Com. v. Gupton, A.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 25, 2019
Docket731 EDA 2018
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Gupton, A. (Com. v. Gupton, A.) 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. Gupton, A., (Pa. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

J-S19024-19

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : ARTHUR F. GUPTON, : : Appellant. : No. 731 EDA 2018

Appeal from the PCRA Order, February 20, 2018, in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Criminal Division at No(s): CP-51-CR-0004847-2012.

BEFORE: LAZARUS, J., KUNSELMAN, J., and STRASSBURGER*, J.

MEMORANDUM BY KUNSELMAN, J.: FILED JUNE 25, 2019

Arthur F. Gupton appeals from the order denying his first petition for

relief pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”). 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§

9541-9546. We affirm the PCRA order, but vacate a portion of the sentence

as set forth herein.

The PCRA court has summarized the pertinent facts as follows:

In 1997, [Gupton] abducted sixteen-year-old A.S. at gunpoint as she was walking home, drove her to a remote garage, and raped her with a knife to her throat. She ran home and told her mother and a family friend what happened. They called the police and A.S. gave the arriving officer a description of [Gupton]. She then went to the hospital, where she submitted to a rape kit examination which tested positive for ejaculate. [Gupton] remained a fugitive for over fifteen years.

On January 5, 2011, Detective James Owens, a “cold case” investigator for the Special Victims Unit of the Philadelphia Police Department, received notification from

____________________________________ * Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court. J-S19024-19

the department’s DNA lab that DNA acquired from [Gupton] matched that found in the ejaculate of the rape kit conducted on A.S. in 1997. Detective Owens met with [Gupton] and took a buccal swab to obtain a sample of his DNA. The police lab tested the swab against the DNA found in the 1997 rape kit and found that [Gupton] was the source of the ejaculate found in A.S.’s vaginal and cervical swabs. The Commonwealth obtained an arrest warrant for [Gupton] on December 28, 2011, and arrested him on January 18, 2012.

PCRA Court Opinion, 11/1/18, at 1-2 (citations omitted).

The PCRA court also summarized the procedural history as follows:

On October 5, 2012, a jury sitting before this Court convicted [Gupton] of rape, kidnapping, sexual assault, carrying a firearm without a license, corruption of a minor and indecent assault. On May 31, 2013, this Court found him to be a sexually violent predator and imposed consecutive terms of imprisonment of ten to twenty years for rape, eight to twenty years for kidnapping, three and one-half to seven years for violating the Uniform Firearms Act, two to five years for corruption of a minor, and no further penalty for the remaining crimes. As part of the hearing, the Court discussed the statute of limitations issue with the attorneys for Commonwealth and [Gupton], and [Gupton].

On June 10, 2013, [Gupton] filed a post-sentence motion challenging the weight of the evidence, which the Court denied on June 25, 2013. The following day, on June 26, 2013, [Gupton] filed an untimely second post-sentence motion purporting to challenge the discretionary aspects of sentencing. This untimely second post-sentence motion was denied by operation of law [pursuant to] Pa.R.Crim.P. 720(B)(3)(a).

-2- J-S19024-19

Id. at 2-3 (citations omitted).1

Gupton filed a timely appeal, and this Court affirmed his judgment of

sentence on December 15, 2014. Commonwealth v. Gupton, 116 A.3d 687

(Pa. Super. 2014) (unpublished memorandum). On May 12, 2015, our

Supreme Court denied Gupton’s petition for allowance of appeal.

Commonwealth v. Gupton, 116 A.3d 603 (Pa. 2015).

On April 29, 2016, Gupton filed a timely pro se PCRA petition. The PCRA

court appointed counsel, and PCRA counsel filed an amended petition on June

5, 2017. In this amended petition, Gupton contended that trial counsel was

ineffective “for failing to file a motion barring prosecution” for kidnapping and

carrying a firearm without a license “because the criminal activity alleged in

the complaint was beyond the statute of limitations.” Amended Petition,

Memorandum of Law, at 1. The Commonwealth filed a motion to dismiss

Gupton’s petition on October 10, 2017.

On December 4, 2017, the PCRA issued Pa.R.Crim.P. 907 notice of its

intention to dismiss Chamber’s PCRA petition without a hearing. Gupton did

not file a response. By order entered February 20, 2018, the PCRA court

____________________________________________

1 The trial court also ordered Gupton to comply with the reporting and registration requirements of the Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”).

-3- J-S19024-19

dismissed the petition. This appeal followed.2 Both Gupton the PCRA court

have complied with Pa.R.A.P. 1925.

Gupton raises the following issue:

1. Did the trial court err by dismissing the PCRA petition when trial counsel was ineffective for failing to assert that the charges of kidnapping and violation of the Uniform Firearms Act were time barred by the applicable statute of limitations?

See Gupton’s Brief at 3.

Our scope and standard of review is well settled:

In PCRA appeals, our scope of review is limited to the findings of the PCRA court and the evidence on the record of the PCRA court's hearing, viewed in the light most favorable to the prevailing party. Because most PCRA appeals involve questions of fact and law, we employ a mixed standard of review. We defer to the PCRA court's factual findings and credibility determinations supported by the record. In contrast, we review the PCRA court's legal conclusions de novo.

Commonwealth v. Reyes-Rodriguez, 111 A.3d 775, 779 (Pa. Super. 2015)

(citations omitted).

When the PCRA court has dismissed a petitioner’s PCRA petition without

an evidentiary hearing, we review the PCRA court’s decision for an abuse of

discretion. Commonwealth v. Roney, 79 A.2d 595, 604 (Pa. 2013). The

PCRA court has discretion to dismiss a petition without a hearing when the ____________________________________________

2 By order entered March 13, 2018, the PCRA court permitted PCRA counsel to withdraw and, thereafter, appointed present counsel to assist Gupton in this appeal.

-4- J-S19024-19

court is satisfied that there are no genuine issues concerning any material

fact, the defendant is not entitled to post-conviction collateral relief, and no

legitimate purpose would be served by further proceedings. Id. To obtain a

reversal of a PCRA court’s decision to dismiss a petition without a hearing, an

appellant must show that he raised a genuine issue of material fact which, if

resolved in his favor, would have entitled him to relief, or that the court

otherwise abused its discretion in denying a hearing. Commonwealth v.

Blakeney, 108 A.3d 739, 750 (Pa. 2014).

Gupton’s issue alleges the ineffective assistance of trial counsel. To

obtain relief under the PCRA premised on a claim that counsel was ineffective,

a petitioner must establish, by a preponderance of the evidence, that counsel's

ineffectiveness so undermined the truth-determining process that no reliable

adjudication of guilt or innocence could have taken place. Commonwealth

v. Johnson, 966 A.2d 523, 532 (Pa. 2009). “Generally, counsel’s

performance is presumed to be constitutionally adequate, and counsel will

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