Commonwealth v. Monahan

KELLY, Judge:

In this case, we are called upon to determine whether an appellant’s pre-arrest refusal to explain his appearance at a state police barracks with a dead body and the murder weapon in his automobile may be admitted into evidence, and whether appellant’s post-arrest refusal to submit to a neutron activation test to determine whether he had recently fired a gun may be admitted into evidence. Despite appellant’s objections on constitutional grounds, we find as to both of these issues that the evidence was admissible.

On March 23,1982, at 1:40 a.m., appellant appeared at the…