Commonwealth v. Brockman

167 A.3d 29, 2017 Pa. Super. 208, 2017 WL 2855094, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 492
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 5, 2017
DocketCom. v. Brockman, J. No. 2435 EDA 2016
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 167 A.3d 29 (Commonwealth v. Brockman) 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. Brockman, 167 A.3d 29, 2017 Pa. Super. 208, 2017 WL 2855094, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 492 (Pa. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION BY

STEVENS, P.J.E.:

Appellant Julius Brockman appeals the judgment of sentence entered in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County on June 13, 2016, at which time he was sentenced to an aggregate term of four (4) years to eight (8) years in prison following a stipulated bench trial. We affirm.

The trial court aptly set forth the relevant procedural history and facts herein as follows:

PROCEDURAL HISTORY
The Commonwealth charged Appellant with violating sections 6105, 6106, and 6108 of the Uniform Firearms Act (18 Pa. C.S.A. §§ 6105, 6106, and 6108), possessing with intent to deliver a controlled substance (35 P.S. § 780-113(a)(30)), and knowingly or intentionally - possessing a controlled substance (35 P.S. § 780-113(a)(16)). On April 11, 2016, Appellant brought a pretrial motion to suppress physical evidence, which .this [,c]ourt denied. A bench trial followed and this [c]ourt found Appellant guilty of the above-referenced crimes.
On June 13, 2016, this' [c]ourt sentenced Appellant to three (3) to six (6) years’ incarceration for violating section 6106 of the Uniform Firearms Act, one (1) to two (2) years’ consecutive incarceration for violating section 6105 of the Uniform Firearms Act, and three (3) years’ probation for violating section 6108 of the-Uniform Firearms Act. This [c]ourt imposed no further sentence for Appellant’s remaining- convictions and his aggregate sentence therefore is four (4) to eight (8) years’ incarceration followed by three (3) years’ probation.
*32 On June 22, 2016, Appellant filed a post-sentence motion for reconsideration of sentence, which this [c]ourt denied on June 30, 2016. On July 28, 2016, Appellant filed a Notice of Appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, and on October 18, 2016, Appellant filed a Statement of Matters Complained of on Appeal pursuant to Pa. R.A.P. No. 1926(b).
MATERIAL FACTS
Appellant brought a motion to suppress a firearm and crack cocaine that he discarded onto a public street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the suppression hearing, the Commonwealth presented the testimony of Philadelphia Police Detective Michael Rocks (Detective Rocks), and Philadelphia Police Officer Alexander McChord (Officer McChord).
Detective Rocks testified that he was assigned to investigate a shooting that occurred on December 12, 2014, around the 2500 block of North 30th Street in the city and county of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Pursuant to his investigation, Detective Rocks received information from another police officer, Officer Calabrese, who' spoke to the shooting victim at the hospital. Officer Calabrese advised Detective Rocks that the victim stated “he couldn’t believe Ju Ju shot Him.” The victim also provided Officer Calabrese a physical description of “Ju Ju” (e.g., height and weight), which Officer Calabrese relayed to Detective Rocks. Thereafter, Detective Rocks “reviewed numerous photographs” from files relating to previous pedestrian stops in the shooting area. Based on the suspect’s nickname, physical description, and the neighborhood of the shooting, Detective Rocks ultimately developed Appellant as the suspected shooter. 1 (Id. at pgs. 5-10,16-18). 2
On December 23, 2014, after already developing Appellant as a suspect, Detective Rocks received a phone call at Central Detectives from a female identifying herself as the victim’s girlfriend. The girlfriend advised that “the male that shot her boyfriend was standing on the 2600 block of North 30th Street ... wearing a grey jacket and jeans.” 3 The girlfriend did not identify the alleged shooter by name but provided Detective Rocks a “clothing description.” Detective Rocks subsequently called Officer McChord and his partner (Officer D’Am-ico), who were uniformed patrol officers in the area, and “asked them to go to that location to see if they observed the male who matched that description[.]” In addition to relaying the girlfriend’s “clothing description” of the person she identified as the shooter, Detective Rocks informed Officer McChord that his suspect’s name in the shooting was Julius Brockman (ie., Appellant). Although Appellant was still only a suspect and no arrest warrant had been issued for him, Detective Rocks requested that if the officers saw Appellant at the described location, “to stop him and bring him to Central Detectives for investigation.” (Id. at pgs. 10-12).
Officer McChord already knew Appellant “from seeing him in the neighborhood” and because his partner “arrested him earlier that year.” Upon arriving at the above-referenced location, Officer McChord, who was the front seat passenger in the patrol car, recognized Appellant walking down the block with another male. Officer D’Amico pulled the patrol car beside Appellant and Officer McChord then “opened up the door and told [Appellant] to stop.” (Id. at pgs. 20-25).
Officer McChord testified that he “told [Appellant] to stop right there” in a “normal manner” — ie., Officer *33 McChord neither yelled stop nor said it with a “soft voice.” Moreover, Officer McChord kept his firearm holstered and no lights or sirens were activated on the patrol vehicle. Officer McChord testified that his “whole point” of stopping Appellant was not to arrest him but “for investigation purposes.” (Id. at pgs. 23-24).
As soon as Officer McChord told Appellant to stop, Appellant “immediately reached for his front right side of his waistband holding on to something and then fled.” Officer McChord believed Appellant was clutching a firearm in his waistband because he had seen individuals clutch firearms in such manner between fifteen (15) and twenty (20) occasions. In Officer McChord’s experience, when someone keeps an unholstered firearm in his/her waistband, he/she must grasp the weapon while running or it will fall out of his/her waistband. (Id. at pgs. 24-29).
As Appellant fled the officers, Officer McChord observed him remove from his waistband a black handgun and a “clear bag,” both of which Appellant dropped in front of a black SUV parked on the street. Although Officer McChord eventually lost sight of Appellant when the latter ran down a side street, his partner (Officer D’Amico) arrested Appellant the very next day pursuant to an arrest warrant. (Id. at pgs. 24-29).
Before trial, Appellant moved to suppress the firearm and “clear bag” that he discarded while fleeing from the officers. Appellant claimed Officer McChord had initially ordered him to stop without reasonable suspicion that Appellant was engaging in criminal activity at that time. Appellant therefore claimed that the discarded items were fruits of a “forced abandonment” precipitated by an unlawful seizure. (Id. at pgs. 32-35, 42-43).
This [cjourt denied Appellant’s motion and thereafter conducted a stipulated bench trial.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
167 A.3d 29, 2017 Pa. Super. 208, 2017 WL 2855094, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 492, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-brockman-pasuperct-2017.