Com. v. Cubilete, O.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 31, 2020
Docket1248 EDA 2020
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Cubilete, O. (Com. v. Cubilete, O.) 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. Cubilete, O., (Pa. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

J-S56035-20

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : OSVALDO GARCIA CUBILETE : : Appellant : No. 1248 EDA 2020

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence Entered March 4, 2020 In the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-39-CR-0002560-2019

BEFORE: BENDER, P.J.E., KUNSELMAN, J., and PELLEGRINI, J.*

MEMORANDUM BY PELLEGRINI, J.: FILED: DECEMBER 31, 2020

The Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas (trial court) found Osvaldo

Garcia Cubilete (Cubilete) guilty of driving under the influence (DUI) of a

Schedule I controlled substance (75 Pa.C.S. § 3802(d)(1)(i)); possession of a

small amount of marijuana (35 P.S. § 780-113(a)(31)(i)); driving with a

suspended license (75 Pa.C.S. § 1543(a)); and driving with improper rear

lighting equipment (75 Pa.C.S. § 4303(b)).1

Cubilete appeals the trial court’s judgment of sentence challenging the

sufficiency of the evidence on the suspended license count and the application

____________________________________________

* Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.

1 He was acquitted of one count of driving under the influence – impaired ability (75 Pa.C.S. § 3802(d)(2)). J-S56035-20

of a sentence enhancement on the DUI count. He further maintains that the

trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the results of a blood test,

asserting that his consent to the testing was involuntary. For the reasons that

follow, we vacate the conviction of driving with a suspended license and

remand the case as to the DUI count for a resentencing. The judgment of

sentence is otherwise affirmed.

I.

In the early morning hours of March 14, 2019, patrol officers pulled

Cubilete over due to inoperable rear lights on his vehicle. During the stop,

the officer smelled the odor of marijuana coming from inside Cubilete’s vehicle

and his person. Cubilete, then aged 22, admitted that he had ingested

marijuana three to four hours earlier and that he was in possession of a small

amount of the substance. After running Cubilete’s plates, the police learned

that there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest and that his driver’s

license had been suspended.

The officers reported that Cubilete appeared to have glassy, bloodshot

eyes, and that his overall demeanor suggested some level of impairment from

a controlled substance. The officers noted that Cubilete seemed “nervous”

but they also described him as fully cooperative and forthright at all times.

Cubilete was arrested and transported to a nearby police department,

where he was given a series of field sobriety tests. These exercises were not

-2- J-S56035-20

performed to the officers’ satisfaction so they sought to do further testing to

gauge whether Cubilete was impaired.

At a booking center, Cubilete was presented with an “Implied Consent

Form” authorizing a blood draw. Lehigh County’s version of the form reads:

According to the provisions of section 1547 of the Vehicle Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which deals with implied consent, any person who drives, or is in actual physical control of the movement of a vehicle in the Commonwealth, and who is placed under arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or a controlled substance, is required to submit to one or more chemical tests of their blood for the purpose of determining the alcohol/controlled substance concentration, if they are requested to do so by a police officer.

If you refuse to submit to a blood test when requested, notification will be sent to the department of transportation, and your operating privileges will be suspended for a period of at least one year.

Any warnings previously given to you concerning your right to remain silent and your right to consult with an attorney do not apply to the taking of this chemical testing, and do not give you the right to refuse this test. You have no legal right to consult with an attorney, physician, or anyone else, nor have anyone present for the purpose of this testing. Any request to speak with an attorney or anyone else after being provided with these warnings will constitute a refusal.

A refusal to submit to chemical testing will result in a suspension of your operating privilege, and you will be subject to a license restoration fee of up to $2000.00.

With this in mind, I am asking you to submit to a blood test to determine your alcohol/controlled substance concentration. Will you submit to this test, providing adequate samples of blood as requested?

1. I have been advised that I have been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or a controlled substance.

-3- J-S56035-20

2. I have been requested to submit to a blood test to determine my alcohol/controlled substance concentration.

3. I have been advised that if I refuse to provide blood sample(s) as requested, my operating privileges will be suspended for a period of at least one year.

4. I have been advised that my right to remain silent and to consult with an attorney do not apply to the taking of the blood sample.

Commonwealth’s Trial Exhibit C-4.

Cubilete was given the chance to read the form himself before it was

read to him by the police. After telling the officers that he understood it and

had no questions, he then signed the form. His blood was drawn and lab

testing revealed it to contain trace amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (thc) and

marijuana metabolites.

Cubilete moved to suppress the blood test results from the evidence at

trial, arguing that the blood draw was involuntary, making the testing the fruit

of an illegal search. In his motion, Cubilete asserted that the language in the

implied consent form given to him by the police had misled him into believing

he had no right to refuse blood testing. Finding that there were no unduly

coercive circumstances that could have rendered Cubilete’s consent

involuntary, the trial court denied the motion.

At the following bench trial, one of the central factual disputes was

whether Cubilete had notice that his driving privileges had been suspended –

a necessary element of the offense of driving with a suspended license. To

prove that Cubilete had notice of the suspension at the time he was stopped,

-4- J-S56035-20

the Commonwealth introduced into evidence a certified copy of Cubilete’s

driver history taken from PennDOT’s2 information system.

This document was produced on October 30, 2019, months after the

events in question occurred, but it reflected that notice of a license suspension

had been mailed on June 21, 2018. This suspension period was “3 month(s)

effective Jul[y] 26, 2018.” See Commonwealth’s Trial Exhibit C-3. Cubilete’s

driving privileges were not restored until August 20, 2019, months after the

subject traffic stop took place.3 There is no indication on the document that

the notice was returned as undeliverable. See id.

At the conclusion of the trial, Cubilete was found guilty of the offenses

enumerated above. As to the DUI count, he was sentenced to 48 months of

intermediate punishment (house arrest), with 135 days of electronic

monitoring, and this term exceeded the maximum sentence for a first-time

DUI offender. Cubilete had no prior convictions for DUI, but he was sentenced

2 The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

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