Commonwealth v. Simmons

SWOPE, J.,

This case is before the court on the petitions of the Johnstown Tribune Publishing Co. and WJAC Inc. to intervene in the captioned criminal proceeding to oppose closure of a suppression hearing scheduled before the court for December 22,1992. A hearing was held before the court on December 9, 1992, at which time arguments of counsel and testimony by the media were heard.

I

The defendant, Ernest J. Simmons, has been charged with the first degree murder of Anna Knaze. Ms. Knaze was an 80-year-old woman who was brutally beaten and strangled in her home in the course of a burglary and…