Commonwealth v. Meadows

• Citation: 232 Pa.Super. 292,331 A.2d 827
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Donny A. MEADOWS.
• Decision Date: 11 December 1974
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

331 A.2d 827

232 Pa.Super. 292

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Donny A. MEADOWS.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

December 11, 1974.

Steven H. Goldblatt, Asst. Dist. Atty., Chief Appeals Div., Philadelphia, for appellant.

Needleman Needleman, Tabb & Eisman, Ltd., Abraham T. Needleman, Gerald A. Stein, Dennis Eisman, Philadelphia for appellee.

Before WATKINS, President Judge, and JACOBS, HOFFMAN, CERCONE PRICE, VAN der VOORT and SPAETH, JJ.

JACOBS Judge:

The appellee was convicted following a bench trial on charges of aggravated robbery and burglary. The court subsequently granted a motion in arrest of judgment ^[1] based upon insufficiency of the evidence, and from that order the Commonwealth appeals. We reverse.

In reviewing an appeal from a trial court's grant of a motion in arrest of judgment our task is to determine whether the evidence offered by the Commonwealth was sufficient to support the verdict. Commonwealth v. Froelich, 458 Pa. 104, 326 A.2d 364 (1974). 'To sustain the trial judge, we must find that,

'. . . accepting all of the evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom, upon which, if believed the jury could properly have based its verdict, it would be nonetheless insufficient in law to find beyond a reasonable doubt that the appellee is guilty of the crime charged."

Commonwealth v. Froelich, supra at ---, 326 A.2d at 365, Quoting Commonwealth v. Blevins, 453 Pa. 481, 483, 309 A.2d 421 (1973); See Commonwealth v. Williams, 455 Pa. 539, 316 A.2d 888 (1974); Commonwealth v. Ponton, 450 Pa. 40, 299 A.2d 634 (1972). A verdict rendered by a judge sitting without a jury has the same force and effect as a jury verdict. Commonwealth v. Scasserra, 199 Pa.Super. 200, 184 A.2d 299 (1962), cert. denied, 373 U.S. 940, 83 S.Ct. 1546, 10 L.Ed.2d 695 (1963).

The Commonwealth's evidence reveals that on July 5, 1971 three men robbed a candy store in Philadelphia. The proprietor of the store immediately notified the police, who within minutes were advised by someone that three men fitting the general description of the robbers had entered a particular house about two and a half blocks away. Two of the men were immediately arrested (the other was arrested several days later) and returned to the store where they were identified by the proprietor. At the house a gun was found which fit the description of the one used in the robbery, a red coca-cola carton filled with loose cartons of cigarettes was retrieved from the yard next door (these items had been stolen from the store), and six dollars in change was found in the back yard (the approximate amount taken during the robbery). Although the proprietor was confused at trial...