Com. v. Lellock, R.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided April 23, 2015·No. 2021 WDA 2013·Unpublished

Opinion

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Appellee

v.

ROBERT LELLOCK, Appellant No. 2021 WDA 2013

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence Entered October 22, 2013 In the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County Criminal Division at No(s):

CP-02-CR-0003936-2013

CP-02-CR-0013778-2012

BEFORE: BENDER, P.J.E., LAZARUS, J., and MUNDY, J. MEMORANDUM BY BENDER, P.J.E.: FILED APRIL 23, 2015 Appellant, Robert Lellock, appeals from the judgment of sentence of an aggregate term of 32-64 years’ incarceration, imposed following his conviction for multiple sexual offenses against minors committed while he worked as a security guard at a Pittsburgh middle school. He presents three questions for our review. First, Appellant claims the trial court abused its discretion when it admitted other-bad-acts evidence. Second, he challenges the discretionary aspects of his sentence. Third, he contends that the trial court erred in designating him as a Sexually Violent Predator (SVP). After careful review, we affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand for resentencing.

The trial court briefly summarized the facts adduced at trial as follows:

[T]he evidence presented at trial established that Arthur Rooney Middle School, located on the North Side of the City of Pittsburgh, opened for the 1998-1999 school year. At that time [Appellant], a Pittsburgh School Police Officer, would patrol the school and assist with various disciplinary matters. [Appellant]

was observed by several teachers frequently taking male students out of class, including the four (4) victims herein:

Shawn Logan, Jeffrey Waldenmeyer, Chris O'Keefe and David Jankowski. Upon taking the boys out of class, [Appellant] would take them to a janitor's closet where he would touch their nipples and penises through and underneath their clothing.

Particularly with regard to Shawn Logan, [Appellant] would masturbate the boy's penis until he ejaculated and make the boy do the same to him. On several occasions, [Appellant] made him "kiss" the head of his penis, and when the child did so, he would force his penis into his mouth. In order to ensure Logan's silence, he threatened the child with violence against him and his family and also threatened criminal prosecution for stolen credit cards Logan had in his possession the first time they met.

Trial Court Opinion (TCO), 7/15/14, at 1-2.

Appellant was arrested on September 19, 2012. On November 21, 2012, the Commonwealth charged him, by criminal information, with numerous sexual offenses arising from his sexual assault of the four victims, although many of the charges were withdrawn or dismissed prior to trial. Ultimately, Appellant proceeded to a jury trial on July 22, 2013, facing nine charges at CP-02-CR-0013778-2012, and four charges at CP-02-CR- 0003936-2013. The jury convicted Appellant on all counts.

On October 22, 2013, the trial court held an SVP hearing, at which the court deemed Appellant to be an SVP. Immediately thereafter, the trial court sentenced Appellant for the following offenses at CP-02-CR-0013778- 2012:

 count 2 - involuntary deviate sexual intercourse (IDSI) (victim under 16), 18 Pa.C.S. § 3123(a)(7), 10-20 years’ incarceration;

 count 10 - endangering the welfare of children (EWOC), 18 Pa.C.S. § 4304(a), 3½-7 years’ incarceration;

 count 11 - corruption of minors (COM), 18 Pa.C.S. § 6301(a)(1), 2½-5 years’ incarceration;

 count 13 - EWOC, 3½-7 years’ incarceration; and  count 15 - COM, 2½-5 years’ incarceration.

Additionally, at CP-02-CR-0003936-2013, Appellant was sentence at count 2 to 10-20 years’ incarceration for IDSI. The trial court ordered each of these sentences to run consecutively to one another, resulting in an aggregate sentence of 32-64 years’ incarceration.1 Post-sentence motions were not initially filed. However, on November 15, 2013, the trial court permitted Appellant to file a post-sentence motion nunc pro tunc following the appointment of current counsel from the Allegheny County Public Defender’s office. The trial court denied that motion on December 3, 2013, and Appellant filed a timely notice of appeal on December 20, 2013. Pursuant to an order to do so as issued by the trial court, Appellant filed a timely Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement of errors

1 Each of these sentences was also the statutory maximum penalty for the corresponding offense.

complained of on appeal. The trial court issued its Rule 1925(a) opinion on July 14, 2014.

Appellant now presents the following questions for our review:

I. Did the lower court abuse its discretion when it admitted evidence of alleged behavior of [] Appellant pertaining to Robert Shannon, as the evidence was irrelevant, noncriminal, and non-probative, yet highly prejudicial?

II. Did the lower court abuse its discretion when it sentenced [] Appellant to a manifestly excessive and unreasonable period of thirty-two to sixty-four years of incarceration?

III. Did the lower court err when determined clear and convincing evidence existed to find [] Appellant was a [SVP]?

Appellant’s Brief at 6. Additionally, Appellant challenges the legality of his sentence, a claim he first raised in a post-submission communication that he filed pursuant to Rule 2501(a).2 Appellant’s first claim concerns the admission of other-bad-acts evidence. The trial court describes the evidence in question as follows:

2 In Appellant’s 1925(b) statement, he also challenged his convictions based on the Commonwealth’s purported failure to file within the time period set by statute of limitations for the charged offenses. As is apparent from the facts and procedural history of this case, Appellant was not arrested and/or charged for the offenses committed against the four victims for more than a decade after the underlying criminal conduct allegedly occurred. However, Appellant has abandoned this claim as it is not raised his brief. Although the relevant statute of limitations in effect in 1999 expired prior to Appellant’s arrest, that statute had twice been extended such that the charges were timely filed in this case. See TCO, at 2-5 (explaining the effects of the extensions/amendments to the pertinent statute of limitations in this case).

At trial, the Commonwealth averred that [Appellant] would pull male students out of class and take them into a closet at the school where he would then sexually assault them. The Commonwealth presented the testimony of Ronald Zangaro, the principal of Arthur Rooney Middle School at the time of the events in question. Mr. Zangaro testified that on May 28, 1999, he was making his customary round of the school shortly before dismissal when he heard voices and saw light coming from a storage closet on the 3rd floor. He opened the door and found student Robert Shannon in the closet with [Appellant], though they were both clothed and not touching at the time. Mr.

Zangaro questioned Robert Shannon in the presence of [Appellant], and Shannon denied any inappropriate conduct.

[Appellant] was then permitted to walk Shannon back to class.

[Appellant] explained the incident by stating that Shannon was his confidential informant and had challenged him to a test of strength, so they were preparing to wrestle.

TCO, at 5-6.

Appellant contends this evidence was not admissible under any exception to the rule against other-bad-acts evidence, that its probative value was outweighed by its prejudicial effect and, therefore, that the trial court abused its discretion when it admitted it over Appellant’s objection. Notably, Robert Shannon died more than a decade prior to Appellant’s trial. Appellant argues that this fact left him “unable to combat the jury’s worst possible assumptions regarding the incident.” Appellant’s Brief at 22.

In reviewing Appellant’s claim, we adhere to the following standards:

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Com. v. Lellock, R., (Pa. Ct. App. 2015).

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