Commonwealth v. Collins

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Roberts,

In 1966 Charles Collins was brought to trial for the murder of his wife, Violet. The jury found him guilty of murder in the first degree and the penalty was fixed at life imprisonment. This is a direct appeal from that judgment of sentence.

The evidence adduced at the trial indicated that on June 4, 1965, Collins and his family went on a shopping trip and came home late in the afternoon. While Collins’ wife and children went down the street to visit a neighbor, Collins went inside his own house for a short time and then asked a neighbor to walk down the street and…