Commonwealth v. Coles

Citations

• 265 Pa. 362
• 108 A. 826
• 1919 Pa. LEXIS 556

Syllabus

<p>Common law — Murder—Evidence—Similar acts — Other crimes —Bisplay and use of firearms — Arrest — Shooting — Bes gestee— Identity of pistol.</p> <p>1. Although as a general rule a distinct crime unconnected with that laid in the indictment, cannot be introduced in evidence against the accused, yet where the offenses are so connected that proof of the one necessarily involves proving the other, such proof is admissible.</p> <p>2. On a trial for murder, proof that accused, with four associates, entered a saloon where they behaved in a disorderly manner, that accused without offense being given, pointed a loaded pistol at a ■bartender and attempted several times to discharge it, that his associates fired shots, one taking effect on an employee, that they left the saloon together hurriedly and were followed by persons attracted by the shooting, that in their retreat they encountered a detective who was shot while attempting to take a pistol from one of the party, a brother of the accused, within ten or fifteen minutes after the shooting in the saloon, is admissible where it is offered as a part of the rest gestae of the crime of murder of the detective, of which the accused was charged, and not merely to prove the commission of the earlier offense.</p> <p>3. Such evidence would at least have warranted an inference that defendant was one of an organization banded together to commit crimes, thus connecting the other offenses with the one charged.</p> <p>4. In such a case it is competent to show that the pistol used by the accused in the killing of the detective was the same weapon that accused displayed while engaged in the altercation at the saloon, and it is proper to admit the pistol in evidence. It is equally competent to offer in evidence a pistol that belonged to the brother of the accused, which was found under the body of the deceased after he had fallen.</p>