Commonwealth v. Edwards

194 A.3d 625
Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided August 16, 2018·No. 2433 EDA 2016·Published·Cited by 118 cases

Opinion

OPINION BY SHOGAN, J.:

Appellant, Quadir Edwards, appeals from the June 23, 2016 judgment of sentence entered in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County following a bench trial. We affirm.

In reliance on the testimony at the suppression hearing, the trial court summarized the facts of the crime as follows:

On January 20, 2015 at approximately 1:20 a.m., officers were traveling on a routine patrol southbound on the 3500 block of Kensington Avenue. N.T. 3/14/16 at 5-6. Officer Kellar testified that while he was the recorder (passenger) in the patrol car, he noticed a "black male limping in the bike lane on the west side of the street." Id. When [Appellant] was observed, he was heading towards the patrol car about twenty feet away. Id. at 6-7. As [Appellant] got closer to the vehicle, Officer Kellar noticed that [Appellant] had "blood coming down the left side onto the white long johns." Id. at 7-8.
After noticing the blood on [Appellant's] leg, Officer Kellar attempted to get [Appellant's] attention, but [he] ignored the officer and kept "limping at a fast pace." Id. at 8. [Appellant] continued to ignore the officers as they reversed their vehicle and tried to talk to [Appellant]. Id. at 9. Officer Kellar exited the vehicle and told [Appellant] to stop multiple times. Id. at 9. Eventually, [Appellant] stopped and faced Officer Kellar. Id. However, [Appellant] continued to back away from the officers, even after he was informed that they were only interested in bringing him to the hospital for his leg injury. Id. at 10. [Appellant] told the officer that he was shot; "He said a Hispanic male around the corner shot him and that we should go look for him." Id. As Officer Kellar approached [Appellant], he noticed that [Appellant] was reaching for his right jacket pocket while backing away. Id. 10-11. Based on his observations of [Appellant] and his three and a half years of experience as an officer, Officer Kellar believed that [Appellant] was hiding something in his right jacket pocket that he did not want him to find. 4 Id. at 12-13. Officer Kellar testified that this area was a high crime area known for "drug sales, stabbings, shootings, and robberies."
*630 Id. at 13. Once [Appellant] reached into his jacket, Officer Kellar stopped him and frisked the outer layer of [Appellant's] clothing. Id. at 14. On the right jacket pocket, Office Kellar felt a hard object which he immediately knew was a gun. 5 Id. [Appellant] was then placed in handcuffs and transported to Temple Hospital because of the wound on his left leg. Id. at 16-17. While en route to the hospital, there was a flash 6 sent out concerning a "black male wearing a black North Face jacket with a white hood underneath it." Id. at 22. [Appellant] was wearing "a black jacket with a white hood underneath it." Id.
4 Officer Kellar: "At that time, like I said, I believed he was reaching for something, you know, possibly a weapon, possibly, you know, drugs in his pocket to get rid of it." Id. at 14.
5 The gun "was loaded with 12 rounds, and there was a spent shell casing that was jammed inside the chamber of the gun... There was no bullet in the gun. The casing that holds the bullet was still jammed inside the gun. So, essentially, if you were to fire a handgun and nothing were to restrict the slide from going back, that spent shell casing would eject from the handgun. But in this case, through my experience, it would indicate that that slide did not fully go all the way back, which would mean it would jam the spent shell casing inside. But the bullet, itself, was fired." Id. at 22-23.
6 There was no objection to this testimony by defense counsel. Officer Cunningham eventually testified that the flash information was for a man who was shot. Id. at 38.
Next, Officer Cunningham was called by defense counsel 7 to testify. Id. at 30. Officer Cunningham testified that his partner, Officer Kellar, alerted him as to [Appellant] who was walking down the street towards them and bleeding from his leg. Id. at 31-32. When [Appellant] was invited to get into the car to be taken to the hospital, he insisted that the officers get the Hispanic male who shot him while he was involved in a robbery. Id. at 32. When Officer Cunningham was approaching [Appellant], Officer Kellar was already recovering a gun from [Appellant]. Id. Officer Cunningham also testified that in one of his reports he said, "[T]he male walked up to us and stated that he got shot and told us to get the doer." Id. at 34-35. This statement was what his partner told him because he did not actually interact with [Appellant] while he was driving the car, but he did see the blood on his leg. Id. at 35-36.
7 Officer Cunningham was called with Commonwealth's objection because defense counsel had not subpoenaed the officer as her witness. Id. at 29-30.
[Appellant] was arrested after he was treated in the hospital. Id. at 39. There was no testimony that [Appellant] indicated that he did not want aid from the police. Id. at 57. After an investigation, 8 it was found that [Appellant] shot himself in the leg. N.T. 6/23/16, at 18.
8 The results of the investigation were not given at trial, but defense counsel did not object to its admission during sentencing. Id. at 18.

Trial Court Opinion, 5/23/17, at 2-4. 1

The trial court summarized the procedural history as follows:

On January 20, 2015, [Appellant] was arrested and charged with: 1) Carrying *631 a Firearm without a License and; 2) Carrying a Firearm in Public in Philadelphia.
On March 14, 2015, [Appellant] proceeded with a waiver trial before this [c]ourt and was found guilty for both of the charges against him.
On June 23, 2016, [Appellant] was sentenced to: 1) Carrying [a firearm] without a License-two (2) to four (4) years incarceration at CSI Chester with anger management, drug treatment and vocational training followed by three years reporting probation to run consecutively to the Carrying in Public charge; 2) Carrying in Public-one (1) to two (2) years [incarceration followed by two years] reporting probation to run consecutively for the Carrying without a License charge. Id. at 53-54.

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Commonwealth v. Edwards, 194 A.3d 625 (Pa. Ct. App. 2018).

194 A.3d 625 (Commonwealth v. Edwards) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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