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Thomas v. Maryland12/6/1993
340, 519 A.2d 735 (1987). Thus, says the defendant, he could not have had the intent to maim, disfigure, or disable, and the level of seriousness of his offense should be measured by the 10- (now 15-) year limit applicable to an assault with that intent. The defendant's argument fails for several reasons. First, the trial judge's statement was not a required finding in the case, made after opportunity for argument and consideration of the relevant law; it was a casual statement made in the course of a sentencing. Second, looking to the facts of the assault in this case, it is perfectly apparent that the evidence would have supported a finding of murder in the second degree if the victim had died as a result of the April 8 assault.
The assault was serious. The defendant is 6'2" tall and weighs 148 pounds. The victim was about 5' tall, and weighed 102 pounds. The defendant was angry because he thought his wife had engaged in sexual relations with another man a few days earlier, but the victim denied that conduct, and she had not hit or threatened the defendant on this occasion. For no reason other than his ire, the defendant picked up a steam iron and struck his wife on the head with it, causing a 8 cm.
laceration down to bone, and causing severe bleeding. He then struck her twice more with the iron, in the upper portion of her back near the spine. The blows were of sufficient force to cause damage to the iron.
The victim lost consciousness briefly, and when the paramedic arrived he assessed the injury as sufficiently serious to require helicopter transportation. The victim was flown to the shock trauma unit at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore, where her wounds were treated and she remained for two days. Thereafter, the victim was seen by her family doctor, and by a psychiatrist. She complained of post-traumatic headaches, backaches, crying spells, nervousness, depression, and of recurring nightmares. She informed the court that she had been unable to maintain the employment she had enjoyed at the time of the incident. The assault occurred in the presence of the victim's 12-year-old daughter. Following the offense, the defendant called the victim repeatedly, and according to her, threatened to take her life.
The defendant had previously been convicted of assault and battery and of being a rogue and vagabond in 1978, driving while intoxicated in 1984, driving while suspended or revoked in 1984 and 1985, and of assault and battery and disorderly conduct in 1986. At the time of the assault of April 8, the defendant was under order of court to stay away from the premises where the assault occurred.
Although we believe the 30-year sentence imposed for this battery was harsh and severe, we do not find under the circumstances that it was so grossly disproportionate to the offense that it must be set aside. Our threshold comparison of the sentence to the circumstances of the offense and the relevant particulars concerning the defendant does not suggest to us that the sentence is grossly disproportionate. In contrast to the sentence of 20 years for a slap of the victim, this sentence was imposed for an aggravated type of an assault. This is not, therefore, one of those "rare cases" of a cruel sentence that violates either the Eighth Amendment of
the United States Constitution or Article 25 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights.
IV.
After the defendant's arrest for assaulting his wife on April 8, he began making phone calls to her from jail, at first inquiring about her health and when she could come visit him. Later, the calls became more frequent and threateni
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