The published majority agreed the townhome was technically a mixed asset because the husband acquired ownership before marriage, but affirmed the distribution. The evidence attributed zero percent of the separation-date value to a proven separate component and 100 percent to the marital component. A partial dissent would have vacated for further classification and valuation.
The Indiana Court of Appeals held that witness testimony supplied an adequate chain of custody and that laboratory evidence identifying marijuana with more than 1% delta-9 THC supported the conviction.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed an object-rape conviction because repeated accounts of the victim’s report added no new facts and caused no Strickland prejudice.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed rape and aggravated-assault convictions, holding that counsel’s challenged evidentiary choices fit a coherent trial strategy.
The Indiana Court of Appeals held that children on other floors were physically present for felony domestic battery because they might hear the attack and the defendant knew it.
The Superior Court held that unreasonable noise under Pennsylvania’s disorderly-conduct statute is judged from the totality of the circumstances, expressly rejecting a federal court’s four-factor reading of state law.
The Superior Court vacated a pretrial bail revocation because the Commonwealth presented no testimony or exhibits and the trial court relied only on an unsworn prosecutorial proffer.
The Superior Court held that a detective could not recount a stepmother’s description of a child victim’s alleged prior statement without an exception covering each layer of hearsay.
The published decision reversed every termination ground. Findings did not support neglect; the children had not been removed in the manner required for the reasonable-progress ground; and no case plan had been imposed. A judge’s memory and independent investigation were not evidence and compromised the neutral decisionmaker role.
The published opinion affirmed. Clear, cogent, and convincing evidence supported willful abandonment, and the best-interest findings addressed adoption, permanence, the children’s bond with the aunt, and their lack of a significant bond with the mother. The guardian ad litem’s different recommendation was relevant but not controlling.
The Superior Court held that a guilty plea in one county did not preclude PCRA review in another county where the first court never decided the related suppression motion.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated a theft-by-deception conviction because prosecutors never proved that omitted business information affected the defendant’s Section 8 benefits.
A divided Indiana Court of Appeals upheld a refusal-to-identify conviction based on circumstantial proof that the defendant knew police had stopped him for an ordinance violation.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court held that harmless-error review of a confrontation claim includes the defendant’s testimony and the entire trial record.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court upheld broad but evidence-focused device searches, a true-threat conviction, electronic-authentication instructions, and a later sentence reduction.
The Superior Court affirmed attempted-murder and related convictions, holding that circumstantial identification evidence and shots directed toward an officer’s torso supported the verdict.
The Massachusetts SJC ordered a new murder trial because prosecutors used particles from scientifically negative gunshot-residue tests as identification evidence without establishing that inference was reliable.
In a precedential ruling, the Superior Court held that an officer who personally watched a suspected drug transaction could give a lay opinion informed by his training and experience.
The Superior Court held that an electronic service provider’s CyberTip report was inadmissible hearsay and ordered a new trial on the only count that depended on the report.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court upheld child-rape convictions after curative instructions and ruled that parties cannot impose appellate secrecy without a motion and good cause.
The Superior Court reversed suppression of a firearm, holding that a suspect had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a stranger’s pickup truck and abandoned his bag by leaving it in the open bed and fleeing.
The Indiana Court of Appeals upheld drug-dealing and firearm-theft convictions, finding prior transaction messages relevant under Rule 404(b) and the theft evidence sufficient.
The Superior Court held that an insurer failed to protect more than 2,000 pages from discovery because its privilege log and appellate argument did not establish privilege document by document.
The Superior Court held that an officer’s display of a gun, combined with credibility findings against the officer, supported treating the encounter as a seizure before the defendant abandoned a handgun.