Com. v. Graham, E.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 27, 2026
Docket2001 EDA 2024
StatusUnpublished
AuthorSullivan

This text of Com. v. Graham, E. (Com. v. Graham, E.) 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. Graham, E., (Pa. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

J-A30044-25

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : ERIC GRAHAM : : Appellant : No. 2001 EDA 2024

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence Entered January 26, 2024 In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-51-CR-0007307-2022

BEFORE: LAZARUS, P.J., PANELLA, P.J.E., and SULLIVAN, J.

MEMORANDUM BY SULLIVAN, J.: FILED JANUARY 27, 2026

Eric Graham (“Graham”) appeals from his convictions for second-degree

murder, arson, and related offenses. He challenges the sufficiency and weight

of the evidence, asserts the trial court abused its discretion by admitting

evidence about a letter he wrote to a witness, and objects to the trial court’s

jury instruction about his failure to provide alibi notice. Finding no merit in

Graham’s claims, we affirm.

On November 9, 2021, Rahsead Palmer (“the victim”), a visitor to a

rowhome rooming house on 3621 N. 21 st Street owned by Virgil Carter

(“Carter”), died of smoke inhalation and heat injuries from a fire ignited in the

house. Graham had an apartment in the rooming house but Carter had

ejected him two to three weeks before the fire when he argued about his rent.

Graham appeared repeatedly in the area of the rooming house in the weeks

between his ejection and the fire. The afternoon before the fire, Graham went J-A30044-25

to the rooming house and demanded to pick up his bed. Carter told Graham

he had called Graham’s sister to come to pick up the bed. See Trial Court

Opinion, 2/20/25, 2-4; N.T., 1/23/24, at 72-73, 142-43, 152-53; N.T.,

1/24/24, 12.

Between two and three hours before the fire started, Neil Gladney

(“Gladney”), a tenant of the rooming house, found Graham on the first floor.

Graham asked Gladney and other tenants if someone had taken his bed; he

threatened to report it to the masjid (mosque), then went upstairs to question

other people. Gladney left the house; he returned after 1:00 a.m. and began

socializing with friends. Sometime after 2:00 a.m., he and others smelled

smoke and jumped out of the second-floor window. A police officer received

a call about the fire shortly after 3:00 a.m. and arrived to find the house fully

engulfed in flames and injured people outside. See N.T., 1/23/24, at 61, 95-

96. The victim’s burned body was found inside the home. See Trial Court

Opinion, 2/20/25, 2-4; See N.T., 1/23/24, at 78-79, 90-91, 99-100, 122-23.

Philadelphia Fire Marshall Lieutenant Tina Peterson (“Lt. Peterson”), an

expert in fire science and investigation, examined the rooming house after the

fire was extinguished and determined it had been set deliberately in Graham’s

first-floor room by application of a flame to bedding and a box spring. The

fire then spread through open spaces in the walls and via the stairwell all the

way to the roof. See Trial Court Opinion, 2/20/25, 2-4; N.T., 1/23/24, 78-

79; N.T. 1/24/24, at 8-9, 16, 19-20, 24-28, 32, 49, 52-54.

-2- J-A30044-25

Gladney knew the bodega across the street from the house had a video

surveillance system pointing toward the rooming house. He went there the

morning after the fire and viewed the video footage from around the time of

the fire, which showed Graham leaving the area around the time the fire

started. At trial, Graham acknowledged he was shown on the video at

approximately 12:40 a.m., but denied he was the person shown fleeing the

scene shortly before the fire erupted. See Trial Court Opinion, 2/20/25, 2-

4; N.T., 1/23/24, at 104-11, 138, 165-67; N.T. 1/24/24, at 59; 1/25/24, at

26-28, 45.

At trial, Carter testified Graham had sent him a letter from prison a

month or two before trial asking Carter why he was lying on the witness stand 1

and asking him not to testify at trial. In the letter, Graham also stated the

fire must have resulted from the accidental dropping of a cigarette, a

methodology Lt. Peterson said was not the cause of the fire, and said he was

sorry and Carter should let him be. The letter was misplaced and not available

at trial. See Trial Court Opinion, 2/20/25, 2-4; N.T, 1/23/24, at 169-71, 183.

Police recovered video from three locations, including the bodega, and

prepared still photographs from those videos. Detective Thorsten Lucke, an

expert in surveillance video evidence recovery and video processing, analysis,

and compilation, assembled a video compilation of activity in the area of the

____________________________________________

1 This was presumably a reference to the preliminary hearing.

-3- J-A30044-25

house before and after the fire. Graham was the sole individual the video

showed leaving the area before the fire began. See Trial Court Opinion,

2/20/25, 2-4; N.T., 1/24/24, at 59-72, 80-96, 130-31.

For the first time at trial, Graham stated he was at his sister’s house or

on his way to his sister’s house at the time of the fire. See N.T., 1/25/24, at

23, 54-61. Graham had not provided alibi notice prior to trial as required by

Pa.R.Crim.P. 567 (“Rule 567”). At the charging conference, the

Commonwealth requested the jury be told Graham violated Rule 567. See

N.T., 1/25/24, at 130-31. Graham objected to any curative instruction

because Graham “testified under the rule itself. He’s entitled to testify and

that can’t be taken out even if notice was given. No alibi was put up witness-

wise and no witness was put forth by the defense. . . . No rule was broken by

the defense if you look at [Rule 567].” Id. The court instructed the jury that

it could consider Graham’s failure to give alibi notice in deciding whether the

Commonwealth proved his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. See id. at 145-

46. Graham did not object to the court’s instruction.

A jury before the Honorable Giovanni O. Campbell convicted Graham of

arson, second-degree murder, causing a catastrophe, and nine counts of

recklessly endangering another person (“REAP”). 2 The court imposed a

mandatory life sentence and concurrent terms of imprisonment for the other

2 See 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 3301, 2502(b), 3302(a), 2705.

-4- J-A30044-25

offenses. Graham timely appealed and he and the trial court complied with

Pa.R.A.P. 1925.

On appeal, Graham raises four issues for this Court’s review:

1) Were the verdicts for felony murder . . ., arson . . ., causing a catastrophe . . ., and nine counts of [REAP] . . . not supported by sufficient evidence since there were no eyewitnesses and [Graham] testified he was not present?

2) Were the verdicts for felony murder . . ., arson . . ., causing a catastrophe . . ., and nine counts of [REAP] . . . against the weight of the evidence?

3) Did [the trial court] err in allowing [Carter] to testify about a letter [Graham] allegedly sent to him which he lost since he did not timely tell the police, since he lost the letter, and he was not familiar with [Graham’s] handwriting, and [Graham] denied sending the letter and the letter was not authenticated? Did the discussion of the contents of the letter prejudice [Graham] since the letter was not authenticated and allegedly contained an admission by [Graham] that the fire was an accident and he did not want [Carter] to testify?

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