Commonwealth v. Levinson

Citations

• 34 Pa. Super. 286
• 1907 Pa. Super. LEXIS 128

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Evidence—Independent crimes — Adultery.</p> <p>Generally speaking, evidence of an independent crime is not admissible in the trial of a defendant for a specific offense; but where the testimony bears upon the conduct and motive of the accused with reference to the particular charge, or where it tends to show the relation between parties in connection with the crime alleged, such evidence is always admissible.</p> <p>On the trial of an indictment for larceny of money stolen from the bed of the prosecutor’s wife, it may be shown that at the time of the larceny the defendant and the wife were living in adultery.</p> <p>Criminal law — Bill of particulars — Larceny—Trespass—Adultery.</p> <p>On an indictment for larceny, a bill of particulars furnished by the commonwealth set forth that the defendant committed the larceny charged in the indictment, and that the taking of the property was accompanied by a trespass. The proof showed that the defendant entered an apartment occupied by the prosecutor's wife, in her absence, and took and carried away the money which she had concealed in her bed. It also appeared that the prosecutor's wife had not acted promptly in an effort- to recover the money. Held, that the evidence supported the bill of particulars, and was sufficient to sustain a conviction.</p> <p>Receipt from the wife of the husband’s goods by an adulterer or one intending to elope with her and live with her in adultery, is larceny from the husband.</p> <p>Where a wife sells land belonging to her husband as an attorney in fact, and receives the purchase money as his agent, and thereafter elopes with another, and her paramour steals the money from her bed in her absence, he may be convicted of the larceny of the husband’s money.</p>