Boffen v. State, 372 Md. 724

Summary

The Maryland Court of Appeals held that Leroy Carl Boffen did not commit first-degree escape when he fled a courtroom during sentencing. The court concluded that he was neither in the actual custody nor the constructive custody of a statutory place of confinement because he had not first been committed to or physically confined in a correctional facility. The court reversed the escape conviction.

Holdings

1. Boffen was not in actual custody of a place of confinement because he was not within the walls of a correctional facility, detention center, or other legislatively designated place of confinement, and a courtroom was not such a place under the statute.
2. A person cannot commit first-degree escape under the constructive-custody doctrine unless the person was initially committed to and physically confined within a place of confinement. Because Boffen had never been committed to or physically confined within a Division of Correction institution or the detention center before fleeing, his flight was not first-degree escape.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a defendant who is free on bond and flees a courtroom during sentencing, after the judge announces part of an incarceration sentence but before sentencing is completed or the defendant is remanded to custody, is in the actual or constructive custody of a place of confinement for purposes of Maryland's first-degree escape statute.
2. Whether constructive custody under Maryland's escape statute requires that the defendant first have been committed to and physically confined within a place of confinement.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded