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Commonwealth v. Fleming

Where court denied defendant's pretrial motion to compel discovery of Commonwealth's case prior to formal arraignment, interlocutory appeal quashed; order was not immediately appealable by right, and defendant failed to comply with procedures for seeking discretionary review; defendant's pretrial motion failed on its merits because it was filed prior to formal arraignment rather than 14 days after arraignment.

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�1 This interlocutory appeal is from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Erie County denying Appellant’s pretrial motion to compel discovery of the Commonwealth’s case prior to formal arraignment. For the following reasons, we quash.

�2 The present case arises from the unsolved homicide of Janine K. Kirk, whose body was found along Beach #3 of Presque Isle State Park on June 25, 1988. An autopsy performed on August 25, 1990, determined that Ms. Kirk died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head and hemorrhaging from stab wounds to the neck. An investigation culminated with the August 25, 2000, arrest of Appellant on the charge of Criminal Homicide, 18 Pa.C.S.A. �2501(a).

�3 Prior to his preliminary hearing, which had been scheduled for November 6, 2000, Appellant filed a motion to compel discovery by the Commonwealth. On October 16, 2000, the lower court held a hearing on Appellant’s motion, wherein counsel for Appellant argued that the “significant passage of time” between the criminal event and his arrest had prejudiced his ability to prepare for the preliminary hearing, thus necessitating immediate discovery. Furthermore, he asserted that Pa.R.Crim.P. 573, *fn1 which sets forth the procedure governing pre-trial discovery, did not prohibit the court from ordering discovery at some time earlier than formal arraignment. The court disagreed that compelling reasons existed to depart from Rule 573, however, and denied Appellant’s motion.

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