COMMONWEALTH v. LOGAN

Criminal Law — Sodomy — Evidence — Sufficiency — Witness — Competency of child nine years old — Flight of defendant.

On appeal by defendant following conviction before the court sitting without a jury, on an indictment charging sodomy, in which it appeared that at the trial, prior to being permitted to testify as to the offenses charged, the minor prosecutrix, a female child aged nine, was examined and gave answers in her voir dire which the court below found fully demonstrated her ability to tell the difference between truth and falsehood, and that the child's subsequent testimony was clear and succinct, and not shaken by cross-examination; that there was evidence that defendant left his home after the occurrence complained of, remaining in hiding for two months and was finally apprehended hiding under a bed in another residence; and that the court below, concluding that defendant's contentions that (1) the minor prosecutrix should have been declared incompetent as a witness, and (2) that the evidence submitted on behalf of the Commonwealth was not sufficient to sustain the guilty verdict, refused defendant's motion for new trial and in arrest of judgment; it was Held that the judgment of the court below should be affirmed.

Argued June 11, 1962.