Com. v. Barber, D.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided August 16, 2019·No. 162 MDA 2019·Unpublished

Opinion

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA

:

v. :

:

:

DONELL REESE BARBER :

:

Appellant : No. 162 MDA 2019

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence Entered August 1, 2018 In the Court of Common Pleas of Lebanon County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-38-CR-0001578-2017

BEFORE: PANELLA, P.J., SHOGAN, J., and PELLEGRINI*, J. MEMORANDUM BY PELLEGRINI, J.: FILED AUGUST 16, 2019 Donell Reese Barber (Barber) appeals from the aggregate judgment of sentence of 21 to 60 years’ imprisonment imposed by the Court of Common Pleas of Lebanon County (trial court) after a jury convicted him of, among other offenses, Attempted Murder and Aggravated Assault. We affirm.

I.

On June 19, 2017, Francis Leon left work and walked toward a car he thought was driven by Latoya Hines whom he had messaged for a ride. But when Leon reached the car, Hines’s boyfriend, Barber, got out and said, “I’m Latoya’s man.” Leon replied he did not know him. Barber then pulled out a handgun and fired at Leon. The first shot missed. Leon sprinted away as Barber fired seven more rounds at him. One of the bullets struck Terry Hitz, a bystander, in the face. Hitz was rushed to a hospital and survived.

* Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.

The police recovered eight .45 caliber shell casings with Perfecta brand headstamps. Surveillance footage showed that Barber drove a Nissan SUV with out-of-state plates and a missing rear hubcap. The next day, a source told the police that Barber was the shooter. Based on this tip, the police checked state driving records and discovered that Barber and Hines lived at the same address. The police went to the address and saw parked in front a Nissan SUV with Connecticut license plates and a missing rear hubcap. Upon running the car’s plates, the police learned that it was a rental car rented to Barber. Based on this information, the police had Leon look at a photo array and he identified Barber as the shooter. A warrant for Barber’s arrest was issued and on-duty officers were given a description of Barber’s car.

The next morning, a police officer pulled over the rental car with Barber driving and Hines a passenger. The officer arrested Barber and took Hines in for questioning. During her interview, Hines gave consent to the police to search her home. In an upstairs bedroom, the police found a .45 caliber handgun containing a Perfecta brand bullet. A firearm expert with the Pennsylvania State Police later confirmed that the handgun discharged the eight spent shell casings recovered at the shooting.

After obtaining a search warrant, the police also searched Barber’s rental car and found Hines’s cell phone. A digital forensic analysis revealed that the phone contained past messages between Leon and Hines but none from the night of the shooting, indicating that someone had deleted them.

Barber filed a motion to suppress this evidence along with the handgun found at Hines’s home. After a suppression hearing, the trial court denied the motion.

Barber proceeded to a two-day jury trial and was convicted of Attempted Murder; Aggravated Assault (two counts); Persons Not to Possess Firearms; Discharge of a Firearm into an Occupied Structure; and Reckless Endangering Another Person (two counts).1 Barber was sentenced to serve an aggregate term of 21 to 60 years’ imprisonment.2 After the denial of post-sentence

1 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 901(a), 2702(a), 6105(a)(1), 2707.1(a), and 2705, respectively. The jury determined that Barber used a deadly weapon on the Attempted Murder, Aggravated Assault and Recklessly Endangering Another Person counts, and that Hitz suffered serious bodily injury on the Aggravated Assault count to which he was the victim.

2 The trial court imposed a sentence of 15 to 40 years for Attempted Murder and a consecutive 6 to 20 years for Aggravated Assault against Hitz; the remaining sentences either merged or were concurrent. The statutory maximum for Attempted Murder was apparently enhanced under 18 Pa.C.S. § 1102(c) based on Hitz suffering serious bodily injury. This Court has explained that “[s]ection 1102(c) ‘imposes a condition precedent to the imposition of a maximum term of imprisonment of up to 40 years, specifically, that ‘serious bodily injury’ must have resulted from the attempted murder. Otherwise, the sentence shall be not more than 20 years.’ ” Commonwealth v. Barnes, 167 A.3d 110, 117 (Pa. Super. 2017) (en banc) (quoting Commonwealth v. Johnson, 910 A.2d 60, 66 (Pa. Super. 2006)). Barber did not challenge the imposition of the enhanced statutory maximum for Attempted Murder.

motions, Barber filed this appeal and now raises eight issues that we have reordered for ease of discussion.3 II.

First, Barber contends the Commonwealth presented insufficient evidence to make out the crimes of (1) Attempted Murder; (2) Aggravated Assault (both counts); and (3) Persons Not to Possess Firearms.4 We will address them in order.

3 Barber timely filed his post-sentence motion on August 9, 2018. The trial court did not decide on the post-sentence motion within the 120-day decision period and never granted an extension of decision under Pa.R.Crim.P. 720(B)(3)(b). As a result, Barber’s post-sentence motion should have been denied by operation of law at the expiration of the 120-day period for decision on December 7, 2018. See Pa.R.Crim.P. 720(B)(3)(a). However, the clerk of courts failed to enter such an order as required by Pa.R.Crim.P. 720(B)(3)(c). Rather, the trial court entered an order on January 3, 2019, denying the post-sentence motion and informing Barber that he had 30 days to file a notice of appeal, which he did on January 23, 2019. Where a trial court does not comply with Rule 720, we have deemed such circumstances to constitute an administrative breakdown in the court system so as to excuse the untimely filing of a notice of appeal. See Commonwealth v. Patterson, 940 A.2d 493, 498-99 (Pa. Super. 2007). Here, the clerk of courts failed to enter an order denying the post-sentence motion by operation of law. The trial court then compounded this error by entering an order denying the post- sentence motion and incorrectly informing Barber that he had 30 days to appeal when, in fact, he would have had only four days left. Under these circumstances, we decline to quash Barber’s appeal.

4 Our standard of review for sufficiency claims is as follows:

The standard we apply in reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence is whether viewing all the evidence admitted at trial in the light most favorable to the verdict winner, there is sufficient evidence to enable the fact-finder to find every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. In applying the above test, we may not weigh

A.

In challenging his Attempted Murder conviction, Barber argues the Commonwealth failed to establish that he committed an act constituting a substantial step toward killing Leon. He contends that the shots fired at Leon “all missed by design” because none of them struck him.

We have described the elements needed to establish Attempted Murder as:

[u]nder the Crimes Code, “[a] person commits an attempt when with intent to commit a specific crime, he does any act which constitutes a substantial step towards the commission of the crime.” 18 Pa.C.S. § 901(a). A person may be convicted of attempted murder if he takes a substantial step toward the commission of a killing, with the specific intent in mind to commit such an act. See Pa.C.S. §§ 901, 2502. The substantial step test broadens the scope of attempt liability by concentrating on the acts the defendant has done and does not any longer focus on the acts remaining to be done before the actual commission of the crime. The mens rea required for first-degree murder, specific intent to kill, may be established solely from circumstantial

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