Com. v. Young, D

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 14, 2023
Docket2658 EDA 2022
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Young, D (Com. v. Young, D) 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. Young, D, (Pa. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

J-S20033-23

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT OP 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : DANA EVERETT YOUNG : : Appellant : No. 2658 EDA 2022

Appeal from the PCRA Order Entered October 5, 2022 In the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-39-CR-0000560-1983

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : DANA EVERETT YOUNG : : Appellant : No. 2659 EDA 2022

Appeal from the PCRA Order Entered October 5, 2022 In the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-39-CR-0000561-1983

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : DANA EVERETT YOUNG : : Appellant : No. 2660 EDA 2022

Appeal from the PCRA Order Entered October 5, 2022 In the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-39-CR-0000614-1983 J-S20033-23

BEFORE: DUBOW, J., KUNSELMAN, J., and COLINS, J.*

MEMORANDUM BY COLINS, J.: FILED SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

Appellant, Dana Everett Young, appeals pro se from the order dismissing

his petition for writ of habeas corpus as an untimely tenth petition pursuant

to the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa.C.S. § 9541, et seq. He

asserts that he was entitled to relief because prior counsel had abandoned

him and caused him to proceed without counsel for appeals from two prior

denials of post-conviction relief. Because his claims concerning prior counsel

abandonment are cognizable under the PCRA, the lower court properly treated

his instant petition as a PCRA petition. We must affirm the dismissal of the

untimely petition where Appellant failed to plead and offer to prove an

applicable exception to the PCRA’s jurisdictional time-bar.

In separate incidents in January of 1983, Appellant forced a woman to

engage in oral, vaginal, and anal intercourse at knifepoint in a wooded area,

and forced another woman into a car at knifepoint and made that victim touch

his penis after he touched her intimate parts. N.T. 9/21/83, 50, 53-55, 58-

70, 82; 9/23/83, 225-36, 247-48. He robbed the first victim of $70.00 and,

after taking a purse containing a nominal amount of money from the second

victim, that victim fled as he was taking her to a bank for more money. N.T.

9/21/83, 63-64, 79; 9/23/83, 233-34. He pulled on the hair of both victims,

successfully ripping hair from the second victim’s scalp. N.T. 9/21/83, 59, 69-

____________________________________________

* Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.

-2- J-S20033-23

70, 80; 9/23/83, 233, 236. He broke the wrist of the first victim when he

initially knocked her to the ground. N.T. 9/23/83, 230, 237-38, 248.

After a consolidated trial, a jury found Appellant guilty of: (1) rape,

involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, robbery, theft by unlawful taking, theft

by receiving stolen property, terroristic threats, unlawful restraint, aggravated

assault, and possessing an instrument of crime at CP-39-CR-0000614-1983;

(2) four counts of robbery, two counts each of kidnapping and aggravated

assault, and single counts of theft by unlawful taking, theft by receiving stolen

property, and terroristic threats at CP-39-CR-0000560-1983; and (3) indecent

assault and indecent exposure at CP-39-CR-0000561-1983. N.T. 9/26/84,

461-62. On September 9, 1985, the trial court sentenced Appellant to an

aggregate term of twenty-one to forty-two years’ imprisonment. N.T. 9/9/85,

16-19.

This Court treated a timely appeal from the judgments of sentence as a

petition filed under the precursor act to the PCRA, the Post Conviction Hearing

Act (“PCHA”), in which Appellant alleged that his trial counsel provided

ineffective assistance for failing to object to the joinder of the underlying

criminal matters. This Court remanded for an evidentiary hearing.

Commonwealth v. Young, No. 2595 Philadelphia 1985 (Pa. Super., filed

Aug. 21, 1986). Following that hearing, the trial court entered an order finding

Appellant’s ineffectiveness claim meritless. Appellant filed an appeal that we

dismissed as untimely without prejudice to Appellant’s right to petition the

trial court for permission to appeal nunc pro tunc. Appellant thereafter filed a

-3- J-S20033-23

petition for permission to appeal nunc pro tunc that the trial court heard and

denied on December 27, 1994. N.T. 12/27/94, 57. Appellant filed an appeal

from that order but later filed a pro se motion to withdraw that appeal, which

this Court granted on November 27, 1995.

On November 28, 1995, Appellant filed a pro se PCRA petition that was

considered timely filed because it was not governed by amendments to the

PCRA that were enacted on November 17, 1995, and became effective sixty

days thereafter. Following a hearing, the PCRA court denied the petition on

June 30, 1997. Appellant filed a pro se appeal. On November 5, 1998, we

affirmed. Commonwealth v. Young, 734 A.2d 442 (Pa. Super. 1998) (table)

(3175 PHL 97). On May 18, 1999, our Supreme Court denied allocatur.

Commonwealth v. Young, 739 A.2d 166 (Pa. 1999) (table) (1000

M.D.ALLOC. 1998).

On July 28, 1999, Appellant filed a pro se second PCRA petition. Counsel

was appointed and filed an amended petition. Appellant pro se appealed the

dismissal of the petition on October 12, 2000. On August 7, 2001, we affirmed

the dismissal; while the PCRA court denied relief after finding that all of

Appellant’s issues were previously litigated, we affirmed on the basis that the

petition was untimely. Commonwealth v. Young, 785 A.2d 1038 (Pa.

Super. 2001) (table) (3155 EDA 2000).

Over the next nine years, Appellant unsuccessfully litigated five more

pro se PCRA petitions and this Court affirmed the dismissals in each instance.

See Commonwealth v. Young, 996 A.2d 18 (Pa. Super. 2010) (table) (1041

-4- J-S20033-23

EDA 2009) (seventh PCRA petition); Commonwealth v. Young, 954 A.2d 45

(Pa. Super. 2008) (table) (1305 EDA 2007) (sixth PCRA petition), allocatur

denied, 960 A.2d 840 (Pa. 2008) (table) (464 MAL 2008); Commonwealth

v. Young, 889 A.2d 120 (Pa. Super. 2005) (table) (363 EDA 2005) (fifth PCRA

petition); Commonwealth v. Young, 863 A.2d 1234 (Pa. Super. 2004)

(table) (1017 EDA 2004) (fourth PCRA petition); Commonwealth v. Young,

833 A.2d 1153 (Pa. Super. 2003) (table) (213 EDA 2003) (third PCRA

petition), allocatur denied, 847 A.2d 1285 (Pa. 2004) (table) (808 MAL

2003).

In the ensuing eight years, Appellant unsuccessfully litigated three pro

se petitions styled as petitions for writ of habeas corpus and appeals from the

dismissals of those petitions. See Commonwealth v. Young, 203 A.3d 299

(Pa. Super. 2018) (table) (1119 EDA 2018) (ninth PCRA petition), allocatur

denied, 214 A.3d 232 (Pa. 2019) (table) (841 MAL 2018); Commonwealth

v. Young, 169 A.3d 1163 (Pa. Super. 2017) (table) (1668 EDA 2016) (eighth

PCRA petition); Commonwealth v. Young, 125 A.3d 438 (Pa. Super. 2015)

(table) (2426 EDA 2014) (habeas petition). While we agreed that the first of

those petitions was properly presented as a habeas petition, given the nature

of the claim presented in that petition, we affirmed the dismissal of the latter

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