Ellison v. Commonwealth

The defendant, Charles Lewis Ellison, was convicted by a jury of robbery and murder and, in accordance with the verdicts, he was sentenced to serve two life terms in the penitentiary. The defendant seeks reversal on the ground that the trial court erred in refusing to permit a witness to testify before the jury that a third party had confessed to the robbery and murder with which the defendant was charged.

The record shows that on September 10, 1976, Ernest Marks, night manager of “Carma’s Chicken” in Portsmouth, was mortally wounded by a shotgun blast during the course of a robbery committed…