Commonwealth v. Helser

JACOBS, President Judge:

This appeal follows appellant’s conviction and sentence in the court below on the charge of solicitation to commit murder. The issue we must decide is whether the court below erred in the way it handled a note passed to it from the jury during deliberations. 1 For the reasons that follow, we hold that the court should have questioned the jurors regarding the nature of the information received by them, and therefore grant appellant a new trial.

The evidence produced at trial reveals that sometime during 1976, appellant began discussing a plan to “beat up” Wilmer…