Commonwealth v. Elias & Johns

Citations

• 76 Pa. Super. 576
• 1921 Pa. Super. LEXIS 191

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Larceny and receiving stolen goods — Procedure, Q. 8. — Evidence of other crimes — Admissibility.</p> <p>Evidence of another independent and distinct crime cannot be received simply for the purpose of showing the commission of the offense for which the defendants are on trial. But under some circumstances evidence is properly admitted which tends to establish any fact material to the issue then pending, though it may incidentally involve a distinct offense. Thus it may be to establish identity; to show the act charged was intentional and wilful and not accidental; to prove guilty knowledge and purpose; to show that the defendants belonged to an organization banded together to commit crimes of the kind charged, and to connect the other offense with the one charged, as part of the same transaction.</p> <p>In the trial of an indictment for larceny and receiving stolen goods, evidence was admissible that the defendants were the originators of a band of thieves, and had instructed young boys how to commit burglary and larceny, named the time and place and arranged the opportunity for such crimes, and received the stolen goods directly from them after paying them in money for their criminal acts. While the series of crimes covered a number of months and the incriminating testimony was furnished by the boys who were the victims of the defendants, the independent proof related to a plan or system of criminal action, involving the criminal intent and showing the criminal design of the defendants to accomplish their nefarious purposes. When the collateral facts prove or tend to prove the particular intent, such evidence is competent and cannot be excluded because it incidentally proved an independent crime.</p>