Commonwealth v. Middleton

394 A.2d 1293, 260 Pa. Super. 571, 1978 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4203
Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided December 7, 1978·No. 1456·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinions

VAN der VOORT, Judge:

Appeal is taken from judgments of sentence rendered following a jury trial and verdicts of guilty of robbery and criminal conspiracy. “Crimes Code”, Act of 1972, Dec. 6, P.L. 1482,18 Pa.C.S. §§ 3701 and 903. This trial commenced on December 16, 1976, after a mistrial had been granted in the case due to a deadlocked jury. Post-trial motions were made and denied.

Concisely stated, these are the facts. In the evening of October 18,1975, defendant entered a bar in North Philadelphia and ordered a quart bottle of beer, for which he paid. Then he ordered port wine and again paid. Shortly thereafter he informed the bartender that “this is a stickup,” pointing at him what appeared to be a shotgun, at trial identified as an inoperable air, or “BB” gun. The defendant ordered everyone to enter the rest rooms located at the rear of the bar room, and the four or five customers, bartender, and one other employee, did so. The bartender noticed, as he was leaving the room, that someone was with appellant Middleton. A few minutes later all emerged to find the bar vacant except for one customer, named Cash, who had all the while refused to move from his bar stool. However, the cash had been removed from the cash registers. The police were called.

The bartender testified that he did not see defendant again until several weeks later (November 13th) when he appeared in the bar, stated “this is a holdup”, and ordered everyone to the rest room. Again defendant was in the company of another, but on this second occasion, while the [575] intruders were asking for the money, the police entered and cut short their criminal activity.

At the beginning of trial, the defense requested reconsideration of a pre-trial suppression of identification question which had been presented to the court in the prior trial, which had resulted in mistrial. In that first trial, the matter was disposed of adversely to the defendant. The court below in the case now on appeal refused reconsideration. Appellant argues that this was error. We do not agree. Pa.R.Crim.P. Rule 323 sets the procedure applicable to suppression issues. Section “j” states: “If the court determines that the evidence is admissible, such determination shall be final, conclusive and binding at trial, except upon a showing of evidence which was theretofore unavailable, but nothing herein shall prevent a defendant from opposing such evidence at trial upon any ground except its admissibility.” The “comment” to the Rule in effect at the time of trial of this case read: “The rule is designed to provide one single procedure for the suppression of evidence alleged to have been obtained in violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights.” The intent of our Supreme Court to have suppression questions determined at one time regardless of whether a new trial is held on the merits of the case, is made evident by the Pa.R.Crim.P. as well as Commonwealth v. Harmon, 469 Pa. 490, 366 A.2d 895 (1976). While Harmon arose in the context of an appeal from the Philadelphia Municipal Court of Common Pleas, for trial de novo, the Supreme Court points out that “[p]re-trial proceedings by definition are distinguishable from the actual trial.” 469 Pa. at 494, 366 A.2d at 897.1 “Trial” by definition normally does not include pre-trial motions.2 In the instant case we find that the lower court properly relied upon Harmon for guidance in its ruling that appellant had one opportunity to [576] pursue his suppression claim.3 There is no error in denying reconsideration of the issue.

In the Commonwealth’s case, references were made by witnesses to the. November 13 robbery, the method of which was identical to the October robbery. Trials on the two offenses were held separately, with conviction as to the November robbery coming first, due to the rescheduling necessitated by the mis-trial on the October case. Our study of trial testimony convinces us that the purpose of these references was to identify appellant as the perpetrator, which identification in the instant case was reinforced by the bartender’s having seen him several weeks later in the second robbery, and to show the thread of common scheme between the two crimes. Commonwealth v. Patterson, 247 Pa.Super. 199, 372 A.2d 7 (1977), points out that it is proper to introduce as evidence the fact of another crime for these limited purposes. There was no error below in allowing the testimony.

Appellant’s next argument — that the evidence did not support the criminal conspiracy conviction — is without merit. Argument is made that the Commonwealth witnesses’ testimony as to the participation of a conspirator in the October robbery was speculative. However, the testimony of the bartender is without equivocation that when he was headed to the rest room with the other patrons, he turned and saw the man who was with appellant jump over the bar. While the witness had not seen this companion enter the barroom with appellant, the unequivocal testimony that someone was acting in concert with Middleton to commit the crime is sufficient to support the conviction for conspiracy. Likewise, a customer in the bar testified that he saw appellant’s “partner” — as he referred to him, and was ushered into the bathroom by him. The conduct and overt acts of the co-conspirators are clearly shown and are sufficient to support conviction. Commonwealth v. Henderson, 249 Pa. Super. 472, 378 A.2d 393 (1977).

[577] Next appellant argues that he was prejudiced by the presence during trial upon the district attorney’s table of a white bag of a type normally associated with the carrying of money, which bag inferentially contained the money from the robbery, but was not introduced as evidence. The Commonwealth attorney disputed that the jury ever saw the bag. At the close of trial, before the jury returned its verdict, a hearing was held on the question of whether the jury saw this bag. This hearing was conducted before the trial judge alone, and two court officers who had been present during the entire trial were questioned under oath. One stated that on the prior Thursday, at and after jury selection and into the beginning of trial, the bag was on the floor out of the jurors’ view. The only time it appeared on the top of the table was when it was first brought into the room by the police; but by the time the jurors took their places, the bag was out of sight. This testimony was corroborated by the court reporter, who also knew that the bag was out of sight of the jurors in the courtroom. Appellant offers no contradictory testimony. The argument is without merit.

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Commonwealth v. Middleton, 394 A.2d 1293, 260 Pa. Super. 571, 1978 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4203 (Pa. Ct. App. 1978).

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