Opinion
May 9, 1940.
June 24, 1940.
Criminal law — Merger of crimes — Personal violence — Breaking and entering a building — Bank robbery — Felonious attempt to kill.
1. The crimes of (1) breaking and entering a building with intent to commit a felony, (2) bank robbery, and (3) felonious attempt to kill, are not merged when the crimes subsequent to the felonious entry are committed with personal force and violence.
Criminal law — Practice — Appointment of counsel — Plea of guilty.
2. The trial court is not required to see that a defendant who pleads guilty to the charges against him is represented by counsel.
Appeal, No. 81, April T., 1940, from order of C.P. Allegheny Co., April T., 1939, No. 2452, discharging writ of habeas corpus, in case of Commonwealth ex rel. John Lucian v. Stanley P. Ashe, Warden Western State Penitentiary.
Before KELLER, P.J., CUNNINGHAM, BALDRIGE, STADTFELD, PARKER, RHODES and HIRT, JJ. Order affirmed.
Habeas corpus proceeding. Before RICHARDSON, J.
Order entered discharging writ. Relator appealed.
John Lucian, appellant, in propria persona. Andrew T. Park, District Attorney, George F.P. Langfitt, First Assistant District Attorney and Louis L. Kaufman, for appellee.
Submitted May 9, 1940.
This is an appeal by the relator, John Lucian, from an order of Judge RICHARDSON of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, refusing to discharge him from confinement in the Western State Penitentiary, and remanding him to prison. The order will be affirmed.
The appellant pleaded guilty in Somerset County, along with two other defendants, to (1) breaking and entering a building with intent to commit a felony, (2) bank robbery, and (3) felonious attempt to kill. There was evidence that after effecting an entrance into the bank the defendants came out, and then went back into the bank, where they committed the robbery and the felonious attempt to kill. In any event, the crimes subsequent to the felonious entry were committed with personal force and violence, and in such circumstances, the offenses are not merged: Com. ex rel. H. Franell v. Ashe, 134 Pa. Super. 96, 98, 3 A.2d 931.
While not presented as a ground for discharge in his petition for writ of habeas corpus, or in the court below, the relator suggests in this court that he was denied the benefit of counsel in the trial court. As he pleaded guilty to the charges against him, the court was not required to see that he was represented by counsel: Com. ex rel. Curtis v. Ashe, 139 Pa. Super. 417, 12 A.2d 500.
Order affirmed.