Com. v. Harris, F.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 26, 2019
Docket449 WDA 2017
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Harris, F. (Com. v. Harris, F.) 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. Harris, F., (Pa. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

J-S76001-18

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA Appellee

v.

FREDERICK C. HARRIS, III,

Appellant No. 449 WDA 2017

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence Entered February 14, 2017 In the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-02-CR-0008659-2015

BEFORE: BENDER, P.J.E., KUNSELMAN, J., and MURRAY, J.

MEMORANDUM BY BENDER, P.J.E.: FILED JULY 26, 2019

Appellant, Frederick C. Harris, III, appeals from the judgment of

sentence of an aggregate term of life imprisonment without parole, imposed

following his conviction for two counts of first-degree murder and two counts

of abuse of a corpse. Appellant challenges the trial court’s admitting into

evidence ten autopsy photographs of the victims’ bodies, as well as the court’s

denying his motion to suppress evidence. After careful review, we affirm.

Appellant was arrested for the murders of his mother, Olivia Gilbert, and

her husband (Appellant’s stepfather), Lamar Gilbert. The trial court

summarized the facts adduced at trial as follows:

Angela Joanne Harris, [Appellant’s sister], testified that she and her mother[, Olivia Gilbert,] had a very good relationship and talked … every day, so when she had not heard from her mother in three days…, she called the Penn Hills police for a wellness check on December 1[6, 2014]. She stated that … Appellant had J-S76001-18

been living with her father, and her mother had told her that she would not allow … Appellant to move back into [the Gilberts’] home. She testified that she was told that the police could not enter the home unless someone let them in. Harris kicked the door in, and the police entered the home. She testified that the police showed her a piece of paper at some point that appeared to be a note from her mother to … Appellant[,] which stated[:] “Hello Fred. Thanks for housesitting and fixing up the place while we are on vacation. See you soon. Tell everyone hello. Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Lamar. [sic] P.S.: Don’t open the door for anyone.” Harris testified that the note was in … Appellant’s handwriting. She also testified that she had some mental health problems and a history of strangling cats when she was not taking her medication, but she had been taking her medication at the time of her mother and stepfather’s deaths and she had not hurt her mother and stepfather.

Frederick C. Harris, Jr., the father of … Appellant, testified that … Appellant lived with him for over a year and took care of him after he had surgery, but because of the bickering, eventually … Appellant was going to move out and get his own place. He also noted that … Appellant would visit his mother often. []Appellant moved out Thursday, December 11. Frederick Harris, Jr. went to Olivia Gilbert and Lamar Gilbert’s home with Angela Harris on December 13. He testified that he later told the police that Angela Harris was worried about her mother and … Appellant’s car was in the driveway.

Dwayne Yenchik, a police officer, testified that he, Officer [Michael] Lape, and Officer Broadway responded to the call for a welfare check at 223 Suncrest Drive on December 1[6]. He was not present when Angela Harris kicked in the door, but he had been told by Officer Lape that that was what happened. He testified that he entered the home and found a fully-dressed, black male, identified as … Appellant, on the bed, underneath the blankets, in the master bedroom. []Appellant did not respond to attempted rousing, so they requested an ambulance and looked for identification in his pockets. He testified that he found … Appellant’s identification, a credit or debit card, and a note in … Appellant’s pockets. The officers then proceeded to look for Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert, but did not see them or any indication that they had gone on vacation.

[Officer] Lape, … testified that he responded to a call for a welfare check at 223 Suncrest on December 1[6]. The officers did not see

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any broken windows or unlocked doors; no one answered the door, and they told Angela Harris that if she entered the home, she could be charged with a crime. He stated that they methodically looked for Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert, searching the entire first floor. When they found no sign of the Gilberts on the first floor, they proceeded to the basement and the garage. He testified that there were several garbage cans in the garage, and a short time later, the officers opened the first garbage can, which contained a rolled-up piece of carpet. The second garbage can contained what the officers believed to be a human head. At that point, he testified that the officers stopped what they were doing and contacted their superiors and the Allegheny County Police.

Patrick Kinavey, a detective with the Allegheny County Police Department’s Homicide Unit, responded to a call from the Penn Hills municipality police for assistance with a homicide investigation. The Mobile Crime Unit was contacted to process the crime scene. Once the detective was briefed by the officers who initially responded, [Detective] Kinavey decided that it was necessary to get a search warrant, so he proceeded to obtain one. He determined that … Appellant owned the car that was sitting in the driveway. The Commonwealth, using photos, asked [Detective] Kinavey to describe what they found once inside the home. [Detective] Kinavey stated that they found a partially constructed Christmas tree, a receipt from Home Depot for a 45- gallon, wheeled trashcan purchased on December 16, a receipt for money withdrawn from a MAC machine, a MAC card issued to Olivia Gilbert, bleach bottles in the basement, a red-brown stain on the blue carpet in the basement, a block set of knives with no knives in it[,] a receipt from Home Depot for 3 45-gallon trashcans purchased [on] December 15, and several new, large trashcans in the garage, some open and some closed. The officers marked the trashcans [with numbers for] identification [purposes].

[Detective] Kinavey testified that in the trashcans, there was a portion of blue carpet with heavy red-brown stains, a taped-shut trash bag with a human head inside, other body parts, and knives from the empty block in the kitchen. The trashcans were removed to the medical examiner’s office. In the basement, there was a portion of carpet missing; a portion of the wall missing; red-brown staining on an iron board, the carpet, and the furnace; and what the officers suspected was human tissue. In the Gilberts’ car, the officers found a receipt from Lowe’s for a 14-piece knife set, purchased on December 16. Can 2 contained a portion of a human torso, with several stab wounds. Can 3 contained the lower

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portion of a female from the waist down, cut at the knees. Can 4 contained the lower portion of a male, the genital area and the thigh, cut at the knees. Can 5 contained bloody clothing and human heads. Can 6 contained the portion of the blue carpet and 5 knives, which had bent or broken handles. Can 7 contained rugs, clothing, and other body parts. He also testified that … Appellant was wearing a white t-shirt and tan khaki pants, which had blood stains on them.

Pamela Woods, a trace evidence examiner for the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office, testified as an expert that the carpet in the garage matched the carpet in the basement. Emily Wilkinson, a scientist in the Medical Examiner’s Forensic Laboratory Division, testified as an expert, that she performed luminal testing in the basement of the home. She testified that there were wiping patterns, splatter patterns, and drip patterns. Anthony Perry, a police officer, testified that he was assigned to determine who picked up the trash at 223 Suncrest Drive.

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Com. v. Harris, F., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/com-v-harris-f-pasuperct-2019.