Com. v. Johnston, T.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 28, 2018
Docket1523 EDA 2017
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Johnston, T. (Com. v. Johnston, 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. Johnston, T., (Pa. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

J-S37022-18

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : TYRONE JOHNSTON : : Appellant : No. 1523 EDA 2017

Appeal from the PCRA Order Entered April 21, 2017 In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-51-CR-0004489-2007

BEFORE: OLSON, J., McLAUGHLIN, J., and STEVENS*, P.J.E.

MEMORANDUM BY McLAUGHLIN, J.: FILED SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

Appellant Tyrone Johnston appeals pro se from the order denying him

relief on his petition filed under the Post Conviction Relief Act, 42 Pa.C.S.A.

§§ 9541-9546. Johnston argues that his trial counsel was ineffective, which

resulted in his conviction for first-degree murder,1 and that his PCRA counsel

was ineffective for withdrawing from representation before the PCRA court.

We affirm.

In the early hours of February 27, 2006, Jamel Conner was shot six

times at close range, including twice in the head, and died from his wounds.

Law enforcement recovered five shell casings from a nine-millimeter gun from

the scene of the shooting. See PCRA Court Opinion, filed 9/6/17, at 4.

____________________________________________

* Former Justice specially assigned to the Superior Court.

1 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 2502(a). J-S37022-18

Approximately six weeks later, on May 15, 2006, Stephanie Labance

was shot and killed approximately two and a half blocks from the scene of

Conner’s killing. Like Conner, Labance was shot at close range, and received

two gunshot wounds to the head. Law enforcement recovered five shell

casings from a nine-millimeter gun from the scene of the shooting. No firearms

were recovered from either the Conner or Labance murder scenes. Id.

Two and a half weeks after Labance’s death, during a routine patrol in

the vicinity of the shooting, Philadelphia Police Officer Anna Mae Law stopped

Erin Wood and warned her about the recent shooting of Labance. Officer Law

was familiar with both Labance and Wood, as both had been heavy drug users

working as prostitutes in the neighborhood. Wood told Officer Law that she

had information about the shooting. Wood’s subsequent statements to the

police led to Johnston’s arrest for both the Labance and Conner murders. Id.

Johnston was charged with each murder separately, and the

Commonwealth gave notice of intent to pursue the death penalty. The instant

appeal pertains to Johnston’s charges related to Conner’s murder; Johnston’s

charges related to Labance’s murder proceeded under a separate docket

number.2 The two cases were consolidated for trial before a jury.

At a pre-trial conference, the Commonwealth requested permission to

tell the jury that an eyewitness to Conner’s death, Paul Chladek, would not be ____________________________________________

2 See Commonwealth v. Johnston, 2929 EDA 2013, unpublished memorandum at 4 (Pa.Super. 2015) (identifying trial court docket number for Labance charges as CP-51-CR-0004489-2007, and affirming judgment of sentence for those charges).

-2- J-S37022-18

testifying because he was deceased. See N.T., 2/17/09, at 17-18. The

prosecutor stated that Chladek had been murdered with the same handgun

used in the murders of Conner and Labance, but that the Commonwealth did

not have enough evidence to make an arrest for Chladek’s murder.3 Id. at 18.

Johnston’s attorney4 agreed that the prosecutor could notify the jury during

trial that Chladek was deceased, as long the prosecutor did not tell the jury

that Chladek was murdered. Id.

In exchange for the Commonwealth’s agreement not to pursue the

death penalty, Johnston waived his right to a jury trial. See N.T., 2/17/09, at

55-57, 62-75. The consolidated bench trial then took place before the same

judge who had presided over the pre-trial conference, and who had heard the ____________________________________________

3 The prosecutor stated:

Paul Chladek would seem to be, in the Jamel Conner murder, an important witness. The testimony of the other witnesses will be that he was standing right there when it happened. Paul Chladek was subsequently murdered; actually, by the same firearm, although we’re not able to get presented enough evidence [sic] to get an arrest.

I would be asked to elicit either from a detective or one of the witnesses or by an instruction that Paul Chadlek is now deceased. Simply put, if the jury doesn’t understand that Paul Chadlek is deceased, they may be left to wonder why we’re not calling him or seeking further information from him or anything of that nature.

N.T., 2/17/09, at 17-18.

4 Johnston had separate counsel for each case throughout the trial. Both counsel have since died. We refer here to his trial attorney for the instant case.

-3- J-S37022-18

Commonwealth’s statement that Chladek had been murdered by the same

firearm as Conner and Labance.

At Johnston’s bench trial, Wood testified that she had witnessed

Johnston murder Conner and that Paul Chladek was present when Johnston

approached Conner. N.T., 2/23/09, 165, 171. Wood said she identified “Paul”

for police from a photograph, and the Commonwealth asked her which “Paul”

she meant, since Paul Evans, a former friend of Wood’s, was also slated to

testify. Id. at 201. Wood responded, “Not Paul that I lived with. . . . Paul that

was murdered.” Id. Johnston’s attorney objected, and the court responded,

“I'm sorry. What was it? I don't know if I heard it. You might not want to tell

me.” Id. at 202. Johnston’s attorney told the court, “If you didn't hear it, I'm

not going to tell you.” Id. The prosecutor then clarified that Wood had

identified for the police a picture of “the Paul that you described earlier as

being with [Conner] right before he was shot.” Id.

The Commonwealth presented the testimony of a second eyewitness to

Conner’s murder, who identified Johnston, as well as the testimony of three

other people who were present during Conner’s shooting, but who could not

identify Johnston as the shooter. See PCRA Ct. Op. at 5-7.

Wood also testified that she later heard Johnston brag about murdering

Labance. Id. at 5. Paul Evans testified that he remembered hearing Johnston

tell Wood that he shot someone at the location of Labance’s murder. See N.T.,

2/25/09, at 187-213.

-4- J-S37022-18

In addition, the Commonwealth presented Police Officer Leonard

Johnson as an expert in “firearms and firearms microscopic comparison of

ballistics-related evidence.” Id. at 11. Prior to Officer Johnson’s admission as

an expert, Johnston’s counsel5 questioned Officer Johnson on whether he was

aware of the rate of error in the identifying the markings on fired cartridge

casings. The officer stated that there was a rate of error, but did not state

what it was. He instead explained that the service that offers an annual

firearms examiner test also provides the annual percentage of those taking

the test who successfully matched markings on cartridge casings to a firearm.

Id. at 10. Officer Johnson’s results to the test had never been shown to be

erroneous. Id. at 10-11.

Officer Johnson then testified that he examined the fired cartridge

casings from each of the murder scenes and the microscopic patterns of

markings left on them by ejection from a firearm. He said that it was his

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