Commonwealth v. Gibson
Commonwealth v. Gibson
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The appellant, on this direct appeal, argues that he is entitled to a new trial because mention was made at his trial of a prior arrest of his co-defendant on an
The trial judge, while declining to declare a mistrial, offered to give an immediate cautionary instruction to the jury on the matter. Both appellant’s and co-defendant’s counsels advised the Court that they did not want the matter raised again to the jury at that point; counsel for the co-defendant asked for an appropriate cautionary instruction during the Court’s charge and this request was fulfilled by the Court.
We find no new trial is merited. This was obviously not an attempt by the Commonwealth to elicit testimony of prior crimes (a violation of Act of March 15, 1911, P. L. 20, 19 P.S. §711), but was rather a spontaneous volunteered utterance on a question that was a natural development of the facts already in evidence. See Commonwealth v. Garnett, 204 Pa. Superior Ct. 113 (1964); Commonwealth v. Wojdakowski, 161 Pa. Superior Ct. 250 (1947); Commonwealth v.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of sentence is hereby affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.