No. 80-3-581, Appeal from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia, Criminal Trial Division, at Nos. 547 & 548 September Term, 1976.
Justine Gudenas, Philadelphia (Court-appointed), for appellant.
Robert B. Lawler, Chief, Appeals Div., Deborah Fox, Philadelphia, for appellee.
O'Brien, C. J., and Roberts, Nix, Larsen, Flaherty, Kauffman and Wilkinson, JJ.
This is an appeal from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia denying appellant Preston Clayton leave to file an appeal, as if timely filed, from convictions of murder of the third degree and conspiracy. We affirm.
Appellant was found guilty by a court sitting without a jury on January 3, 1977. Appointed trial counsel filed a timely motion in arrest of judgment or for a new trial on appellant's behalf. On March 15, 1977, the court denied relief and imposed a sentence of six to twenty years' imprisonment for the murder. The court also imposed a sentence of five to ten years' imprisonment for the conspiracy, to run concurrent to the murder sentence.
Immediately after imposing sentence, the court stated:
"Now, I have imposed sentence upon you, Mr. Clayton. You have appeal rights. I'm going to tell you what they are right now. You may wish to appeal the judgment of guilty in this case because there was insufficient evidence. You may wish to appeal because something was improperly or illegally done at any point in this case prior to the trial or after the trial. In the event you wish to take an appeal you must take it within 30 days from today's date. If you appeal the murder conviction it has to be appealed to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. If you appeal the conspiracy conviction you must appeal it to the Superior
Court of Pennsylvania. In any event, whatever you wish to do, if you want the appeal filed and you cannot afford an attorney to represent you the Court will appoint one to ...