Com. v. Jeffrey, T.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 14, 2017
DocketCom. v. Jeffrey, T. No. 1787 WDA 2015
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Jeffrey, T. (Com. v. Jeffrey, T.) 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. Jeffrey, T., (Pa. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

J-A01016-17

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA Appellee

v.

THOMAS A. JEFFREY,

Appellant No. 1787 WDA 2015

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence of August 20, 2015 In the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-02-CR-0013390-2014

BEFORE: BOWES, OLSON and STRASSBURGER,* JJ.

MEMORANDUM BY OLSON, J: FILED JULY 14, 2017

Appellant, Thomas A. Jeffrey, appeals from the judgment of sentence

entered on August 20, 2015, following his jury trial convictions for rape,

statutory sexual assault, incest, criminal attempt, corruption of minors,

endangering the welfare of a child, and indecent assault.1 We affirm.

The trial court set forth the facts of this case as follows:

The victim in this case, [J.J.],[2] is the oldest daughter of Appellant. She did not testify at trial. [J.J.’s] church youth leader, Tabitha Hill, testified that on June 19, 2014, shortly after 10:00 p.m., she received text messages from [J.J.] Earlier that day, she and [J.J.] had returned home from a church trip. The first text message from [J.J.] to Hill ____________________________________________

1 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 3121, 3122.1, 4302, 901, 6301, 4304, and 3126, respectively. 2 Because the victim was a minor, we use her initials to protect her identity.

*Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court. J-A01016-17

stated[,] “It happened again.” Hill responded[,] “What happened again?” [J.J.] replied[,] “What I told you about earlier.” [J.J.] then began to describe details of a sexual assault that took place moments prior. Hill testified that, while on the church trip, [J.J.] had disclosed to Hill that her father had been sexually assaulting her. Uncertain of what to do, Hill called her pastor who notified the police.

Officer Christopher Burns responded to the call and arrived at the Jeffrey residence. [J.J.] disclosed to Officer Burns that she had been sexually assaulted by her father, [Appellant]. [J.J.] was transported to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where she initially met with the resident physician Dr. [Regina] Toto. Dr. Toto testified that, as she does with all incoming patients, she asked [J.J.] her reason for coming to the ER. [J.J.] disclosed to Dr. Toto that she had been sexually assaulted that evening, penile penetration was involved, no condom was worn, and that the perpetrator sucked on her earlobe and ejaculated on her thigh. Dr. Toto created a medical record containing [J.J.’s] disclosure and the recommended course of treatment. While Dr. Toto was consulting with her attending physician about the plan of treatment, [J.J.’s] mother arrived. After that, [J.J.] refused all treatment, including a sexual assault kit and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

As a result of [J.J.’s] disclosure, Officer Burns returned to the Jeffrey home that night and collected [J.J.’s] duvet cover. Elizabeth Wisbon, a scientist in the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiners Forensic Laboratory Division, testified that Appellant’s sperm was present on [J.J.’s] duvet cover. The following morning, Appellant made a full, recorded confession to detectives at the Allegheny County Police [h]eadquarters.

Trial Court Opinion, 4/22/2016, at 4-6 (record citations omitted).

A jury convicted Appellant of the aforementioned charges on May 29,

2015. On August 20, 2015, prior to sentencing, Appellant filed a notice of

his intention to seek an oral motion for extraordinary relief pursuant to

Pa.R.Crim.P. 704(b). Therein, Appellant argued that he was entitled to a

-2- J-A01016-17

new trial because he received a copy of a handwritten recantation letter

from the victim dated July 28, 2015, after the trial in this matter. The case

proceeded to sentencing on August 20, 2015, wherein the trial court orally

denied Appellant’s motion for extraordinary relief and then sentenced

Appellant to an aggregate sentence of 10 to 22½ years of imprisonment

followed by a consecutive term of seven years of probation.

On August 21, 2015, Appellant filed a post-sentence motion, again

requesting a new trial, but this time based upon after-discovered evidence of

the victim’s purported repudiation letter. Moreover, in further support of his

post-sentence motion, Appellant alleged that a detective (later identified as

Detective Michael Kuma) testified at the victim’s dependency hearing held on

November 7, 2014. Appellant claimed that Detective Kuma indicated at the

dependency hearing that the victim had retracted her initial allegations

against Appellant near in time to the preliminary hearing in this matter.

On August 21, 2015, the trial court conducted an in camera hearing

wherein it questioned the victim about her alleged recantation:

At that hearing, [J.J.] was represented by counsel and chose not [to] assert a 5th Amendment privilege. [J.J.] testified that she wrote the letter dated July 28, 2015 that began “To Whom it May Concern.” [J.J.] could not recall why she made the disclosure to Hill or exactly what she said. She said that she chose to make her father the target of a sexual abuse allegation because she was mad at the fact that she was not enjoying her experience at camp and he was the last person with whom she spoke, and that he encouraged her to stay at the camp. She testified that she didn’t know how to back out of what she said and texted to Hill, even though she also said she did not remember making any statements. She denied that anything

-3- J-A01016-17

inappropriate happened between her and Appellant. She testified that one of the detectives threatened her that if she refused to testify at the preliminary hearing against her father, both she and her mother would go to jail. Further, she said that she made up the detailed allegations of sexual abuse by her father because she wanted to get the police officers who interviewed her to leave.

Trial Court Opinion, 4/22/2016, at 6.

On October 13, 2015, the trial court resumed its hearing wherein

Detective Kuma testified. Despite presenting Detective Kuma with

transcripts from the victim’s dependency hearing indicating he stated that

the victim had retracted her allegations at a meeting prior to the preliminary

hearing, Detective Kuma still denied saying that J.J. had recanted. At the

conclusion of the October 2015 hearing, the trial court orally denied

Appellant relief on his post-sentence motion. This timely appeal resulted.3

On appeal, Appellant presents the following issues for our review:

I. Whether the [t]rial [c]ourt erred and abused its discretion by denying Appellant a full evidentiary hearing on his [m]otion in [l]imine and admitt[ing] evidence of testimonial statements made by J.J. where the statements obtained were obtained by law enforcement with the primary purpose to establish past events relevant to its criminal prosecution of [Appellant]?

____________________________________________

3 On November 12, 2015, Appellant filed a notice of appeal. On November 13, 2015, the trial court ordered Appellant to file a concise statement of errors complained of on appeal pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b). Appellant complied timely after the trial court granted him an extension. The trial court issued an opinion pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a) on April 22, 2016.

-4- J-A01016-17

II.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Brady v. Maryland
373 U.S. 83 (Supreme Court, 1963)
Crawford v. Washington
541 U.S. 36 (Supreme Court, 2004)
Commonwealth v. Johnson
966 A.2d 523 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2009)
Commonwealth v. Minerd
753 A.2d 225 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2000)
Commonwealth v. Paddy
15 A.3d 431 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2011)
Com. v. Williams, D. Jr.
103 A.3d 354 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2014)
Commonwealth v. Sunealitis
153 A.3d 414 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2016)
Commonwealth v. Son Truong
36 A.3d 592 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2012)
Commonwealth v. Garland
63 A.3d 339 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2013)
Commonwealth v. Williams
84 A.3d 680 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Com. v. Jeffrey, T., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/com-v-jeffrey-t-pasuperct-2017.