Commonwealth v. Krzesniak

• Decision Date: 17 January 1956
• Citation: 180 Pa.Super. 560,119 A.2d 617
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Joseph KRZESNIAK, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

119 A.2d 617

180 Pa.Super. 560

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Joseph KRZESNIAK, Appellant.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania

January 17, 1956

Argued September 26, 1955

Appeal, No. 300, Oct. T., 1955, from judgment of Court of Quarter Sessions of Montgomery County, June T., 1954, Nos 39, 39-2, 39-6, and 39-8, in case of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Joseph Krzesniak. Judgment affirmed.

Indictments charging defendant with arson and unlawful burning of personal property. Before FORREST, J.

Verdicts of guilty and judgment of sentence thereon. Defendant appealed.

Judgment of sentence affirmed.

Bernard V. DiGiacomo, for appellant.

C Howard Harry, Jr., Assistant District Attorney, with him J. Stroud Weber, District Attorney, for appellee.

Before RHODES, P.J., HIRT, ROSS, GUNTHER, WRIGHT, WOODSIDE, and ERVIN, JJ.

OPINION

HIRT, J.

Nine bills of indictment were consolidated for trial before the same jury. Eight of them charged the defendant with arson, under § 905 of the Penal Code of June 24, 1939, P.L. 872, 18 PS § 4905; the ninth indictment charged him with setting a junked automobile afire in violation of § 907 of the Code, 18 PS § 4907. There were no eyewitnesses to any of the crimes but the defendant, a 19-year-old boy confessed to the commission of all of them after his arrest. At the close of the Commonwealth's case the trial court sustained demurrers to the evidence as to five of the arson indictments because proof of the corpus delicti in each instance was lacking. The defendant however was found guilty on the remaining three charges of felony, Bills 39, 39-2 and 39-6, and on the fourth Bill, 39-8, charging the unlawful burning of personal property, a misdemeanor. A single indeterminate sentence to the Pennsylvania Industrial School at Camp Hill was imposed.

The appeal before us was taken by the defendant from his conviction and sentence in the court below in No. 39 June Sessions, 1954. No appeal was taken in any of the other three cases. Although a single sentence was imposed generally on all four convictions the sentence is valid and cannot be set aside in this appeal since it does not exceed the maximum which could have been imposed on the conviction of arson on Bill 39. Cf. Commonwealth v. Waychoff, 177 Pa.Super. 182, 110 A.2d 780; Commonwealth v. Logan, 172 Pa.Super. 365, 94 A.2d 99; Commonwealth v. Amato, 148 Pa.Super. 151, 24 A.2d 681.

We are unable to agree with the defendant that the corpus delicti was not sufficiently proven in the three arson cases in which he was convicted, including the prosecution on Bill 39. It is a familiar rule that an extrajudicial confession by one accused of a crime cannot be received in evidence unless and until the corpus delicti of the offense has first been established by independent proof. Commonwealth v. Turza, 340 Pa. 128, 16 A.2d 401. It is said in Commonwealth v. Gardner, 282 Pa. 458, 462, 128 A. 87, that "In all criminal proceedings it is incumbent on the Commonwealth to establish beyond a reasonable doubt three elements: (1) the occurrence of an injury or loss ... (2) a criminal agency [in arson that the fire was incendiary in origin] ... (3) that the defendant is the responsible party ..." It is also stated in that leading case, p. 464, "It sometimes happens the circumstances attending the act may be consistent with crime ... or accident. In such cases, the corpus delicti is proven where the circumstances attending the [loss] are consistent with crime, though they may also be consistent with accident." And further: "The corpus delicti is to be proved like other facts, and it may be shown by circumstantial evidence." All that is required under the settled law is that the facts establishing the corpus delicti be proven by competent evidence beyond all reasonable doubt. Commonwealth v. Dolph, 164 Pa.Super. 415, 65 A.2d 253; Commonwealth v. Lettrich, 346 Pa. 497, 31 A.2d 155; Com. v. Smith, 111 Pa.Super. 363, 170 A. 331.

The jury upon sufficient proofs found that the corpus delicti of the arson charged in Bill 39 was established. The uncontradicted testimony is that a fire was observed in a recessed areaway enclosing a basement window of a factory building of the Colonial Abrasive Products Company in Conshohocken. Papers and leaves, with other inflammable trash which had collected there, were burning, as well as the wooden frame of the window, when the fire was first observed. The circumstances might have indicated that this fire was accidental in origin except for the fact that simultaneously there was a second fire in the inside of a cupboard in another part of the building. There was no connection between the two and no possibility that one fire caused the other. Two firemen of long experience in the investigation of the causes of fires, without objection by the defendant gave it as their opinion that these fires were criminal in origin and the jury so found. The subject of Bill 39-2 was a fire that destroyed a garage or stable at 610 Harry Street, Conshohocken. The outside of the building had been fired in two places by means of a lot of newspapers "all rumpled up." The circumstances rebut every inference that the incidence of the fire was accidental and there is positive evidence in the testimony of Joseph P Thomas, the Conshohocken Fire Chief, who has had a wide experience in the investigation of the causes of fires, that it was incendiary in origin. This testimony also was received without objection. The evidence in support of Bill 39-6 relates to a fire which totally destroyed a garage with a resulting loss of $3,500 to the owner. From his investigation the Fire Chief gave it as his opinion that this fire "could have been accidental or set by someone." In each of these cases the corpus delicti was sufficiently proved under the rule of the Gardner case and the authorities cited above, and the defendant's confession to these crimes was admissible. Bill 39-8 charged the malicious burning of an old junked automobile in a remote section of the premises of Fazio Metals Inc. in Conshohocken. The car was completely enveloped in flames when the witnesses first observed it. There was no direct evidence on the question of the...