Court Opinion

ID: 9767216
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:13:01.021352+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:29.582226
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Judge,
concurring:
Although I concur in the majority’s determination to vacate the judgments of sentence and remand the instant case to the trial court, I note my disagreement concerning the majority’s alternative determination that evidence of co-conspirator Beecher’s possession of the weapon can, by itself, support appellant’s conviction for carrying firearms in Philadelphia, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 6108.
My review of Commonwealth v. Smith, 490 Pa. 329, 416 A.2d 494 (1980), cited for support by the majority, fails to reveal any specific discussion on the issue of whether the defendant in Smith could be held legally accountable for a co-conspirator’s possession of a weapon, as opposed to the act of shooting the victim. 490 Pa. at 332-334, 416 A.2d at 496. Granted, the court in Smith did affirm the defendant’s convictions for possession of an instrument of crime and possession of a prohibited offensive weapon. However, the instant case concerns an offense under the Uniform Firearms Act, not a weapons offense in the Crimes Code chapter dealing with inchoate offenses, as found in Smith.
I cannot agree that a person can be convicted under 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 6108 for another’s possession of a weapon by means of an accomplice or conspiracy theory. In my view, *303a violation of section 6108 is personal and cannot be imputed to another.