Commonwealth v. Sandutch

OPINION

LARSEN, Justice.

At approximately 2:30 a. m. on February 14, 1976, appellee James Vincent Sandutch, James Vincent Mastrota and Henry Mangum drove to the home of Luzerne County Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boyarski, where appellee and Mastrota threw a firebomb — a half-gallon milk bottle filled with gasoline — through a window, setting the house ablaze and killing Deputy and Mrs. Boyarski and their three children.

As a result of this incident, on November 5,1976 appellee was convicted by a jury of five counts of murder of the second degree, one count of arson and one count of criminal…