Com. v. Kinley, J.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided March 16, 2021·No. 1753 MDA 2019·Unpublished

Opinion

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION – SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA

:

v. :

:

:

JARRETT ALVIN KINLEY :

:

Appellant : No. 1753 MDA 2019

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence Entered September 18, 2019, in the Court of Common Pleas of Northumberland County, Criminal Division at No(s): CP-49-CR-0000801-2016

BEFORE: DUBOW, KUNSELMAN, and COLINS,* JJ. MEMORANDUM BY KUNSELMAN, J.: FILED MARCH 16, 2021 Jarrett Alvin Kinley appeals from the judgment of sentence imposed after a jury convicted him of multiple sex offenses. We affirm Kinley’s convictions, but vacate his judgment of sentence and remand for resentencing.

The pertinent facts and procedural history, as gleaned from our review of the certified record, are as follows: By criminal information filed July 12, 2016, the Commonwealth charged Kinley with various sex offenses he

committed against his daughter (“the complainant”) over a nine-year period.1

1 Specifically, Kinley was charged with: Count 1, rape-forcible compulsion; Count 2-rape of a child; Count 3, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse (“IDSI”)-forcible compulsion; Count 4, IDSI-person less than 16 and person is four or more years older; Count 5, incest of a minor-person less than 13;

*Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.

Prior to trial, the Commonwealth filed a motion in limine to prohibit defense counsel from admitting at trial handwritten pages from journals the complainant kept during the time in question. The Commonwealth claimed the entries either violated the Rape Shield Law, 18 Pa.C.S.A. section 3104, or were otherwise not relevant pursuant to Pa.R.E. 401. See Motion, 1/24/17, at 2. The trial court held an in camera review of the journal entries and heard argument from the parties on February 6, 2017.2 By order entered the next day, the trial court granted the Commonwealth’s motion in part. The court found “that the journals were not relevant, however, they may be referred to as being kept by the [complainant] and the fact that they contain nothing about the alleged criminal incidents involving [Kinley].” Order, 2/7/17, at 1.

Several weeks later, the Commonwealth filed another motion in limine, seeking permission to introduce at trial a video and statements made by Kinley during a polygraph examination that Kinley took at the request of a bail bondsman. Although the trial court initially denied this request, the Commonwealth filed a motion to reconsider. On January 4, 2018, the trial court held an evidentiary hearing on the motion at which the Commonwealth

and Count 6, indecent assault-person less than 13. 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 3121(a)(1), 3121(c), 3123(a)(1), 3123(a)(7), 4302(b)(1), and 3126(a)(7), respectively.

2Because the journals were never admitted at trial, they do not appear in the certified record. Nevertheless, the trial court found that the disputed entries concerned a fantasy relationship the complainant, who was then 15, was having with a 20-year old man.

presented the testimony of Ken Davis, a retired state trooper who conducted the polygraph examination. At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court granted the Commonwealth’s motion with the limitation that “the term polygraph not be used at any time during the pendency of the trial.” N.T., 1/4/18, at 22.

Kinley’s jury trial commenced on May 8, 2018, but shortly ended in a mistrial. In her opening statement, defense counsel indicated that the complainant only made her allegations after Kinley tried to stop her from dating a twenty-year-old man. N.T., 5/8/18, at 16-17. The Commonwealth objected that the statement violated the Rape Shield Law, and the trial court agreed.

Kinley’s second jury trial began on February 5, 2019. As its first witness, the Commonwealth called the complainant, who was then nineteen and had a child of her own. When asked about Kinley, complainant testified that she “was raped for seven years of [her] life and molested for nine years.” N.T., 2/5/19, at 21. The complainant then described in detail how Kinley’s first actions started shortly after her younger brother was born, and progressed to oral, anal and vaginal intercourse up until she reached the age of sixteen.

On cross-examination, the complainant acknowledged that she told Dennis Kibler about the abuse. When asked about her relationship to Dennis, the complainant testified that they never dated, but she described him as “a friend of mine. Somebody I could talk to whenever I was scared or alone.” Id. at 37. Upon further inquiry, the complainant agreed with defense counsel

that Kinley did not want her to have a relationship with Dennis. See id. at 54. She was not to see him, and to have no communication with him whatsoever. Id.

Referring to her journal, the complainant acknowledged that she dedicated the book to Dennis. According to the complainant, she “never spoke to Dennis, so that was my only way of having any communication to what I perceived to possibly be the outside world one day. . . . I was told not to speak with him, and I know if I did I would be in some major trouble. I could not get in trouble for something that was just written down and never handed to him.” Id. at 54-55.

After further cross-examination, the complainant admitted that she did see Dennis at church on occasion and spoke with him. Id. at 55. She denied, however, that she communicated with Dennis on Facebook by using her Nintendo device. The complainant acknowledged that Kinley broke the device so she could not use it anymore. Id.

In addition to the complainant, the Commonwealth called four witnesses: a forensic interviewer employed by the Child Advocacy Center, who interviewed the complainant; an expert in the field of child abuse pediatrics, who testified regarding his physical examination of the complainant; Mr. Davis, as a fact witness; and a state trooper, who interviewed both the complainant and her mother shortly after the last incident.

In his defense, Kinley presented testimony from four witnesses: his brother-in-law; the complainant’s cousin; his wife, who is also the complainant’s mother; and a nurse practitioner, who testified regarding Kinley’s history of erectile dysfunction and low testosterone levels. Additionally, Kinley testified on his own behalf to deny all of the allegations.

The jury convicted Kinley on all charges. On September 18, 2019, the trial court sentenced him to an aggregate sentence of 30 to 60 years of imprisonment, and a consecutive 3 year probationary term. Kinley filed a timely post-sentence motion, which the trial court denied.3 This appeal followed. Both Kinley and the trial court have complied with Pa.R.A.P. 1925.

Kinley raises the following four issues on appeal:

I. Were the circumstances surrounding [Kinley’s]

polygraph so tainted that to admit the inculpatory statements he made to the examiner denied him a fair trial, and to deny a new trial was error?

II. Did the prosecutor’s failure to correct the polygraph examiner’s trial testimony—which asserted [Kinley]

paid for his services—perpetuate a false narrative surrounding the circumstances of [Kinley’s]

inculpatory statements, such that he was denied due process, and it was error to deny a new trial related thereto?

III. Did the trial court misapply the Rape Shield Law by prohibiting [Kinley] from eliciting evidence that [the complainant] was in a relationship with an older male

3 Previously, Kinley filed a post-conviction motion for extraordinary relief pursuant to Pa.R.Crim.P. 704(B), which the trial court denied. In his post- sentence motion, Kinley repeated the claims he raised in the earlier motion and requested reconsideration of his sentence.

that he disapproved of, thereby restricting or denying his Confrontation rights and undermining his defense narrative?

IV. Did the trial court err or otherwise abuse its discretion when imposing sentence where—

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