Com. v. Delarge, D.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 5, 2025
Docket2416 EDA 2023
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Delarge, D. (Com. v. Delarge, D.) 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. Delarge, D., (Pa. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

J-S40033-24

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : DONNIE DELARGE : : Appellant : No. 2416 EDA 2023

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence Entered May 18, 2023 In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-51-CR-0005559-2021

BEFORE: STABILE, J., McLAUGHLIN, J., and LANE, J.

MEMORANDUM BY LANE, J.: FILED FEBRUARY 5, 2025

Donnie Delarge (“Delarge”) appeals from the judgment of sentence

imposed following his non-jury trial convictions of rape, robbery,1 and related

offenses. We affirm.

Delarge committed the underlying offenses in the early morning hours

of June 17, 2015, when he was seventeen years old. The victim, J.L. (“the

Victim”), was twenty-two years old. The trial court summarized the

underlying facts as follows:

[The Victim] intended to ride two buses to her . . . job[, which was to start] at 4:00 a.m. The first bus took [the Victim] to [a] bus stop near the corner of 65th and Dicks Streets, in [Philadelphia] around 2:45 a.m. While waiting alone for the next bus, [the Victim] briefly looked across the street and noticed a man “kind of looking” at her[.]

____________________________________________

1 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 3121(a)(1)-(2), 3701(a)(1)(ii)-(iii). J-S40033-24

While [the Victim] looked at her phone and listened to music, [Delarge] suddenly “grabbed her from behind and told her to empty her pockets.” [Delarge] “dragged” [the Victim] backwards into an alley with his one hand around her face and his other hand pressing an object against her head. Once in the alley, [Delarge] told [the Victim] to pull down her pants and attempted to “penetrate” her vagina from behind. [The Victim] felt pressure against her vagina as [Delarge] moved against her in “a back-and-forth motion,” but she was unsure whether [Delarge] actually penetrated her. [Delarge] also forced [the Victim] to perform oral sex by inserting his penis into her mouth.

During the assault, [Delarge told the Victim] he was pressing an airsoft gun against [her] head and would shoot her if she screamed. He also punched [the Victim] twice in her right arm and stole her . . . backpack, wallet, money, and headphones. [Delarge] eventually told [the Victim] to face the wall and count backwards from one hundred seconds. Although [the Victim] never saw [Delarge’s] face, she was able to observe that her assailant was a black male in dark clothing. [Delarge left the scene.]

Trial Court Opinion, 12/29/23, at 2-3 (record citations and some brackets

omitted and emphases added).

The Victim went to the police department and underwent a rape kit

examination. “The DNA from [the Victim’s] cervical swab was entered into

CODIS,” or the Combined DNA Index System. Id. at 3. However, law

enforcement did not match the sample to Delarge’s DNA until February 2020,

more than four years after the assault and after Delarge reached the age of

majority.2 See N.T., 2/14/23, at 54.

2 At that time, Delarge was imprisoned on an unrelated matter. At trial, he testified he provided DNA sample in 2015 in connection with another case. See N.T., 2/14/23, at 72. On appeal, Delarge avers “[i]t took the police four (Footnote Continued Next Page)

-2- J-S40033-24

The Commonwealth charged Delarge as an adult with rape, robbery,

and related offenses in criminal court. Delarge did not seek to transfer, or

decertify, the charges to juvenile court. This matter proceeded to a non-jury

trial on February 14, 2023. The Victim testified consistently with the above

summary of the facts, and denied knowing Delarge or having a consensual

sexual relationship with him. See N.T., 2/14/23, at 35.

[Delarge] testified in his own defense and denied raping, assaulting, and robbing [the Victim. Instead, a]ccording to [Delarge], he and [the Victim] were engaged in a consensual, secret, sexual affair around the time of the incident. [Delarge] lived near the bus stop and claimed their sexual encounters occurred in that area, either before or after [the Victim’s] work shifts. [Delarge] testified that it is ‘fair to say’ he had sex with [the Victim] around the date of the incident . . . thus explaining why his DNA was swabbed from [her] body. . . .

Trial Court Opinion, 12/29/23, at 4 (record citations omitted). We note

Delarge did not present any evidence or argument on whether the airsoft gun

was a “deadly weapon” under the Juvenile Act’s definition of a “delinquent

act.”3

The trial court found Delarge guilty of all charges: two counts of rape by

forcible compulsion; robbery; two counts of involuntary deviate sexual

years to match the DNA collected.” Delarge’s Brief at 6. However, in light of our holding, discussed infra, we conclude this passage of time was not dispositive on the issue of whether Delarge could have been charged with juvenile delinquent acts, rather than adult criminal offenses.

3 See 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 6301-6387; see also 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 2301 (definition

of a “deadly weapon”) (discussed infra).

-3- J-S40033-24

intercourse (“IDSI”); unlawful restraint; sexual assault; false imprisonment;

theft by unlawful taking; receiving stolen property; possessing an instrument

of a crime; terroristic threats; two counts of indecent assault; simple assault,

and recklessly endangering another person.4

On May 28, 2023, the trial court imposed an aggregate sentence of six

to twelve years’ imprisonment, to be followed by three years’ probation. The

trial court found Delarge was not a sexually violent predator under the

Pennsylvania Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act5 (“SORNA”), but

found his convictions triggered lifetime registration under Subchapter H.6

Delarge filed a timely post-sentence motion, challenging only the

discretionary aspects of his sentence. The trial court denied it, and Delarge

filed a timely notice of appeal. Both he and the trial court have complied with

Pa.R.A.P. 1925.

Delarge raises the following issues for our review:

1. Whether the trial court erred in imposing a lifetime registration requirement under SORNA when . . . Delarge was under 18 at

4 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 3123(a)(1)-(2), 2902(a)(1), 3124.1, 2903(a), 3921(a), 3925(a), 907(a), 2706(a)(1), 3126(a)(1)-(2), 2701(a), 2705.

5 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9799.10-9799.75.

6 See 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9799.14(d)(2), (4), (5) (classifying rape, IDSI, and sexual assault as “Tier III” sexual offenses), 9799.15(a)(3) (providing that an individual convicted of a Tier III sexual offense shall register for life); see also Commonwealth v. Torsilieri, 316 A.3d 77, 81 (Pa. 2024) (“Torsilieri II”) (explaining that Subchapter H applies to sexual offenders who committed their offenses on or after December 20, 2012).

-4- J-S40033-24

the time of the incident.

2. Whether . . . Delarge’s lifetime registration requirement under SORNA violates his due process rights under the United States Constitution and the Pennsylvania Constitution because it arises from an irrebuttable presumption and deprives . . . Delarge of the requisite notice and opportunity to be heard.

Delarge’s Brief at 5-6.

In his first issue, Delarge challenges the constitutionality of the SORNA

registration requirements against him, when he committed the underlying acts

as a juvenile. Such a claim goes to the legality of his sentence7 and

“present[s] pure questions of law. Our standard of review, therefore, is de

novo and our scope of review is plenary.” Commonwealth v. Asbury, 299

A.3d 996, 998 (Pa. Super. 2023).

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Com. v. Delarge, D., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/com-v-delarge-d-pasuperct-2025.