Com. v. Crews

• Decision Date: 09 January 1970
• Citation: 436 Pa. 346,260 A.2d 771
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Abraham CREWS, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 771

260 A.2d 771

436 Pa. 346

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Abraham CREWS, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Jan. 9, 1970.

[436 Pa. 347] Joseph I. Lewis, Pittsburgh, for appellant.

Robert W. Duggan, Dist. Atty., Carol M. Los, Robert L. Campbell, Asst. Dist. Attys., Pittsburgh, for appellee.

Before BELL, C.J., and JONES, COHEN, EAGEN, O'BRIEN, ROBERTS and POMEROY, JJ.

OPINION OF THE COURT

O'BRIEN, Justice.

This is an appeal from the judgment of sentence of the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Allegheny County. Petitioner was convicted by a jury of the first degree felony-murder of a cab driver in Duquesne. After denial of his post-trial motions, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. This appeal followed. ¹

The only issue raised by appellant is the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the conviction. Appellant contends that the identification testimony, viewed in a light most favorable to the Commonwealth, was insufficient to enable a reasonable jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Crews was the guilty party in this case. We agree.

The testimony, viewed in a light most favorable to the Commonwealth, reveals that two blacks were seen entering a cab, the cab driver was robbed and beaten, and two blacks were seen fleeing. Crews and Tedders, a codefendant whose first degree murder conviction has already been affirmed by this Court, Commonwealth v. Tedders, 431 Pa. 646, 244 A.2d 156 (1968), ² fit the very general description of the criminals as to height and coloration. The principal evidence on which the Commonwealth relies is clothing. A witness, Mrs. Schorr, who observed the two men fleeing from the cab, testified that the taller, lighter complexioned one was wearing a gold-colored sweater, while the shorter, darker one was wearing a black leather trench coat. When Tedders was arrested, he was wearing a black leather coat which Mrs. Schorr identified at trial as being the coat she saw. A gold- colored sweater was found in Crews' home. Mrs. Schorr could not positively say that it was the same sweater which the taller felon was wearing, but did indicate that the color appeared to be the same.

In addition to Mrs. Schorr's testimony, the Commonwealth produced testimony that Crews and Tedders were together in at least three different places on the night of the crime, from 6:00 P.M. at 1:30 A.M. There was testimony that at 7:00 P.M. they were in the Oh Bar, not far from where the two men entered the cab at about 8:30. All of the witnesses testified that Tedders was wearing a black leather coat or jacket. Two witnesses testified that Crews was wearing a gold or an orange sweater.

We hold that this evidence is insufficient to sustain the verdict. Although we have often held that circumstantial evidence alone can sustain a conviction, see e.g., Commonwealth v. Finnie, 415 Pa. 166, 171, 202 A.2d 85 (1964), such evidence must point more conclusively toward guilt than does that present in the instant case....