SORRELL v. STATE

No. 77, September Term, 1987.

315 Md. 224 (1989)

554 A.2d 352

ERNEST LEON SORRELL v. STATE OF MARYLAND.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

March 7, 1989.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Arthur A. DeLano, Jr., Asst. Public Defender (Alan H. Murrell, Public Defender, on the brief), Baltimore, for appellant.

Valerie J. Smith, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., on the brief), Baltimore, for appellee.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J., and ELDRIDGE, COLE, RODOWSKY, McAULIFFE, ADKINS, BLACKWELL, JJ.


BLACKWELL, Judge.

When the jurors returned from lunch during the criminal trial of Ernest Leon Sorrell (Sorrell), Mr. Sorrell decided not to join them. We now consider whether the court properly instructed the jury that it might infer consciousness of guilt from the defendant's voluntary absence from a trial he was legally obligated to attend.

I.

Sorrell was charged in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County with robbery, theft and battery. At trial...

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