Commonwealth v. Stelma

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Barnes,

The defendant was convicted of the murder of Joseph Doyle in the Borough of Mt. Carmel, Northumberland County. The jury found him guilty of murder in the first degree and imposed the death penalty, to which the defendant was thereafter sentenced. The - Commonwealth alleges that the murder was committed in the perpetration of a robbery. The defendant claims he acted in self-defense.

Early on December 5, 1936, Doyle was found unconscious in a gully close to the stadium fence in the borough of Mt. Carmel. He was removed to the Fountain Springs Hospital, near Ashland,…