Court Opinion

ID: 9762308
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:19:21.416755+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:33.035694
License: Public Domain

WICKERSHAM, Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent because I find that the lower court properly admitted the testimony at trial concerning the arson which the defendant committed in New Jersey in 1965 as substantive proof of the crimes charged in the instant case. I agree with the Commonwealth that the similarities between the 1965 New Jersey fire and the 1978 Pennsylvania fire, as delineated on page 672 of the majority opinion, were so great as to show a distinctive modus operandi and for that reason, the New Jersey fire was admissible as evidence against the defendant.
The fire in the instant case occurred in the early morning of October 5, 1978 at Petto Allen Motor Inn in Honesdale, *89Pennsylvania. At trial, Robert W. Kinsman, Chief of Honesdale Fire Department, testified that the fire in question originated in a pile of bundled newspapers in an enclosed area under the central stairwell of the hotel. N.T. at 11-13. The hotel was old, N.T. at 19, and the steps were made of a wood frame. N.T. at 12. Mr. Kinsman testified that while he was trying to control the fire, he observed the defendant coming down the central stairway alone and that the defendant told Mr. Kinsman that if he were given a mask, he would help get the people out of the hotel. N.T. at 14. Mr. Kinsman also testified that he later heard one of the residents of the hotel thanking the defendant for his assistance on the morning of the fire. N.T. at 15.
Delvina M. Smith testified that she was the defendant’s girlfriend in September, 1978, N.T. at 62-63, and that during the time which they spent together, he was drinking quite a bit. N.T. at 64. She testified that in the last week of September, she attempted to break off her relations with the defendant and that on the morning of October 5,1978, at approximately 1:30 a. m., the defendant tried unsuccessfully to reach her by telephone. N.T. at 64-65. Ms. Smith was at home at the time, but her son answered the phone and informed the defendant that she was not there. N.T. at 64-65. Ms. Smith further testified that she picked up the receiver and heard the defendant, who sounded upset, talking to her son and that after this phone call, she left the phone off the hook to avoid talking to the defendant. N.T. at 65.
Charles F. Johnson, an arson and fire investigator with the Morristown Police Department in New Jersey, interviewed the defendant on December 21, 1978, concerning the fire in Honesdale, and he testified at trial as follows:
Q What, if anything, did the Defendant say concerning his involvement with the fire at the Petto’s [sic] Allen Inn on October 5, 1978?
A He admitted to me that he set the fire.
Q Did he give you any reason as to why he lit the fire?
*90A Yes, sir, he was mad and he had been drinking. He was mad at a young lady that he couldn’t reach on a phone.
Q Did he say how the fire started?
A Yes, sir, he threw a cigarette into some paper that was in a little closet under a stairwell of the main stairway going up to the Hotel.
N.T. at 75.
Police Officer Johnson, who had investigated the New Jersey fire in 1965 to which Defendant Blady had pled guilty, gave the following testimony as to the circumstances of the New Jersey fire:
Q [D]id you handle an arson investigation in the State of New Jersey at that time?
A Yes, sir, I did.
Q Where was this?
A Hotel Revere.
Q Where is that located?
A Morristown, New Jersey.
Q What type of a building is it?
A It is a hotel.
Q What type of structure?
A It is a wooden structure; it is a wooden type structure, three stories.
Q Can you give us an indication of the age of this structure?
A The building was over a hundred years old at that time.
Q During the investigation of that fire did you have an occasion to interview the Defendant?
A Yes, sir, I did.
Q Did he admit to you whether or not he set that fire?
A Yes, sir, he did. He gave me a full confession.
Q Did he tell you how and where he set it?
*91A Yes, sir.
Q And, what he started it with?
A Under the stairwell with papers and a match.
Q Did he tell you why he set it?
A Yes, he was mad at the way; he was mad at the way he was living and he had been drinking.
Q Where was the Defendant living at the time that he set that fire?
A At the same hotel.
Q The same hotel?
A Yes, sir.
Q After setting the fire what did his statement reflect that he did?
A He went down and woke everybody up on the first and second floors and went out and pulled the alarm, went back in and tried to assist the firemen in getting the rest of the people out of the building.
N.T. at 77-78, 79.
As the majority stated in its opinion (quoting Commonwealth v. Morris, 493 Pa. 164, 176, 425 A.2d 715, 720, 721 (1981)), “a distinctive and unusual ‘modus operandi’ appears where ‘crimes of the accused [are] so nearly identical in method as to earmark them as the handiwork of the accused’ ” and that “[t]he Commonwealth must show more than the other crimes are of the same class as the one for which the defendant is being tried.” At 671-672. I conclude that the similarities between the New Jersey fire and the Pennsylvania fire show two crimes which are so nearly identical in method as to earmark them as the handiwork of the defendant. I also find that the remaining contentions of appellant, namely his confession should have been suppressed as a product of coercion and because of violation of the “six-hour rule” of Commonwealth v. Davenport, 471 Pa. 278, 370 A.2d 301 (1977), are without merit. I would affirm the judgment of sentence.