Case ID: pa_496/html/0420-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

437 A.2d 944
    COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Charles GILMORE, Appellant.
    Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
    Submitted Oct. 28, 1981.
    Decided Dec. 17, 1981.
    Burton A. Rose, Philadelphia (Court-appointed), for appellant.
    Robert B. Lawler, Chief, Appeals Div., Paul Diamond, Philadelphia, for appellee.
    Before O’BRIEN, C. J., and ROBERTS, NIX, LARSEN, FLAHERTY, KAUFFMAN and WILKINSON, JJ.
   OPINION OF THE COURT

PER CURIAM:

This is a direct appeal from judgments of sentence imposed by the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia upon a verdict of guilty of murder of the first degree and robbery. Appellant was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment for the murder and a concurrent term of ten to twenty years’ imprisonment for the robbery.

Appellant, who is represented on this appeal by counsel other than his trial counsel, challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction of felony murder, as well as the constitutionality of the felony-murder doctrine. Additionally, appellant claims that his arrest was invalid because it was effectuated in his home without an arrest warrant and without probable cause, and that his statements to police following the arrest should have been suppressed. Appellant’s final claim of error is that a statement by the victim to police shortly after the victim had regained consciousness was erroneously admitted as within the res gestae exception to the rule against hearsay. We are convinced that appellant’s claims of error are without merit. Accordingly, we affirm judgments of sentence.

Judgments of sentence affirmed.

ROBERTS, J., dissents for the reasons set forth in Commonwealth v. Miller, 490 Pa. 457, 417 A.2d 128 (1980) (Roberts, J., dissenting).