Escape • Sufficiency of Evidence • Removal of Restraints and Guard • “Official Detention”
Commonwealth v. Treece, PICS Case No. 17-0797 (Pa. Super. May 5, 2017) Lazarus, J. (18 pages).
Evidence was insufficient to support conviction for escape where defendant, being treated at the hospital, was released from restraints and police officers guarding him had left the hospital nearly two hours prior without advising defendant that he was not free to leave, such that defendant was no longer in “official detention” for purpose of escape statute because police were no longer actively exerting authority over defendant. Judgment of sentence vacated.
