Breeding v. StateBreeding v. State
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Thе appellant was indicted for the murder of Ruth Ellen Cannon on or about June 28, 1958. He was tried before three judges, sitting without a jury, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment. The chief question presented is whether the evidencе supports the conviction.
Mrs. Cannon was last seen by her husband at about 12:35 P.M. on Saturday, June 28, when he left home, after lunch, to return to work. When he came back about 5 P.M. she was missing. The slacks and blouse she had been wearing when he lеft were found folded on her bed. Two buttons had been torn from the blouse, and a torn brassiere was inside the blouse. He first assumed that she had gone to visit her family, or friends. He alerted the police about 1 A.M. of the following day.
Mrs. Cannon’s body was found in a wooded area at about 3 P.M. on Monday, June 30. When found, the body was clad in blue shorts, white blouse and white shoes or sandals. The spot where the body was found was about 600 feet from a dirt road that runs parallel to State Route 404, at a point about
lf/2
miles from the Delaware state line. A police officer testified that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to carry the body to the spot where it was found, because of the thickness of the underbrush. A medical examination fixed the probable time of death at from 9 A.M. Sunday morning to 9 A.M. Monday morning. The cause of death was strangulation by means of a strip of cloth torn from the victim’s blouse, which remained around her neck and exactly fitted a groove around her neck. A shorter strip of the same cloth was found lying to the left of the body, which was face downward. There were also signs of violence, consisting of hemorrhages in the region of the left
Breeding, a yоung married man with several children, owned ,„a two-toned 1953 Ford, colored pink and gray. He left his home about 7:30 A.M. Saturday morning. He went to the home of his cousin, a married woman, and tried to get her to go out with him, but she refused. He told her he “wanted a woman, and was going to have one, or else.” He drove around, stopping at various taverns for beer, and at the homes of various girls, whom he tried to date. At one tavern he picked up a male compаnion, who rode with him but finally became hopelessly drunk and was left on the roadside. Breeding told this companion he wanted a woman, and made certain phone calls and one stop, without success. The stop was at thе home of a Miss Hill, who testified that Breeding was sober, but the companion, Wissman, was so drunk as to be incoherent. This was about 2 P.M. Wissman testified he awakened between 4 and 6 P.M. lying alongside a side road, not far from the Cannon home. A passing motorist took him to Denton, where he was seen by a number of people attending the chicken festival there.
At about 3 P.M. Wayne Geisel, a milk truck driver, drove •past the Cannon home and saw a pink and gray Ford parked therе with its hood up and doors open. About 15 minutes later, when he drove by on his return, he saw-the same car drive up the driveway and stop by the porch. When he looked again, he saw Mrs. Cannon entering the house, and a man whom he later identified as Breeding following her. About 4 P.M. Cloyd Geisel saw a pink and gray car back out of the Cannon drive. Mrs. Geisel also saw the car back out, and fixed the
Breeding did not return to his home on the night of June 28, 1958. He told рolice, and testified when he took the stand, that he was too drunk to know what he was doing from the time he was drinking beer with Wissman until he awakened at about 12 noon on Sunday, June 29, in his car, parked in school grounds about a mile from his home. He claims that his only recollection is that he danced with a woman at a beer tavern sometime during the evening. He denied that he had ever seen Mrs. Cannon. He also remembered stopping at some house during the previоus afternoon to fill his radiator with water.
At about 2 P.M. Sunday afternoon he drove up to the home of his uncle, Richard Smith, and sat in his car until about 4 P.M., listening to the radio, when his wife came there. He then drove home, and burned a pair of coveralls and the back seat cover of his car, claiming that he had “messed it up” during the night. He scattered the ashes in the barnyard. As police cars arrived at his home late Sunday night, he fled into the woods. During the next day, he crawled up to his uncle’s hog pen, and received cigarettes and water. His uncle asked him what he had done, and his reply was given as “nothing,” or “I can’t tell you” or “Ain’t going to tell you,” or something like that. On redirect examination, the witness tеstified that Breeding said: “I can’t tell you” or “I ain’t going to tell you.” In spite of his uncle’s admonitions to give himself up, he fled again into the woods, and was captured in Delaware some three weeks later.
There was testimony from a negro man, Miller, and his wife, that they saw a pink and gray car parked on the side of a dirt
The State also produced expert testimony that a fingerprint, matching that of Mrs. Cannon in at least five сharacteristics, was found on the window, or airvent, on the right side of Breeding’s car, and that a reddish hair, having characteristics of that of Mrs. Cannon, was also found in the car.
As the appellant points out, the evidence is almоst wholly circumstantial, but that is not a fatal objection. The inference seems almost inescapable that Mrs. Cannon, whether willingly or unwillingly, left her home Saturday afternoon in the company of Breeding, and in his car. Sometime during the mоrning or evening of the following day she met her death through manual strangulation, after a severe beating and struggle. The body was found at a point some 600 to 1000 feet from the point where Breeding’s car had been parked and left tirе marks. We think the triers of fact could properly draw the inference, from all the circumstances of the case, that she met her death at his hands, and that the killing was premeditated and with malice aforethought. The law on the subject is perfectly clear. See
Edwards v. State,
The appellant contends that the trial court erred in permitting Captain Thompson, of the Delaware State Police, to resume the witness stand after he had heard the testimony of another witness. At the beginning of the trial, the court had granted a motion to exclude witnesses from the courtroom until after they had each testified. This ruling was strictly observed, but after Captain Thompson had testified, the State wished to recall him for the sole purpose of proving the method of custody of the impounded car of the accusеd. If we assume, without deciding, that this was error under Maryland Rule 737, it was certainly not prejudicial or reversible error. Cf.
Bulluck v. State,
The appellant contends that the hair found in the Breeding car, concerning which expert evidence was offered, was not sufficiently identified. The point relates to the completeness of the chain of custody. It is sufficient to observe that the evidence of the examination by an agent of the F.B.I. came in without objection.
Hall v. State,
The appellant contends that the evidence of the fingerprint was not sufficiently definite. The objection goes to the weight rather than to the admissibility of thе evidence. See cases cited in a note,
Finally, the appellant contends that the State failed to prove that the killing took place in Caroline County or in Maryland. It is true that the State of Maryland cannot punish for a crime committed in another state.
Bowen v. State,
Judgment affirmed.