Commonwealth v. Stago

HOFFMAN, Judge:

Appellant was convicted of rape, 1 involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, 2 corruption of a minor, 3 incest, 4 and simple assault. 5 In this direct appeal, he alleges several errors by the trial court and by his tidal counsel. We conclude that his trial counsel was ineffective for not objecting to the court’s failure to define simple assault and incest in its charge to the jury and, accordingly, reverse and remand for a new trial on those charges.

On January 24, 1978, Lower Paxton Township police arrested appellant and filed criminal complaints alleging that appellant committed…