Commonwealth v. Serge

On January 15, 2001, Michael Serge (defendant) shot and killed his wife. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (commonwealth) filed a pretrial motion, seeking to admit its theory of the shooting through a demonstrative computer-generated animation (CGA). Serge objected to the demonstrative evidence. Following a hearing, the trial court ruled that the CGA could be shown to the jury, provided the commonwealth laid the foundation for its contents at trial. Specifically, the court required the commonwealth to authenticate the CGA as a fair and accurate depiction of expert reconstructive testimony. In addition, the court required that the commonwealth exclude any inflammatory features that could unfairly prejudice the jury. At trial, the commonwealth presented evidence establishing the basis for the scenes shown in the CGA. The commonwealth then presented the CGA as demonstrative evidence to illustrate the expert opinions of its forensic pathologist and crime-scene reconstructionist. The CGA showed the commonwealth’s theory of how Serge had first shot his wife in the lower back and then through the heart. The CGA also showed the location of Serge and his wife within the living room, the positioning of their bodies, and the trajectory and impact sites of the bullets. The trial court instructed the jury of the purely demonstrative nature of the CGA before the animation was presented and during the jury charge. The jury found Serge guilty of first-degree murder, and the court sentenced him to life imprisonment. Serge appealed to the superior court, which affirmed. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to review the novel issue of whether a CGA could be used as demonstrative evidence.