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Thomas v. Maryland12/6/1993
George Thomas was convicted in the Circuit Court for Caroline County of two counts of common law battery, reckless endangerment, unlawful use of a telephone, and violation of an order to vacate the family home. Judge J. Owen Wise sentenced him to consecutive terms of 20 and 30 years in prison for the two battery convictions, 60 days for violating the order to vacate, six months for unlawful use of the telephone, and a concurrent five-year term for reckless endangerment; a total of 50 years and eight months imprisonment.
The defendant appealed to the Court of Special Appeals. We issued a writ of certiorari prior to consideration of the case by that Court, to resolve the following questions:
1. Were the 30- and 20-year sentences for common law battery illegal, disproportionate under the common law, or unconstitutional?
2. Was the evidence sufficient to sustain defendant's conviction for telephone misuse?
I.
The defendant and his wife, Shirlene Thomas, lived together in Ridgely, Maryland, with Shirlene's daughter, 12-year-old Martisha Stansbury. At the end of March, 1991, George and Shirlene received a $284 tax refund check made out to them jointly. George insisted that the check was his to cash, and on March 29, a fight ensued. When Shirlene found out on April 1 that George had indeed cashed the refund check at a nearby liquor store, she confronted him about the money. "That day," Shirlene testified, "was just push and shoving and getting like iron pipes and aluminum bats . . . ." Although each party threatened to injure the other with a baseball bat, neither resorted to violence at that time.
Later that evening George and Shirlene argued in their bedroom. At one point, Shirlene left the bedroom, entered Martisha's room, and instructed her daughter to call the police. Chief Cropper, of the Ridgely Police Department, arrived at the Thomas house at approximately 1:50 a.m. on
April 2, broke up the fight between George and Shirlene, and removed the baseball bats that were brandished earlier. After Chief Cropper departed, the argument resumed and at some point George slapped Shirlene across her face, leaving a temporary mark on her cheek.
After this incident, Shirlene obtained a two-day protective order, and on April 5 she obtained an order requiring George to vacate the family home for 30 days.
On April 8, George violated the protective order and returned to the Ridgely property. He approached Shirlene outside the house and accused her of committing adultery in the home two days earlier. She ran up the steps to the house and he followed her into the kitchen. At the height of the altercation, George grabbed a steam iron and hit Shirlene on the top of her head with it. He then hit her twice in the back with the iron. Shirlene was taken to a hospital, where an 8 cm. laceration of her scalp was sutured. She remained hospitalized for two days for observation. A paramedic testified that there were lacerations on the back of her head and two bruises in the center of the upper area of her back. Immediately after the assault, the defendant turned himself in to the Denton Police Department. According to Chief of Police William C. Davis, the defendant admitted hitting Shirlene on the head with the iron and said he feared that he may have killed her.
Various charges brought against the defendant were consolidated for trial in the Circuit Court for Caroline County. The defendant elected to be tried by the court, and Judge Wise found him guilty of battery for slapping his wife on April 2,
guilty of battery but not guilty of assault with intent to murder for striking her with
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