplies and opened about 6:00 a.m. on weekends to accommodate fishermen. When the police arrived on the scene they found Conrad Hviding, the 22 year old son of the owner of the store, lying on the floor behind the counter. He had been shot and was dead. The glass in a showcase had been broken and glass fragments, some containing smears of blood, were scattered about. There were cartridge casings near the counter. Two witnesses came forward. Richard Holmes told the police that shortly before the robbery he went in the store to purchase a fishing license. Two black boys were in the store looking at guns in a showcase. Hviding was the only employee present. Holmes completed his purchase and left. Shortly thereafter George Lindley entered. The crime was in progress. He told the police that he saw two black males. One was kneeling behind the counter on his hands and knees reaching into a showcase. The other pointed a handgun at Lindley, ordered him to empty his pockets and lie on the floor face down, and stole his wallet containing twelve dollars. The robbers took a number of guns from the broken showcase, put them in a canvas bag and fled. Lindley called the police. On 25 August 1981, Harris, 21 years of age and unemployed, was arrested for a theft from a J.C. Penney store. In his constructive possession was a handgun which had been stolen in the sports store robbery. The next day a police informant had a conversation on the street with Carl Brown, a 15 year old high school freshman. The informant was rigged with a concealed electronic device which enabled nearby police officers to overhear and record what was said. Brown admitted that he was a participant in the robbery and named Harris as another participant. He said, however, that there was a third person involved. He knew this person only as Bozie or Boxie or Box or something like that. Brown did not know where Box lived. Persistent attempts by the informant to obtain a description of Box and more information about him elicited only vague generalities. Brown told the informant that it was Box who shot Hviding. Brown was arrested under the authority of a warrant. He told the State's Attorney for Baltimore County that it was Harris who had shot Hviding and gave a full statement regarding the robbery and murder. He entered into a plea bargain whereby he agreed to cooperate with the State by truthfully and completely discussing the facts surrounding this murder ... [and to be] completely truthful and honest in relating what happened.... He further agreed to testify in any proceeding where he is called upon to do so.... The record indicates that the police placed Harris in a lineup. Lindley identified Harris as the person who had robbed him. Incident to Harris's arrest the police seized his shoes. Embedded in the laces were particles of glass. Federal Bureau of Investigation experts compared the particles with glass fragments from the broken showcase. Tests showed that the particles found in the laces of Harris's shoes were not inconsistent with the fragments from the broken showcase. Further tests established that the blood traces found on the fragments of glass from the showcase were not Hviding's blood type but did match that of Harris. [9] See Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 16 L.Ed.2d 908 (1966). Under authority of a search warrant the police searched Harris's home and recovered ammunition which matched cartridge casings found at the crime scene. Also under authority of a search warrant, the police searched the residence of Brown and his mother and seized a number of the weapons stolen in the robbery of the sports store. Finally, although there can be no doubt of the cause of Hviding's death, the autopsy report confirmed that the cause of death was multiple gun shot wounds and that the manner of death was homicide. Hviding had been shot six times  once in the left chest, right arm, left back and right back, and twice in the right shoulder. The evidence above summarized, when adduced by the State at a trial, would be sufficient in law, if believed, to prove, directly or by rational inference, beyond a reasonable doubt, the corpus delicti of each of the offenses charged and to establish Harris's criminal agency. With respect to the murder charge, it would be sufficient to establish that the murder was in the first degree, whether by a wilful, deliberate and premeditated killing or by a murder committed in the perpetration of the felony of robbery. Moreover, it subjected Harris to culpability as a principal in the first degree for both premeditated and felony murder.