178 A.2d 421
[No. 201, September Term, 1961.]Court of Appeals of Maryland.
Decided March 16, 1962. Certiorari denied, 371 U.S. 837.
CRIMINAL LAW — Sufficiency Of Evidence — Court Of Appeals Cannot Conclude Trial Court Was Clearly Wrong On An Issue Of Credibility. Appellant, in the instant case, was convicted of robbery in a trial without a jury and he challenged the sufficiency of the evidence. It was held that the Court of Appeals cannot
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conclude that the trial court was clearly wrong on an issue of credibility. pp. 113-114
H.C.
Decided March 16, 1962.
Appeal from the Criminal Court of Baltimore (CARTER, J.).
Alfred Pittore was convicted of robbery in a trial without a jury and from the judgment entered thereon, he appealed.
Judgment affirmed, with costs.
Submitted on the brief to HENDERSON, PRESCOTT, HORNEY, MARBURY and SYBERT, JJ.
Submitted by Irving Klitzner, Fred Kolodner and William Kolodner for appellant.
Submitted by Thomas B. Finan, Attorney General, Robert C. Murphy, Assistant Attorney General, Saul A. Harris, State’s Attorney and George J. Helinski, Assistant State’s Attorney,
for appellee.
PER CURIAM.
The appellant was convicted of robbery in a trial without a jury and sentenced to ten years. The only point raised on appeal is the sufficiency of the evidence. The prosecuting witness, Crouse, testified that Pittore seized him on the street, and when he broke away he realized his wallet containing about fourteen dollars was missing from his hip-pocket. Crouse raised the hue and cry, Pittore fled, and various persons who had seen the struggle joined in the chase. One witness saw Pittore, as he ran, throw an object over a fence and down a railroad embankment. When police arrived and arrested Pittore, he did not have the wallet, nor was it ever found despite a search of the embankment and the swampy ground beside the tracks. There was evidence to support the trial court’s finding, despite the testimony of Pittore that he merely asked Crouse how he had “made out” with a woman in a tavern where they had recently been drinking together, that he did not take his wallet, and that the accusation was false. On an
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issue of credibility, we cannot conclude that the trial court was clearly wrong.
Judgment affirmed, with costs.