Commonwealth v. Demarco

OPINION OF THE COURT

Justice NIGRO.

We granted allowance of appeal in the instant case to review whether the Court of Common Pleas of Monroe County committed reversible error during the trial of Appellant Richard DeMarco by refusing to charge the jury on the defense of duress. For the reasons that follow, we find that the trial court did err, and therefore, vacate Appellant’s judgment of sentence and remand the case to the trial court for a new trial.

On February 16, 1998, Frank Larwa called the Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department to report that Salvatore Zarcone was at his home in…