Commonwealth v. Derk

opinion by

McCaffery, j.:

¶ 1 Appellant, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (“Commonwealth”), appeals from the order of the Court of Common *877Pleas of Snyder County granting the petition filed by Steven C. Derk (“Appellee”) pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9541-9546. The PCRA court determined that Appellee had received ineffective assistance of counsel when counsel failed to request that the trial court charge the jury with two instructions regarding the testimony of Ta-mie Gates, the principal witness for the Commonwealth.1 Appellee was granted a new trial.…