Commonwealth v. Dumber

Citations

• 69 Pa. Super. 196
• 1918 Pa. Super. LEXIS 356

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Arson—Declarations of prisoner — Evidence.</p> <p>On the trial of an indictment for arson where the Commonwealth has introduced evidence tending to show that the fire was of incendiary origin, it is not error to admit proof of statements made by the prisoner immediately after the fire without solicitation or promise, explaining how the fire occurred, and intended to exculpate himself, but proven by other testimony to, be false.</p> <p>Criminal law — Arson—Evidence as to other crime — Motive.</p> <p>It is a general rule that a distinct crime unconnected with that made in the indictment, cannot be given in evidence against a prisoner; but where the other crime testified to furnishes a motive for the crime for which the prisoner is indicted, such evidence is competent.</p> <p>On the trial of an indictment for arson, where the fire is shown to have been of incendiary origin, it is competent to introduce proof of a series of acts committed by the prisoner with the intention of defrauding his creditors, and that the burning of his store was necessary .as the final act to destroy all incriminating evidence of the fraud which he had committed. In such a case it is not necessary to show that any specific person had been defrauded, if it appears from bankruptcy proceedings that his creditors, as a class, were defrauded.</p>