Donatelli v. Commonwealth

OPINION

VANMETER, Judge.

If a criminal defendant is represented by a lawyer who also represents a codefen-dant, that criminal defendant must be informed of the possible conflict of interest by the trial judge and must sign a waiver of the possible conflict. 1 The failure to do so, however, does not necessitate reversal, but requires a defendant to demonstrate an actual conflict of interests. In this case, we hold that the defendant, Christopher Donatelli, has failed to do so, and we therefore affirm.

The facts of this case are relatively straightforward. On November 6, 2003, Donatelli and three…