Opinion ID: 2009241
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Brubaker and Herring Burglaries

Text: The trial court admitted testimony about two burglaries allegedly related to the Ritchie incident. Over appellant's objections, the jury heard proof that, on November 13, 1981, Nolen and Crater had burglarized the home of Warren Brubaker. A .38 caliber handgun taken in that burglary was identified by a ballistics expert as the murder weapon. Appellant Evans played no role in that crime. The court also allowed evidence that the three, Crater, Nolen and Evans, had burglarized the home of Earl Herring on November 19, 1981. Although that burglary netted a .32 caliber handgun and .32 caliber ammunition, the prosecution failed to connect the fruits of that robbery to the Ritchie incident. The Herring gun was never recovered. Expert ballistics testimony established only that a .32 slug recovered from the scene of the murder could have been fired from the Herring gun. [4] No convictions were entered in these cases when the appellants came to trial on the Ritchie charges. For this reason, appellant argues that the prosecutor introduced the evidence of these burglaries for an impermissible purpose  to prove that appellants were evil men. Again, we recognize that the general rule bars admission of charges which have not resulted in convictions. See p. 3, supra. Evidence of these other burglaries, however, falls within the exceptions carved from that rule. The evidence was relevant and probative in the instant case. The actual need for the evidence outweighed the prejudice incident to its introduction. Commonwealth v. Bradley, 243 Pa.Super. 208, 212, 364 A.2d 944, 946 (1976). Testimony about the Brubaker burglary tied appellant Nolen to the murder weapon. Evidence of a crime other than the one for which the defendant is being tried is admissible if it tends to show the identity of the perpetrator of the crime charged in the trial. Commonwealth v. Evans, 488 Pa. 38, 44, 410 A.2d 1213, 1216 (1980). The fact that the testimony implicated Nolen but not Evans does not bar its admission. See United States v. Snead, 447 F.Supp. 1321 (E.D.Pa.), affirmed 577 F.2d 730 (3rd Cir.), cert. denied 436 U.S. 930, 98 S.Ct. 2829, 56 L.Ed.2d 775 and 439 U.S. 851, 99 S.Ct. 156, 58 L.Ed.2d 154 (1978) (testimony clearly relevant and probative with respect to one defendant was properly admitted over co-defendant's claim of prejudice). The testimony about the Herring burglary, though less probative, was nonetheless admissible here. [T]his testimony was clearly relevant as showing part of a chain, or sequence of facts, or part of the history of the event on trial. . . . Commonwealth v. Brown, 462 Pa. 578, 342 A.2d 84 (1975); see Commonwealth v. Detrie, 263 Pa.Super. 75, 397 A.2d 2 (1979). Appellant's claims of prejudice are met by curative instructions given at counsel's request. See N.T. 623-625. The attack goes to the weight of the evidence not its admissibility. Commonwealth v. Williams, 454 Pa. 261, 311 A.2d 920 (1973).