Com. v. Burse, T., 310 WDA 2024

Tyrone Burse was observed by Pittsburgh Police officers, who knew he had active arrest warrants, walking in Pittsburgh with his girlfriend on June 12, 2022.
Upon being approached by officers, Burse fled, during which he was seen removing a firearm from his waistband and throwing it into bushes; he also removed and discarded the magazine roughly 50 feet away from the firearm.
Police apprehended Burse and recovered both the firearm and the magazine; the firearm’s serial number had been obliterated, though Burse was not charged with that specific offense.
Burse was convicted by a jury of carrying a firearm without a license and tampering with physical evidence; he was acquitted or not charged on other counts.
He appealed the tampering conviction, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, specifically whether his actions met the statutory standard for tampering.

Issue	Appellant's Argument	Commonwealth's Argument	Held
Whether evidence was sufficient to sustain a tampering with evidence conviction under 18 Pa.C.S. § 4910(1)	Burse argued merely discarding the gun and magazine was abandonment, not alteration, concealment, or removal with intent to impair evidence, relying on Delgado	Commonwealth argued the act, combined with removing the magazine, was sufficient and distinguished from simple abandonment	Affirmed conviction; court found removing and discarding the magazine separately constituted more than mere abandonment and satisfied the statutory elements

Commonwealth v. Delgado, 679 A.2d 223 (Pa. 1996) (holding mere abandonment of evidence in plain sight during police pursuit is insufficient for a tampering conviction)
Commonwealth v. Jones, 904 A.2d 24 (Pa. Super. 2006) (establishing elements of tampering with evidence)