Com. v. Atem, P.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 21, 2018
Docket3380 EDA 2016
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Atem, P. (Com. v. Atem, P.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Com. v. Atem, P., (Pa. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

J-S07020-18

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : PETER ATEM : : Appellant : No. 3380 EDA 2016

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence September 30, 2016 In the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-46-CR-0001977-2015

BEFORE: BENDER, P.J.E., PANELLA, J., and FORD ELLIOTT, P.J.E.

MEMORANDUM BY PANELLA, J. FILED AUGUST 21, 2018

Peter Atem appeals from the judgment of sentence of life-without-

parole (“LWOP”) entered following his first-degree murder conviction. Atem

raises multiple challenges to the trial court’s rulings during trial and to the

propriety of his LWOP sentence. We affirm.

On February 19, 2016, Atem was arrested and charged with the murder

of his coworker, Danny Vazquez. The case proceeded to a jury trial. The

evidence presented at trial, as summarized by the trial court, is as follows:

On February 18, 2015, around 8:00 A.M., [Atem] repeatedly stabbed and killed his co-worker, [ ] Vazquez [], at the JBS MOPAC rendering plant in Franconia Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. After stabbing [Vazquez] in the filter room of the plant, [Atem] made his way to the filter room shed where he attempted to take his own life by stabbing his torso and slashing his neck. Despite his self-inflicted wounds, [Atem] survived after being air-lifted and receiving treatment at the Paoli Memorial Hospital. The “black, butterfly-style” knife used by [Atem] to stab [Vazquez] and himself was found near [Atem’s] torso along with J-S07020-18

a handwritten suicide note that read: “You think you can destroyed [sic] my life in front of my family and friends and the all [sic] world and lived [sic]. When you set out to destroye [sic] people [sic] life for no reason you make sure they [sic] dead, see you in hell. Life for life.”

Eye-witness and co-worker, James Artis, worked at JBS MOPAC rendering plant in the filter room on the day of the stabbing murder, February 18, 2015. [] Artis testified [Vazquez] was resting on a chair in the filter room when [Atem] entered, stood silently in the doorway, and exited the room. [Atem] then re-entered the room, and without warning or any obvious provocation, physically confronted [Vazquez]. [Vazquez] got [Atem] off of him, but did not otherwise get physical with [Atem]. Instead [Vazquez] asked [Atem] what his problem was, as did [] Artis. [] Artis specifically asked if [Atem] was “alright’ and could [Vazquez] have done something bad enough to cause this interaction, to which [Atem] nodded affirmatively. [] Artis testified [Atem’s] demeanor, though usually quiet, was “a tad bit off” that day. [Vazquez] continued to ask [Atem] why he jumped on him, and warned that if [Atem] continued not to answer [Vazquez’s] question, he would report the incident to the office where the supervisors are located. [] Artis went back to work but continued to overhear [Vazquez] questioning [Atem], and eventually heard [Vazquez] shrieking. [] Artis turned and saw [Atem] stabbing [Vazquez].

In describing the stabbing, [] Artis demonstrated that [Atem] had his arms crossed over [Vazquez’s] chest while stabbing [Vazquez] with his right hand in the center of [Vazquez’s] chest and underneath [Vazquez’s] neck. [] Artis next saw [Vazquez] running and screaming toward the exit [and] helped [Vazquez] up a small hill outside the filter room leading to the front office, leaving [Atem] behind in the filter room. When [Vazquez] and [] Artis made it to the front office, [Vazquez] told Ralph Hendricks, a plant supervisor that JBS, that [Atem] stabbed him. One of the supervisors in the front office called 9-1-1, while another contacted JBS in-house medical unit and then attended to [Vazquez]. [Despite their attempts, Vazquez did not survive.] …

***

[Atem] made several statements to police between February 19 and 20, 2015. [Atem] stated he began working at JBS MOPAC on

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September 8, 2004, “going on eleven [] years” before the stabbing-murder. At the rendering plant, [Atem] heard [Vazquez] tell others “he was going to destroy” [Atem] numerous times. Appellant explained the knife used to stab [Vazquez] was already in his locker before the incident, and described the knife as a black, “butterfly-style” knife. [Atem] admitted he did not routinely carry this knife on his person, but retrieved the knife from his locker and placed it in his jacket pocket before he confronted [Vazquez]. He also confessed to starting the physical confrontation with [Vazquez] on February 18, 2015, because he feared [Vazquez] was going to do something with alleged pictures of [Atem] that were taken and/or stored on [Vazquez’s] phone. Interestingly, Detective [Jack] Wittenberger searched [Vazquez’s] cell phone following his murder, finding no evidence of these alleged pictures.[] [Atem] became angry when [Vazquez] threated to report the confrontation to the front office, so he stepped outside to cool off. As [Atem] attempted to cool off, [Vazquez] grabbed his jacket sleeve, at which time [Atem] began stabbing [Vazquez]. Though [Atem] was angry, he said he did not want to kill [Vazquez]; yet, he admitted that after stabbing [Vazquez] multiple times, he went to the shed and attempted to commit suicide. After [Atem] stabbed himself, he wrote the suicide note on paper he found in the shed. [Atem] also told detectives he does not suffer from any illnesses, including mental illness, and that he is right-handed.

On February 19, 2015, Dr. Isidore Mihalakis, Deputy Coroner for Montgomery County at the time, performed [Vazquez’s] autopsy, consisting of an internal and external examination.[]… [Dr. Mihalakis observed that Vazquez] had at least ten [] separate stab wounds, one [] of which was a four [] inch deep neck wound severing [Vazquez’s] deep jugular vein. This particular wound was in the area containing all the major vessels from the heart to the brain. Another wound in [Vazquez’s] shoulder/upper left arm region cut his vital subclavian artery. There was yet another wound in a vital area on [Vazquez’s] body in the chest near the heart.

… Dr. Mihalakis opined to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of [Vazquez’s] death was multiple stab wounds and the manner of death was homicide.[] According to Dr. Mihalakis, the wound to [Vazquez’s] neck and upper arm caused the most damage and were very likely made early on, given the more extensive hemorrhaging that took place. Two [] of

-3- J-S07020-18

[Vazquez’s] wounds rendered his biceps almost totally useless and inhibited his ability to fight [Atem] off. This conclusion was bolstered by the lack of classic defensive wounds on [Vazquez’s] body – wounds resulting from attempts to ward off an assailant. Notably, one [] wound was upward and backward, indicating [Atem] came from behind to stab [Vazquez] for at least one [] of the stabbings. There was evidence of some physical struggle between [Vazquez] and [Atem]. The multiple wounds, including the two [] most damaging, reduced the amount of time he had to survive. All the wounds were consistent with the “butterfly-style” knife retrieved by police.

… JBS employees testified that they knew both [Atem] and [Vazquez], and there were no obvious issues or racial tension between them. Moreover, all but one [] JBS employee testified consistently about the JBS policy at the rendering facility prohibiting all personal knives and authorizing only the use of a box-cutter within the facility.[] …

Notably, JBS employees also testified [Atem] should not have been at work on February 18, 2015, the day of the stabbing- murder, nor did [Atem] clock-in.

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Com. v. Atem, P., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/com-v-atem-p-pasuperct-2018.