201 A.2d 860
[No. 414, September Term, 1963.]Court of Appeals of Maryland.
Decided July 1, 1964.
ROBBERY — Striking One Victim Of Purse-Snatching On Head Twice And Knocking Her To Ground, And Wrestling With, But Not Striking, Other Victim — Positive Identification Of Defendant By Each Victim — Evidence Held Adequate To Justify Convictions. p. 376
SENTENCE — Robbery Cases — Two Indeterminate Sentences Not Exceeding Three Years To Run Consecutively — Not Cruel Or Unusual — Maximum For Each Offense Was Ten Years — Sentence In Second Case Was Not Disproportionate To That In First Case. p. 376
Decided July 1, 1964.
Appeal from the Criminal Court of Baltimore (OPPENHEIMER, J.).
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Stephen Sylvester Harrod was convicted of two robberies under separate indictments, by the trial court, sitting without a jury, and from the judgments entered thereon, he appeals.
Affirmed.
The cause was submitted to HENDERSON, HAMMOND, PRESCOTT, HORNEY and MARBURY, JJ.
Submitted on brief by Paul B. Engel for the appellant.
Submitted on brief by Thomas B. Finan, Attorney General, R. Randolph Victor, Assistant Attorney General, William J. O’Donnell, State’s Attorney for Baltimore City, and Robert V. Lazzaro, Assistant State’s Attorney, for the appellee.
PER CURIAM.
The appellant was convicted of two robberies under separate indictments. He contends (1) that the evidence was insufficient to convict him of robbing Bessie Weinacht and (2) that the consecutive indeterminate sentences were disproportionate and constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
In both cases, the evidence of purse-snatching was adequate to justify conviction. In one, the appellant struck the victim (Helen Fulton) on the head twice and knocked her to the ground. In the other, he wrestled with but did not strike the victim (Bessie Weinacht) in taking the purse. The victim in each case positively identified the appellant as the robber. This was enough to warrant conviction. See Hursey v. State, 233 Md. 243 Spencer v. State, 235 Md. 129.
The sentences of indeterminate terms not exceeding three years (the maximum for each offense being ten years) to run consecutively do not constitute cruel or unusual punishment. Nor is the sentence in the second case disproportionate to that in the first case. Cf. Rahe v. State, 175 Md. 691, where concurrent sentences of ten years each under separate indictments for robbery were upheld.
Judgments affirmed.
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