| COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA v. LALLITRA LYNETTE COPPEDGE No. 359 MDA 2009 2009 PA Super 226 Atlantic: n/a Filed: 11/24/2009 | |
| Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence of October 8, 2008 in the Court of Common Pleas of Franklin County, Criminal Division, No. CP-28-CR-0001626-2007cri | |
| Before: FORD ELLIOTT, P.J., KLEIN, J. and McEWEN, P.J.E. | |
| Opinion by: KLEIN, J. | |
| Lallitra Lynette Coppedge scalded her then-three-year-old daughter in hot bath water, causing the child to suffer second- and third-degree burns. A jury convicted Coppedge of simple assault, 18 Pa.C.S.A. 2701(a)(1), and endangering the welfare of children, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 4304(a)(1). She was sentenced to 12 to 36 months’ incarceration for simple assault and a consecutive 6 to 36 months’ incarceration for child endangerment. On appeal, Coppedge asserts that her sentence is illegal because simple assault should have merged with child endangerment for sentencing purposes. Because the legislature has adopted a strict, technical merger test rather than a test that considers the facts of the individual case, we are compelled to find that these two offenses do not merge. Therefore, we affirm. | |
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