Commonwealth v. Weigle

OPINION

Chief Justice CASTILLE.

The issue before this Court is whether, under Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure 560(B)(5), the Commonwealth properly may return a criminal information charging robbery where the accused was held for trial on charges of retail theft and aggravated assault, on grounds that robbery is a cognate offense to retail theft. Herein, the accused was originally charged with two counts of robbery, but those charges were dismissed at the preliminary hearing stage, and the Commonwealth failed to pursue an available appeal of that dismissal. Both courts below held that…