Court Opinion

ID: 9758056
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:09:34.966214+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:46.976963
License: Public Domain

WICKERSHAM, Judge,
I DISSENT!
On June 9, 1981, trial proceedings were held before the Honorable Michael V. Franciosa, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Northampton County in a criminal trial involving Lawrence Grahame, Jr., appellant.1
One of the principal Commonwealth witnesses was Pamela Kranich. She testified that on December 26, 1980 at about 7:30 p.m. she was working at a supermarket called Food Lane. She was 19 years of age at the time. Early in her direct testimony she advised the court and jury that two persons entered the store, got a cupcake and a pie and came to her register. At that point she said that Darnell Williams pulled a gun on her (N.T. 23). She said that Darnell Williams was the person in the courtroom on trial and she pointed him out as the “gentleman in the white sweater.” *234She testified further that Lawrence Grahame, Jr., appellant herein, was standing next to Darnell and she stated that Grahame was the person present in the courtroom on trial. She pointed him out (N.T. 25). She said that Lawrence Grahame was carrying a gym bag and that he and Williams and a third person by the name of Alton Parks emptied her drawer of money and put it in the gym bag that Lawrence Grahame was carrying. They left and she pushed the security alarm and called her boss.
Her identification of the defendant was positive on direct examination. Any subsequent uncertainty in her identification, developed during questioning by defense counsel, was for the jury. I agree with the conclusion of the Northampton County Court En Banc on this issue where they stated:
When a case does not involve any suggestive identification proceedings, the Commonwealth’s burden is simply to introduce evidence solid enough to avoid conjecture. Commonwealth v. Crews, 436 Pa. 346, 260 A.2d 771 (1970). After that, it is up to the jury to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, if at all. Commonwealth v. Hurd, 268 Pa.Super. 24, 407 A.2d 418 (1979). Thus, in Commonwealth v. Davis, 466 Pa. 102, 351 A.2d 642 (1976), the failure of the Commonwealth’s witness to identify the accused at a lineup was relevant only to weight and credibility of his subsequent in-court identification.
Under all of the circumstances in the matter before us, we cannot find that the identification was so unreliable that as a matter of law it should not have been accepted by the finder of fact. The witness positively identified the defendant during her direct examination. Although she later grew uncertain during the questioning by defense counsel, her in-court identification was buttressed by the description she gave the investigator. Therefore, the jury had ample evidence to sustain the guilty verdict.
Brief for Appellee at iv.
I would affirm the conviction and judgment of sentence.

. Grahame was tried with co-defendant Darnell Williams.