Com. v. Robinson, N.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 2, 2022
Docket1177 WDA 2021
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Robinson, N. (Com. v. Robinson, N.) 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. Robinson, N., (Pa. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

J-A18033-22

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : NICOLETTA MICHELLE ROBINSON : : Appellant : No. 1177 WDA 2021

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence Entered May 7, 2021 In the Court of Common Pleas of Mercer County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-43-CR-0001795-2019

BEFORE: STABILE, J., MURRAY, J., and McLAUGHLIN, J.

MEMORANDUM BY McLAUGHLIN, J.: FILED: December 2, 2022

Nicoletta Michelle Robinson appeals the judgment of sentence entered

after a jury found her guilty of drug delivery resulting in death (“DDRD”),

aggravated assault, criminal use of communication facility, simple assault,

recklessly endangering another person (“REAP”), and possession with intent

to deliver a controlled substance (“PWID”).1 We vacate the conviction for

aggravated assault and affirm the judgment of sentence in all other

respects.

On June 16, 2019, the victim searched the internet for a taxi service,

found Robinson’s service, and contacted her. That day and the following day,

____________________________________________

1 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 2506(a), 2702(a)(1), 7512(a), 2701(a)(1), 2705, and 35 P.S. § 780-113(a)(30), respectively. J-A18033-22

June 17, 2019, Robinson drove the victim, who had Crohn’s disease, to

various locations, including to hospitals in both Pennsylvania and Ohio. The

two women were in communication via text message during those two days.

The victim lived with her father in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, while

Robinson was based in Youngstown, Ohio.

On June 16, the victim and Robinson exchanged the following texts:2

Victim: thank you so much for everything. I appreciate you more than you know

Robinson: No problem, hun. Trust me, the money helped me, too. It’s been rough with school. Hopefully you’ll feel better soon.

Victim: Hoping

Victim: Really, really hoping.

Robinson: FYI my house is only 34 minutes.

Robinson: There’s no way nor.

Robinson: Not

Victim: Should I wait to take the other? Only think I’m scared of is I actually have a blockage.

Robinson: It should still help, though. If it’s not you might have blockage [because] you should vm [sic] feel better.

Victim: Maybe I should have went in ugh this pain is agony.

Victim: It’s like a stabbing pain that just won’t go away.

Robinson: Did it ease up at all? ____________________________________________

2 The Commonwealth presented the text messages as exhibits. Those exhibits are not part of the record. However, portions of the text messages were put into the record through the testimony of Trooper Joseph Morris.

-2- J-A18033-22

Victim: I couldn’t ask you to come back. I have no cash lol. I have money in the bank but couldn’t get it till tomorrow. I left my debit card in Cleveland.

See N.T., 3/10/21 (Morning Session), at 40-43.

That same day, June 16, the victim searched the internet for “side

effects and long-term effects of methadone,” “is methadone an opiate,”

“how much methadone is too much,” and “does methadone make you high.”

Id. at 57-58.

The next day, June 17, the victim texted Robinson, “Do you have 250

ml of that stuff I can buy?” Id. at 67. Robinson texted back, “yeah.” Id.

According to cell phone records and medical records, the victim was in

Sharon Regional Medical Center in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, when she

sent the message. See id. at 50 (victim sent text on June 17, 2019, at 7:37

p.m.); N.T., 3/10/21 (Afternoon Session), at 61 (victim was admitted to

Sharon Regional Medical Center on June 17, 2019, at 11:43 a.m.); id. at 64

(victim left Sharon Regional Medical Center on June 17, 2019, at 8:43 p.m.).

Robinson and the victim then discussed payment and decided that the

victim would pay Robinson $100 by check. N.T., 3/10/21 (Morning Session),

at 67. Robinson picked the victim up from the hospital in Sharon and the two

went to a gas station in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. Id. at 3-16. After they

purchased some items, Robinson drove the victim home to her father’s

house in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. When they arrived, the victim paid

Robinson. Id. at 71. Later that night, the victim texted Robinson not to cash

the check and told her that she would pay her in cash the following day. Id.

-3- J-A18033-22

At 72. During that night, the victim ingested the methadone and died. The

victim’s father, who had been on vacation at the time of her death,

discovered her body in the home six days later. Trooper Joseph Morris

recovered a vial with pink fluid from the home that the lab determined

contained methadone, a Schedule II substance. See N.T., Trial, 3/9/21

(Afternoon Session), at 85, 114-15.

An expert in forensic pathology, Dr. Eric Vey, testified that the victim’s

cause of death was a lethal dose of methadone. N.T, Trial, 3/10/21

(Afternoon Session), at 80. He also testified that upon a review of her

autopsy photographs, certain characteristics of her body were indicative of

an overdose. Id. at 99. Dr. Vey also testified about the effect of postmortem

redistribution on the level of methadone found in the decedent’s blood,

which he described as a phenomenon that occurs when time has elapsed

between the time of death and when the blood of the decedent is tested.

During this time, “the blood that got deposited into the central tissues and

organs, the lungs and the liver and the heart, diffuses back out of the

tissues and into the blood creating an elevated central blood level compared

to peripheral blood level.” Id. at 95. He said that postmortem redistribution

had not affected the level of methadone they found.

The chief deputy coroner in Mercer County, Robert L. Snyder, testified

that the victim had dried secretions in her nose consistent with a drug

overdose. N.T., 3/9/21 (Afternoon Session), at 14. He testified that with an

overdose, “the lungs become compromised, they fill with fluid, and then the

-4- J-A18033-22

frothiness comes out of the nasal cavity.” Id. at 15. He also testified that the

dose of methadone in the victim’s body was in the fatal range. Id. at 30. Dr.

Snyder ruled that the manner of death was accidental, and the cause of

death was “respiratory failure due to drug toxicity.” Id. at 31. In layman’s

terms, he stated that it was a way of saying her cause of death was from a

drug overdose or a combination of the drugs. Id.

The Commonwealth also presented portions of Robinson’s interview

with Trooper Morris, after the victim died.

[Commonwealth]: Okay. Now, Ms. Robinson - - we also heard her say right about the 20-minute mark, and I might be misquoting here, but essentially, so you are saying she overdosed and you think I gave it to her. My question is up until that point had you ever said the word overdose to her?

[Trooper Morris]: No.

[Commonwealth]: Not in the lobby, not on the phone, not anywhere?

[Trooper Morris]: No[.]

[Commonwealth]: Up until that point had you ever told her how [the victim] died?

N.T., Trial, 3/10/21 (Afternoon Session), at 32-33 (emphasis added).

Following a four-day trial, the jury found Robinson guilty. The court

sentenced Robinson for the DDRD and criminal use of a communication

facility convictions to an aggregate term of nine years and three months to

27 years of imprisonment. The court determined that aggravated assault,

-5- J-A18033-22

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