Court Opinion

ID: 9541764
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:28:27.031768+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:04:37.742716
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion by
Hoffman, J.:
I concur in the affirmance of the judgment but do not believe that it is necessary to reach the question discussed in the majority opinion of whether the two transfers of narcotics by appellant to an undercover officer constituted a single or two separate and distinct offenses.1 Since appellant entered a knowing and voluntary plea to the charges contained in separate indictments, it is clear that he cannot raise this issue on direct appeal.
Following the entry of a guilty plea, the only issues that may be raised on direct appeal are the voluntariness of the plea, the legality of the sentence, and the jurisdiction of the court. Commonwealth v. Allen, 443 Pa. 447, 277 A. 2d 818 (1971); Commonwealth v. Bell, 449 Pa. 1, 295 A. 2d 307 (1972); Commonwealth v. Person, 450 Pa. 1, 297 A. 2d 460 (1973). “A plea of guilty, knowingly made, constitutes an admission of guilt and is a waiver of all non-jurisdictional defects and defenses.” Commonwealth v. Hill, 427 Pa. 614, 235 A. 2d 347 (1967). By entering the plea to both indictments, appellant admitted his guilt to each crime charged therein. Since the sentences imposed were *335legal, appellant cannot now complain of the Commonwealth’s failure to consolidate the charges into one offense.2
Spaeth, J., joins in this opinion.

 Commonwealth ex rel. Moszczynski v. Ashe, 343 Pa. 102, 21 A. 2d 920 (1941), upon which the majority relies, is totally in-apposite to the facts of the instant case. There, the Supreme Court held that the offenses of breaking and entering, robbery, and felonious attempt to kill, although committed in the same transaction, were distinct crimes, and that convictions and sentences on each were proper. The issue which appellant seeks to raise herein is whether the two transfers of money and drugs were successive steps in one felonious sale of narcotics.

 Nor do I believe it wise for this court to determine the issue on the record before us. This is not a case in which the crimes merged as a matter of law. See Commonwealth ex rel. Shaddock v. Ashe, 340 Pa. 286, 17 A. 2d 180 (1941). The circumstances under which the two transfers of drugs and money took place are essential to a determination of whether they were installments or steps in one sale, or two separate sales. These facts were not developed in the court below during the short colloquy prior to the entry of the guilty pleas.