Commonwealth v. Dennery

Citations

• 259 Pa. 223
• 102 A. 874
• 1917 Pa. LEXIS 545

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—First degree — Bobbery — Motive — III •will — Identification of defendant — Voice—Evidence—Bes gestee— Charge — Sufficiency—Avoiding arrest — Bebutting inference — Gonviction of accomplices — Admissibility ■ — Jurors of same name— Error in summoning — Waiver—Act of March SI, 1860, Sec. 58, P. l. m.</p> <p>1. In the trial of an indictment for murder it appeared that the defendant and two confederates, all armed with revolvers and with their faces partly concealed with handkerchiefs, went to a shanty where deceased was visiting. The defendant entered, placed his revolver against deceased’s head and shot and killed him instantly. Defendant and his confederates compelled the other occupants of the shanty to hold up their hands and took from the only one possessing any money all that he had, Defendant was positively identified by one of tlie occupants of tlie shanty by his size, unusually light hair, and by the features of the upper part of his face which was exposed, .and was identified by another by his voice, although less positively. There was evidence that at about one o’clock on the day of the shooting defendant and his two confederates were together at a camp in the vicinity and were overheard talking about the money at the shanty and planning to get it, that later in tlie afternoon they were again overheard talking on the same subject, and that they left the camp together half an hour before the commission of the crime. Shortly after the shooting defendant appeared in the neighborhood acting in a nervous, excited and hurried manner and stated to two acquaintances, “we had some shooting up there and the neighbors are telephoning the police.” There was evidence that three or four days before the murder deceased had said in the defendant’s presence that defendant had taken money from him and had attempted to commit an unnatural offense upon him. Defendant fled and was apprehended seven months later in another state where he was working under