Burgess v. Commonwealth

On February 17, 1981, Levi Burgess and Harold James Twitty were indicted for statutory burglary, grand larceny, and possession of burglarious tools, the offenses growing out of an incident which occurred December 10, 1980. The two defendants were tried together by a jury; each was convicted of all three charges and sentenced to serve a total of fifteen years in the penitentiary. We granted Burgess this appeal limited to the question whether the trial court erred in refusing him a separate trial.

Initially, Burgess and Twitty were represented by the same retained counsel, Clyde Hampton, who…