Com. v. Gordon, J.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided November 20, 2020·No. 1427 MDA 2018·Unpublished

Opinion

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION – SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA

Appellee :

:

v. :

:

JODY GORDON, :

:

Appellant : No. 1427 MDA 2018

Appeal from the PCRA Order Entered August 6, 2018 in the Court of Common Pleas of York County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-67-CR-0005473-2013

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA

Appellee :

:

v. :

:

JODY GORDON, :

:

Appellant : No. 1429 MDA 2018

Appeal from the PCRA Order Entered August 6, 2018 in the Court of Common Pleas of York County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-67-CR-0001636-2012

BEFORE: LAZARUS, J., MURRAY, J. and STRASSBURGER, J.* MEMORANDUM BY STRASSBURGER, J.: FILED NOVEMBER 20, 2020 Jody Gordon (Appellant) appeals from the August 6, 2018 order, dismissing in part his petition filed pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA), 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9541-9546. Upon review, we affirm.

We set forth the relevant factual and procedural history. After Appellant was observed engaging in drug-related transactions on four

*Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.

separate occasions with two different confidential informants (CIs), Trooper Shawn Wolfe of the Pennsylvania State Police obtained a search warrant for Appellant’s residence. As police prepared to execute the search warrant, Appellant was seen entering his residence. A few minutes later, Appellant exited the residence and got into the driver’s seat of the same silver Mitsubishi that had been seen at all four drug transactions. Police blocked the vehicle. Appellant attempted to flee on foot, but was apprehended by Trooper Wolfe.

After being taken into custody, Appellant was searched, and Trooper Wolfe recovered, inter alia, marijuana and crack cocaine. During a subsequent search of the vehicle, police recovered a Taurus 9mm handgun under the driver’s seat. In addition, police executed the search warrant upon Appellant’s residence, where they found drugs, drug paraphernalia, and other indicia of drug-related activity. Appellant’s wife and co-defendant, Etienne Gordon (Gordon), was present when the police entered the residence to perform the search. According to Gordon, the police did not comply with the “knock and announce rule” prior to entering the residence.1

1 Briefly, the knock and announce rule, codified at Pa.R.Crim.P. 207, “requires that police officers announce their identity, purpose and authority and then wait a reasonable amount of time for the occupants to respond prior to entering any private premises.” Commonwealth v. Frederick, 124 A.3d 748, 754 (Pa. Super. 2015) (citation and footnote omitted).

The Commonwealth charged Appellant at criminal information CP-67-

CR-0001636-2012 (Drug Case)2 with numerous crimes, including drug- related and firearms-related charges, based upon the aforementioned incidents. On June 11, 2012, Appellant filed a pretrial motion to suppress the evidence obtained from Appellant’s person and a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to dismiss the charges based on a violation of Pa.R.Crim.P. 544.3 The trial court held a hearing on the motions on July 23, 2012. As this Court explained during Appellant’s direct appeal,

[w]hen the merits of the motion [to dismiss] were argued, the Commonwealth represented that Trooper Wolfe would testify that he was authorized to refile the charges. The Commonwealth admitted to a technical violation of Rule 544(A), but disputed that dismissal of the case was the proper remedy. The Commonwealth suggested that, rather than remanding the matter to the magisterial district judge, the trial court could conduct the preliminary hearing. Although Appellant reasserted his argument that Rule 544 had been violated and the appropriate remedy was a remand, he agreed with the Commonwealth that the trial court could proceed with the

2A magisterial district judge dismissed the charges at a preliminary hearing and Trooper Wolfe later refiled them. 3 Appellant claimed a violation of Rule 544 because the police refiled charges without prior written approval from the district attorney’s office. “The rule states that, ‘when charges are dismissed or withdrawn at, or prior to a preliminary hearing, the attorney for the Commonwealth may reinstitute the charges by approving, in writing, the refiling of a complaint with the issuing authority who dismissed or permitted the withdrawal of the charges.’” Commonwealth v. Bowman, 840 A.2d 311, 315 (Pa. Super. 2003) (quoting Pa.R.Crim.P. 544(a)). However, the comment to Rule 544 “makes it clear that the approval to reinstitute charges by the attorney for the Commonwealth is only required when no attorney for the Commonwealth was present at the preliminary hearing.” Id. at 316-17 (footnote omitted).

preliminary hearing at that time. The trial court then denied the motion for dismissal, consolidated the habeas corpus motion with the motion to suppress, and proceeded with the hearing.

Trooper Wolfe was the sole witness presented by the Commonwealth at the hearing. The officer testified to his participation in the four controlled-buy transactions involving Appellant and to the facts surrounding Appellant’s arrest and search. He also detailed the circumstances surrounding the execution of the search warrant of [the residence]. At the conclusion of the testimony, Appellant’s counsel issued the following statement: “Your Honor, taking this as a [habeas corpus], I believe from what was presented, there would be enough to satisfy the burden to have us go forward.” N.T.[, 7/23/2012], at 41. When the trial court questioned whether counsel was acknowledging the relatively low threshold of evidence required to proceed with the criminal case, counsel replied: “I’m not going to insult your intelligence and say there is no evidence.” Id. at 42. Citing counsel’s concession that sufficient evidence supported a prima facie case against Appellant, the trial court dismissed the motion for habeas corpus.

Commonwealth v. Gordon, 116 A.3d 679 (Pa. Super. 2014) (unpublished memorandum at 13-14) (some citations omitted). The trial court also denied the motion to suppress.

On July 5, 2013, Appellant moved to sever the firearms-related charges from the Drug Case. On July 8, 2013, that motion was granted, and the same day, the Commonwealth filed a new criminal information at CP-67- CR-0005473-2013 (Firearm Case), charging Appellant with receiving stolen property and unlawful possession of a firearm.

The Drug Case was tried before a jury, and Appellant was found guilty of four counts of delivery of cocaine, one count of possession of cocaine with

intent to deliver (PWID), and two counts of criminal conspiracy. On November 1, 2013, Appellant was sentenced to an aggregate term of 5 to 10 years of incarceration.

A separate jury found Appellant guilty as charged in the Firearm Case.

On July 27, 2014, Appellant was sentenced in that case to an aggregate term of 5 to 10 years of incarceration, to be served consecutive to the period of incarceration imposed at the Drug Case.4 On December 4, 2014, a panel of this Court affirmed Appellant’s judgment of sentence in the Drug Case. Gordon, 116 A.3d 679 (unpublished memorandum) (reviewing challenges to weight of the evidence and denials of motion to suppress and petition for writ of habeas corpus). On August 21, 2015, a panel of this Court affirmed Appellant’s judgment of sentence in the Firearm Case. Commonwealth v. Gordon, 131 A.3d 99 (Pa. Super. 2015) (unpublished memorandum) (reviewing challenges to the sufficiency and weight of the evidence). Appellant did not file a petition for allowance of appeal to our Supreme Court in either case.

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