Commonwealth v. Gooding

818 A.2d 546, 2003 Pa. Super. 74, 2003 Pa. Super. LEXIS 301
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 25, 2003
StatusPublished
Cited by87 cases

This text of 818 A.2d 546 (Commonwealth v. Gooding) 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. Gooding, 818 A.2d 546, 2003 Pa. Super. 74, 2003 Pa. Super. LEXIS 301 (Pa. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinions

OPINION BY

OLSZEWSKI, J.:

¶ 1 Appellant Willie James Gooding appeals from a judgment of sentence for third-degree murder and kidnapping entered on October 24, 2001. For the following reasons, we affirm.

¶ 2 The facts of this case, as stated by the trial judge in his Rule 1925(a) opinion, are as follows:

This matter arose out of the death of Arthur Irick on November 8, 1996. It was the Commonwealth’s theory that [appellant] and three co-defendants, Charles Malloy, Antoine Brown and Cory Riera had conspired to kidnap and kill Mr. Irick. It was alleged by the Commonwealth that ... there was an attempt to rob [appellant] ... of drug proceeds. It was alleged that during this attempt shots had been fired at Mr. Malloy. It was alleged that after this shooting, ... [appellant and the other defendants] conspired to find the individuals who shot at them and to exact their own measure of justice.
The testimony at trial revealed that after the shooting, [appellant] drove around York with [the other defendants] looking for the individuals responsible for the shooting. In speaking with other individuals, they determined that Mr Irick would know who was involved in the shooting and therefore they drove around the city looking for him.
They picked [Mr. Irick] up at a pay phone ... and then ... picked up a .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol which would later be used as the murder weapon. Once they picked up the gun, the gun was placed in the possession of Mr. Malloy and Mr. Irick was taken to [the Starlight] apartment building in down town [sic] York in an attempt to locate the people who shot at Mr. Malloy earlier. Mr. Malloy and Mr. Irick exited one of the vehicles, went into the apartment lobby for a short period of time and then returned to the vehicles. At that time, [549]*549Mr. Malloy struck Arthur Irick in the head with either his fist and/or the gun.
Testimony at trial indicated that Mr. Malloy at that time made a motion as if he were going to kill Mr. Irick and Mr. Gooding as per the testimony, “waved him off.” Mr. Gooding then instructed Mr. Malloy to follow him and in two separate vehicles then the two parties proceeded through the City of York to an industrial area that was isolated. Once arriving at the isolated industrial parking lot, Mr. Irick was forced from the vehicle that he was riding in and was then shot four times in the head which resulted in his death.

Opinion, 1/8/02, at 2-4. A jury convicted appellant of third-degree murder1 and kidnapping.2 The court below sentenced appellant to twenty to forty years’ confinement for third-degree murder, and ten to twenty years’ confinement for kidnapping, with the sentences to run consecutively. N.T. Sentencing, 10/24/01, at 10-11. Appellant filed a post-sentence motion to modify the sentence and for arrest of judgment, which was denied after a hearing on November 19, 2001. Appellant filed a notice of appeal on December 6, 2001.

¶ 3 Before this Court, appellant assigns five errors: that the evidence was insufficient as a matter of law to sustain the convictions; that the convictions were against the weight of the evidence; that the court below erred by refusing to exclude evidence of appellant’s involvement in a drug distribution conspiracy from the jury; that the trial judge erred when he instructed the jury on the penalties for first- and third-degree murder; and, that the trial court abused its discretion by sentencing appellant to an aggregate confinement of thirty to sixty years. We will address each in turn.

I. Sufficiency of the Evidence

¶ 4 Appellant argues that the evidence was insufficient as a matter of law to sustain his convictions of third-degree murder and kidnapping. Our standard of review:

The standard we apply in reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence is whether viewing all the evidence admitted at trial in the light most favorable to the verdict winner, there is sufficient evidence to enable the fact-finder to find every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. In applying [the above] test, we may not weigh the evidence and substitute our judgment for the fact-finder. In addition, we note that the facts and circumstances established by the Commonwealth need not preclude every possibility of innocence. Any doubts regarding a defendant’s guilt may be resolved by the fact-finder unless the evidence is so weak and inconclusive that as a matter of law no probability of fact may be drawn from the combined circumstances. The Commonwealth may sustain its burden of proving every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt by means of wholly circumstantial evidence. Moreover, in applying the above test, the entire record must be evaluated and all evidence actually received must be considered. Finally, the trier of fact while passing upon the credibility of witnesses and the weight of the evidence produced, is free to believe all, part or none of the evidence.

Commonwealth v. DiStefano, 782 A.2d 574, 582 (Pa.Super.2001) (citations omitted).

[550]*550A person may be convicted of third-degree murder where the murder is neither intentional nor committed during the perpetration of a felony, but contains the requisite malice aforethought. Malice consists of a “wickedness of disposition, hardness of heart, cruelty, recklessness of consequences, and a mind regardless of social duty, although a particular person may not be intended to be injured.”

Commonwealth v. Pigg, 391 Pa.Super. 418, 571 A.2d 438, 441 (1990). Further, “Malice may be inferred from the use of a deadly weapon on a vital part of the victim’s body.” Commonwealth v. Gonzales, 415 Pa.Super. 564, 609 A.2d 1368, 1369 (1992).

¶ 5 The Commonwealth states in the most unhelpful manner simply that “the evidence was sufficient to establish that [appellant] engaged in the unlawful killing of Arthur Irick with malice.” Appellee’s brief at 10. It refers us to its Counter-statement of the Facts, which state that “[Charles Malloy] took [Arthur Irick] to the front of the car and shot him four or five times.” Appellee’s brief at 10; see also N.T. Trial, 9/12/01, at 524. Plainly, the Commonwealth concedes that appellant did not personally kill Arthur Irick.

¶ 6 However, one may be guilty of criminal homicide as an accomplice. The trial judge provided the jury with the following instruction:

You may also find the defendant guilty of the crime without finding that he personally engaged in the conduct required for the commission of that crime or even that he was personally present when the crime was committed. This is accomplice liability. A defendant is guilty of a crime of he is an accomplice of another person who commits that crime. A person does not become an accomplice merely by being present at the scene or knowing about a crime. He is an accomplice, if with the intent of promoting or facilitating the commission of that crime, he solicits, commands, encourages, or requests the other person to commit it or aids, agrees to aid, or attempts to aid the other person in planning or committing it.

N.T.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
818 A.2d 546, 2003 Pa. Super. 74, 2003 Pa. Super. LEXIS 301, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-gooding-pasuperct-2003.