Com. v. Schaeffer, S.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 25, 2021
Docket64 MDA 2021
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Schaeffer, S. (Com. v. Schaeffer, S.) 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. Schaeffer, S., (Pa. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

J-S30015-21

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : SCOTT ROBERT SCHAEFFER : : Appellant : No. 64 MDA 2021

Appeal from the PCRA Order Entered December 21, 2020 In the Court of Common Pleas of Northumberland County Criminal Division at No(s): CR-89-477

BEFORE: BENDER, P.J.E., McCAFFERY, J., and COLINS, J.*

MEMORANDUM BY BENDER, P.J.E.: FILED OCTOBER 25, 2021

Appellant, Scott Robert Schaeffer, appeals from the post-conviction

court’s December 21, 2020 order denying his petition for DNA testing pursuant

to 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543.1(d) of the Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA), 42 Pa.C.S.

§§ 9541-9546. After careful review, we affirm.

The Commonwealth provided a concise summation of the lengthy

procedural and factual history of this case, which we reproduce as follows:

In 1989, [Appellant] and [his] co-conspirators, … includ[ing] William Hendricks and Thomas Yoder, were charged with kidnapping Rickey Wolfe and killing him because Wolfe owed a drug debt. The Commonwealth’s theory of the case was that Mark Byers owed Robert Hummel, a drug dealer, money for drugs that Hummel gave him on credit. Byers informed Hummel that he sold drugs to Ricky Wolfe on credit and Wolfe owed him money. Wolfe was kidnapped and driven to a boat launch area in

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* Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court. J-S30015-21

Northumberland County. At the boat launch area, Wolfe was killed.1

The Commonwealth charged [Appellant] with criminal homicide, kidnapping, and other crimes related to Wolfe’s murder. The evidence at trial included a marijuana pipe found at the boat launch area, hair evidence, and blood evidence. In 1990, [Appellant] went to trial. At trial, DNA evidence and DNA testing was discussed. Specifically, Paul Daube, who worked for the State Police as a Forensic Science Supervisor in charge of the Serology Unit of the Harrisburg Laboratory, testified that DNA testing could help identify the saliva found on the marijuana pipe. See N.T. Trial[, 7/23/90-8/1/90,] at 316, 331. Supervisor Daube also explained that the hair comparison analysis, which he performed for this case and presented at trial, was not as exacting as DNA testing. Id. at 321. At trial, Corporal Donald Seidel of the Pennsylvania State Police testified that blood samples were subjected to DNA testing, but “we were able to get nothing on the DNA results.” Id. at 455.

At trial, Hummel provided testimony incriminating [Appellant]. [Appellant] was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, unlawful restraint, conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. The trial court sentenced [Appellant] to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

[Appellant] later filed a … []PCRA[] petition. In 2002, the PCRA court held a hearing on [Appellant’s] PCRA petition. Hummel recanted his trial testimony that had incriminated [Appellant]. Hummel testified[,] in relevant part: “I was not involved in the Ricky Wolfe homicide. I do not know if [Appellant] was involved in the Rickey Wolfe homicide.” See [N.T. PCRA Hearing, 4/2/02, at 23]. Although Hummel recanted his trial testimony, he did not absolve [Appellant]. Hummel’s testimony only provided that he did not know if [Appellant] was involved in [Wolfe’s] murder.

1 The evidence at trial indicated that Appellant, Hendricks, and Yoder were “enforcers” for Hummel, and that on the day of the murder, Appellant participated in handcuffing Wolfe and beating him until he “lay motionless on the ground, presumably dead.” Commonwealth v. Schaeffer, No. 2394 Phila. 1992, unpublished memorandum at 3-4 (Pa. Super. filed May 17, 1995).

-2- J-S30015-21

While his PCRA petition was still pending in 2004, [Appellant] chose to enter an agreement with the Commonwealth where his PCRA petition (based on Hummel’s recantation testimony) would be granted, he would enter a no contest plea to third-degree murder and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and he would be sentenced to 10 years to 20 years of incarceration, followed by 10 years of probation. The agreement called for the granting of [Appellant’s] PCRA petition and the no contest plea/sentencing to occur on the same day.

At [Appellant’s] no contest plea, the trial court extensively informed [Appellant] of his right to a jury trial, the presumption that he was innocent, his right not to testify, and that “[b]y entering this plea, you’re giving up all trial rights, all pretrial rights, and the only thing remaining would be for the judge to sentence you in accordance with the plea agreement. Do you understand that?” [N.T. Plea, 7/27/04, at 8-9]. [Appellant], who was sworn in as a witness, [id. at 5], stated that he understood. [Id. at 8.] [Appellant] also stated that he fully discussed the charges with his counsel and the applicable procedure. [Id.] [Appellant] confirmed that he entered his no contest plea voluntarily and of his own free choice. [Id.] [Appellant] and his counsel from 2004 also completed an extensive written colloquy. [Id. at 7]. In that colloquy form, [Appellant] acknowledged that he was waiving the filing of any pretrial motions. [See Plea Colloquy, 7/27/04, at 3 ¶ 28e]. [Appellant] signed the colloquy form. [Id. at 4]. [Appellant] stated in the form that he was entering his plea “to resolve [the] case.” [Id. at 2 ¶ 15].

[Appellant] did not request DNA testing in 2004. [Appellant] entered the … no contest plea agreement in 2004 when DNA testing was known and available.

Over 14 years later, in late December of 2018, [Appellant] sought DNA testing for the first time. [As discussed, infra, Appellant] had completed his sentence before he first sought DNA testing in late 2018. [Appellant] also filed another PCRA petition in December of 2018, seeking relief from his judgment of sentence in that PCRA petition.

In response to an Order from the PCRA court, [Appellant] filed an amended petition for DNA testing in July of 2019. [Appellant] sought DNA testing of the marijuana pipe, white adhesive tape (and associated hair evidence), blood samples from the murder scene, brown human head hair, contents of the bag used to secure

-3- J-S30015-21

Wolfe’s hands, nail scrapings and debris with hairs from behind Wolfe’s left hand, broken glass from Wolfe’s car, sweepings from Wolfe’s car, Yoder’s forearm hairs, head hairs from Byers, head hair from Hummel, Busch beer cans, and nunchucks (the murder weapon). See PCRA Court Opinion and Order [(PCOO)], 12/21/20, at 2-3….

The Commonwealth opposed [Appellant’s] petition for DNA testing for multiple reasons. The Commonwealth argued that [Appellant’s] petition for DNA testing, filed almost 30 years after DNA was first mentioned at his trial, was untimely. The Commonwealth also asserted that [Appellant] had not established that there was a reasonable probability that DNA testing would lead to evidence providing for [Appellant’s] actual innocence. That is particularly so because if DNA evidence appears to place [Appellant’s] co-conspirators/accomplices at the murder scene that would corroborate the Commonwealth’s theory of the case, not establish [Appellant’s] innocence. The Commonwealth also argued that [Appellant] could not establish his innocence because his no contest plea did not admit guilt.

The PCRA court held a hearing concerning [Appellant’s] petition for DNA testing on November 6, 2019. … [There, Appellant’s] counsel stated “the fact that DNA testing was available in 1990. We agree. The record is replete that DNA testing took place before my client’s conviction in 1990.” [N.T. PCRA Hearing, 11/6/19, at 26].

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Com. v. Schaeffer, S., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/com-v-schaeffer-s-pasuperct-2021.