Commonwealth v. Batts

125 A.3d 33, 2015 Pa. Super. 187, 2015 Pa. Super. LEXIS 508, 2015 WL 5174241
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 4, 2015
Docket1764 EDA 2014
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 125 A.3d 33 (Commonwealth v. Batts) 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
Commonwealth v. Batts, 125 A.3d 33, 2015 Pa. Super. 187, 2015 Pa. Super. LEXIS 508, 2015 WL 5174241 (Pa. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinions

OPINION BY

MUNDY, J.:

Appellant, Qu’eed Batts, appeals from the May 2, 2014 aggregate judgment of sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, which was reimposed after our Supreme Court vacated the decision of a prior panel of this Court and remanded to the trial court for resentenc-ing. After careful review, we affirm.

We summarize the relevant facts and procedural history as follows. A jury found Appellant guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and aggravated assault.1 These convictions arose from a February 7, 2006 gang-related shooting. On that day, Appellant, then 14 years old, shot two other teenage boys, Corey Hilario and Clarence Edwards, on the front porch of Edwards’ residence. Appellant first shot 18-year-old Hilario in the back as he attempted to escape, causing serious bodily injuries from which Hilario ultimately recovered. Appellant then fatally shot 16-year-old Edwards, who had fallen, twice in the head.

After an investigation, police apprehended Appellant, who, during an interview, eventually confessed to shooting Edwards and Hilario. Appellant admitted he shot Edwards and Hilario, but claimed he only did so because he believed an older gang member, Vernon Bradley, would kill him if he did not follow Bradley’s orders to shoot the two other young men.

Appellant explained that he had recently been inducted into a gang, the Bloods. On the night of the shooting, he was a passen[36]*36ger with Bradley and other members of the Bloods in a vehicle driven by Rasheeda McClain. The gang members drove to Edwards’ residence, where McClain identified Edwards and Hilario as two boys who had previously robbed her. Appellant did not know either of the victims. Bradley then asked which gang member would “put work in,” and gave Appellant a gun and a mask.

Appellant exited the car in front of Edwards’ house and put on the mask and a glove. McClain drove the car down the block and parked at the corner to wait for Appellant. Appellant then walked up the front steps of the house and onto the porch, where Hilario, Edwards, and Edwards’ father were present. Appellant ordered the three men to get down. Edwards’ father escaped into the house. As Hilario attempted to follow Edwards’ father, Appellant shot him in the back, but Hilario still managed to make it inside the house. Appellant then turned to Edwards, who had fallen and was lying on the porch. Appellant stood over Edwards and shot him twice in the head. Appellant then ran back to the car, and the group drove away. Edwards died at the hospital. Because of the shootings, Appellant was promoted to the higher rank of “universal sergeant” within the gang.

The Commonwealth charged Appellant with the above-listed offenses and two counts of criminal conspiracy.2 Because Appellant was charged with murder, the case was automatically placed in the jurisdiction of the criminal court. See 42 Pa. C.S.A. § 6302 (excluding murder from the definition of a “delinquent act”); id. § 6322 (providing that a case charging a child with murder may be transferred to the juvenile court if the child shows that the transfer serves the public interest based on the factors in 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 6355(a)(4)(iii)). After an extensive evi-dentiary hearing on Appellant’s motion to transfer the case to the juvenile justice system under Section 6322 of the Juvenile Act,3 the trial court denied Appellant’s motion. Hence, Appellant was tried as an adult.

At trial, Appellant testified consistently with the statement he gave to the police and contended that he committed the shootings under duress because he felt he would be killed if he disobeyed Bradley’s order to shoot Edwards and Hilario. Despite his duress defense, on July 31, 2007, the jury convicted him of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and aggravated assault. The jury acquitted Appellant of the two conspiracy charges.

On October 22, 2007, the trial court sentenced Appellant to a mandatory term of life imprisonment, which automatically made him ineligible for parole. See 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 1102(a)(1) (providing “a person who has been convicted of a murder of the first degree ... shall be sentenced to death or a term of life imprisonment ... []”), superseded, relative to juvenile offenders, by 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 1102.1; 61 Pa. C.S.A. § 6137(a)(1) (stating that the Board of Probation and Parole cannot release on parole any inmate serving life imprisonment). For the conviction of attempted murder, the trial court imposed a concurrent sentence of six to twenty years’ imprisonment.4

Appellant filed a timely post-sentence motion, which the trial court denied. Appellant appealed to this Court, arguing, among other things, that the United States [37]*37Supreme Court’s decision in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 125 S.Ct. 1183, 161 L.Ed.2d 1 (2005), made the sentence of mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for a juvenile unconstitutional. Commonwealth v. Batts, 974 A.2d 1175 (Pa.Super.2009) (unpublished memorandum at 12) (Batts I), vacated, 620 Pa. 115, 66 A.3d 286 (2013) (Batts II). In Batts I, this Court noted that Roper did not apply to this case because Roper held that the imposition of the death penalty on juvenile offenders was unconstitutional under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, but did not prohibit sentencing juveniles to life imprisonment, and Appellant in this case had received a mandatory life sentence. Id., citing Commonwealth v. Wilson, 911 A.2d 942, 946 (Pa.Super.2006). Notably, this Court also rejected Appellant’s claim that due process required the sentencing court to consider evidence of mitigating factors before imposing a sentence of life without parole on a juvenile. Id. at 15-16, citing Sumner v. Shuman, 483 U.S. 66, 76, 107 S.Ct. 2716, 97 L.Ed.2d 56 (1987) (requiring the sentencing court to consider mitigating evidence before imposing the death penalty), and Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957, 994-995, 111 S.Ct. 2680, 115 L.Ed.2d 836 (1991) (holding the sentencing court does not have to consider mitigating evidence before sentencing an adult to a mandatory term of life imprisonment without parole). Accordingly, this Court affirmed Appellant’s judgment of sentence of mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Our Supreme Court granted allowance of appeal to consider both whether Roper rendered Appellant’s sentence unconstitutional and whether the mandatory nature of the life without parole sentence offended the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Batts II, supra at 290. The Court held the case pending the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48, 130 S.Ct. 2011, 176 L.Ed.2d 825 (2010). Id.. After the Supreme Court issued Graham, holding that sentencing juvenile non-homicide offenders to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole violates the Eighth Amendment, our Supreme Court heard argument in this case. Id. Following argument,-however, the Court again reserved consideration pending the disposition of Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Hobbs,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
125 A.3d 33, 2015 Pa. Super. 187, 2015 Pa. Super. LEXIS 508, 2015 WL 5174241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-batts-pasuperct-2015.