Opinion ID: 2334331
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hagans v. State

Text: According to the Agreed Statement of Facts, during the night of January 17, 1986, a man knocked on an apartment door in Montgomery County, Maryland, and announced: It's the cops. Through a peephole, the resident of the apartment saw a man wearing a cap with a silver badge on it. She did not believe that he was a police officer because he had referred to himself as a cop. Consequently, she called the police. In response to the call, seven plain clothes police officers went to the apartment complex where the incident occurred. They saw three men in a station wagon that was being driven without its lights on. The car stopped, and a man, later identified as the defendant, Antonio Calvin Hagans, got out, walked around, picked up a long silver object, and returned to the car. The police cars followed the station wagon as it left the complex. The station wagon was pulled over and searched. Under the seat where Hagans was sitting, the police found a large knife and a baseball cap with a silver badge. The three men in the car were then arrested. At the subsequent line-up, the resident of the apartment identified one of the men, but not Hagans, as the man standing outside the door. Hagans was charged in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County with attempt to commit common law burglary and nine other offenses all based on the incident described above. He was not, however, expressly charged with attempted breaking and entering a dwelling house of another in violation of Maryland Code (1957, 1987 Repl.Vol.), Art. 27, § 31A. Hagans elected a jury trial. At the trial, after the presentation of evidence by both sides, and during argument on the defendant's motions for judgment of acquittal, the trial judge indicated that he intended to submit to the jury, as a lesser included offense of burglary, the offense of attempted breaking and entering a dwelling house of another. Defense counsel objected to the submission of the attempted breaking and entering offense to the jury, but the prosecuting attorney argued in favor of the submission. Thereafter, the trial judge instructed the jury on attempted breaking and entering a dwelling house of another. All but two of the numerous charges against the defendant Hagans were disposed of by nolle prosequis, by the grant of motions for judgments of acquittal, and by jury acquittal. Hagans was convicted by the jury of attempted breaking and entering a dwelling house of another and carrying a concealed weapon. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment on the former conviction and two years imprisonment, to be served consecutively, on the latter. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed in an unreported opinion. This Court then granted the defendant's petition for a writ of certiorari. In the petition and in his brief, Hagans concedes that attempted breaking and entering a dwelling house of another is a lesser included offense of attempted common law burglary. The defendant presents a single question for our review, stating: The issue in this case is whether or not a defendant who is charged with one offense can be convicted of a lesser included offense which is not contained in the charging document. (Petitioner's brief, p. 5).