Court Opinion

ID: 9730402
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:11:29.968512+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:06.257352
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the judgment.
Appellant filed motions to suppress evidence, which were denied. Later, he learned that certain statements of his codefendant had been suppressed at another suppression hearing. Pursuant to Pa.R.Crim.Pro. 323, appellant requested that the suppression court grant a new hearing because his arrest and subsequent inculpatory statement were al*616legedly products of the codefendant’s statement, the illegality of which appellant could not know until after his original suppression hearing. Appellant asserts that the suppression court erred in denying his request. Of course, if probable cause to arrest appellant had rested on illegally obtained evidence, appellant’s arrest would have been unlawful. Commonwealth v. Knowles, 459 Pa. 70, 327 A.2d 19 (1974) (citing cases). The suppression court did not err because evidence independent of the codefendant’s statements existed to justify appellant’s arrest. See Commonwealth v. Culmer, 463 Pa. 189, 344 A.2d 487 (1975).
Appellant also asserts that his trial did not begin within the time prescribed by Pa.R.Crim.Pro. 1100. Appellant did not raise this issue, however, on post-verdict motions, and it therefore is not preserved for appellate review. Commonwealth v. Blair, 460 Pa. 31, 331 A.2d 213 (1975).
Finally, although appellant has not challenged the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict of guilty of murder of the first degree, this Court has an independent obligation to examine the evidence for sufficiency. Act of February 15, 1870, P.L. 15, § 2, 19 P.S. § 1187 (1964); Commonwealth v. Hughes, 477 Pa. 180, 383 A.2d 882 (1978). I am satisfied that the evidence, including appellant’s statement to the police and the testimony of two witnesses, was sufficient to support the verdict.