Com. v. Baldwin, T.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 2, 2015
Docket436 MDA 2015
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Baldwin, T. (Com. v. Baldwin, T.) 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. Baldwin, T., (Pa. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

J-S61021-15

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA Appellee

v.

TIMOTHY BALDWIN

Appellant No. 436 MDA 2015

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence of January 15, 2015 In the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County Criminal Division at No.: CP-36-CR-0000769-2014

BEFORE: PANELLA, J., WECHT, J., and STRASSBURGER, J.*

MEMORANDUM BY WECHT, J.: FILED DECEMBER 02, 2015

Timothy Baldwin appeals the January 15, 2015 judgment of sentence,

which was imposed after Baldwin was convicted of two counts of possession

of a controlled substance with intent to deliver (“PWID”), 35 P.S. § 780-

113(a)(30). We affirm.

The trial court summarized the factual and procedural history of this

case as follows:

On October 26, 2013, Detective [Roland] Breault was investigating a report of shots fired in the 500 block of East Strawberry Street, Lancaster, PA. Eventually, Kyle Baldwin was identified as a suspect; he was ultimately arrested and charged with discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure and recklessly endangering another person. On October 28, 2013, Detective Breault spoke to the victims of that incident; the victims informed Detective Breault that “within two days after ____________________________________________

* Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court. J-S61021-15

the incident, three black males had approached [him] at his residence and had made comments to him about it.” Detective Breault testified that the “main part that really stuck was one of the individuals had commented that we watch your wife walk to work everyday and that they’re up there just to make money.” Detective Breault began an investigation to identify the three black males who made those comments to the victims. Based on his investigation, Detective Breault prepared a photo array including eight similarly featured individuals; [Baldwin] was one of the individuals in the photo array. The victim positively identified [Baldwin] as the person who had approached the victim and made comments to him. A week later, Detective Breault received information that [Baldwin] had parked his vehicle in front of the victim’s residence and stood in front of the residence for a period of time. The victim called police, but [Baldwin] was gone by the time officers arrived. On December 6, 2013, Detective Breault received approval to file charges against [Baldwin] for intimidation of a victim or witness, which is graded as a [third-degree felony], based on the fact that the underlying charge was a discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure. The charges were filed before the issuing authority on December 19, 2013.

Detective Breault informed the other patrol officers that [Baldwin] was a suspect in an intimidation related to the shooting of October 26, 2013, and that Detective Breault would be preparing charges and obtaining a warrant. Officer [J.] Hatfield was one of the patrol officers informed before going out on duty and he saw a memorandum that included a picture of [Baldwin]. Officer Hatfield believed that there was an actual warrant out for [Baldwin’s] arrest and that [Baldwin] was actually still out and not arrested on that warrant. On December 18, 2013, Officer Hatfield was on duty when he observed a vehicle traveling east on West Strawberry Street towards Vine Street; Officer Hatfield ran the registration tag on the vehicle, which indicted [that Baldwin] was the registered owner. Officer Hatfield asked over the radio if [Baldwin] was still wanted on the warrant; Officer Weaver[1] and Detective Breault advised [Officer Hatfield] that the warrant was still active. As the vehicle turned left, Officer Hatfield observed the driver of the vehicle; ____________________________________________

1 Officer Weaver’s first name does not appear in the notes of testimony.

-2- J-S61021-15

Officer Hatfield indicated [that] he believed [that Baldwin] was operating the vehicle. Detective Breault advised Officer Hatfield that if Officer Hatfield stopped [Baldwin], then Officer Hatfield should take [Baldwin] into custody, as Detective Breault had charges prepared for him; no warrant had been obtained at that time. Officer Hatfield called for other officers and they conducted a felony stop. Three occupants were in the car; [Baldwin] was called out first and [was] escorted [] back to the police vehicles. Officer [Jared] Snader handcuffed [Baldwin] and transported him from the scene.

Before transporting [Baldwin], Officer Snader searched [Baldwin] at the scene, searching his pockets and conducting a pat-down for weapons; Officer Snader found $770 in [Baldwin’s] pockets. During booking, [Baldwin] was required to remove his shoes; upon removal, Officer Snader found that [Baldwin’s] pants had drawstrings at the bottom and [Baldwin’s] right pant leg was tucked into his boot and the drawstring was tight at the bottom. After releasing the drawstrings, Officer Snader found a plastic sandwich bag that contained sixty-nine (69) smaller bags of heroin and thirty-six (36) bags of crack cocaine. No paraphernalia related to the heroin or cocaine was found on [Baldwin]. [Baldwin] did not present any characteristics of someone who is under the influence or addicted to heroin or cocaine. The narcotics were sent to the Pennsylvania State Police Harrisburg Regional Crime Laboratory, where it was confirmed that the substances were, in fact, heroin and cocaine.

[Baldwin] was charged with [PWID—heroin and PWID—cocaine]. On April 14, 2014, [Baldwin] filed a motion to suppress evidence and a suppression hearing was held on October 27, 2014. The suppression motion was denied based on the [trial court’s] findings that Detective Breault had probable cause to arrest [Baldwin] as of December 6, 2013, for felony charges of intimidation of a victim and that probable cause was transferrable to Officer Hatfield, particularly when Officer Hatfield received the information both in memo form before going on duty and by personal contact via radio with Detective Breault prior to the stop. A stipulated bench trial followed the suppression hearing. The only additional testimony came from the forensic scientist who tested and confirmed the narcotics and from Officer Thomas Ginder, a member of the Selective Enforcement Unit, who testified that based on the amount of drugs, the presence of a significant amount of money, and the lack of paraphernalia, he believed the narcotics were possessed

-3- J-S61021-15

with the intent to deliver, as opposed to personal use. The [trial court] found [Baldwin] guilty of both charges. A pre-sentence investigation was ordered.

On January 15, 2015, [Baldwin] was sentenced to an aggregate sentence of ten (10) to fifty (50) years; at Count 1 [PWID— cocaine, Baldwin] received a sentence of five (5) to twenty (20) years and at Count 2 [PWID—heroin, Baldwin] received a consecutive sentence of five (5) to thirty (30) years. [Baldwin’s] sentencing guidelines indicated the standard range for the charge of [PWID—heroin] was 24-30 months; the standard range for the charge of [PWID—cocaine] was 27-32 months. [Baldwin] had a prior record of felony drug charges, which increased his maximum penalty for the heroin charge to thirty (30) years and for the cocaine charge to twenty (20) years. At sentencing, the Commonwealth pointed out [Baldwin’s] lack of verifiable work history in contrast to the leisure activities [Baldwin] reported in his pre-sentence investigation, such as riding four-wheelers and vacationing.

* * *

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Com. v. Baldwin, T., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/com-v-baldwin-t-pasuperct-2015.