Commonwealth v. Montalvo, N., Aplt

OPINION

Justice TODD.

This is a capital appeal from the order of the Court of Common Pleas of York County denying Appellant Noel Matos Montalvo’s petition for relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9541-9546. For the reasons that follow, we are constrained to vacate the order and remand this matter to the PCRA court for further proceedings, as discussed below.

I. Factual and procedural background

Appellant is the brother of Milton Montalvo (“Milton”). In 1995, Milton and his common law wife, Miriam Ascencio (“Miriam”), moved from Puerto Rico to York County,…