Simms v. State

Appellant, John William Simms, was convicted at a bench trial in the Circuit Court for Howard County of felony murder and unlawful use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. He was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment for the murder conviction and a concurrent term of fifteen years for the handgun conviction. Appellant, in his enumeration of errors, contends that the trial judge committed reversible error in allowing the State to introduce evidence of other crimes.

The evidence adduced at trial disclosed that on 29 June 1975, at 5:05 A.M., the body of Sharon Anne Tynes, a…