Commonwealth v. Hitner

910 A.2d 721, 2006 Pa. Super. 299, 2006 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3540, 2006 WL 3041858
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 27, 2006
Docket25 EDA 2006
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 910 A.2d 721 (Commonwealth v. Hitner) 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. Hitner, 910 A.2d 721, 2006 Pa. Super. 299, 2006 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3540, 2006 WL 3041858 (Pa. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION BY

STEVENS, J.:

¶ 1 This is an appeal from the judgment of sentence entered in the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County following Appellant Clinton Hitner’s conviction for two counts each of rape, 1 involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, 2 kidnapping, 3 sexual assault, 4 and false imprisonment, 5 and the trial court’s determination that Hitner is a sexually violent predator pursuant to Pennsylvania Megan’s Law III, 42 Pa. C.S.A. §§ 9791-9799.8. 6 Hitner contends (1) the Commonwealth failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that Hitner is a sexually violent predator, (2) the trial court erred in denying Hitner’s constitutional claims without holding an evidentia-ry hearing, (3) the trial court abused its discretion in sentencing Hitner, and (4) the jury’s verdict was against the weight of the evidence. 7 We affirm.

¶2 The relevant facts and procedural history are as follows: Hitner was arrested in connection with the sexual assault of two women, and he proceeded to a jury trial. During the jury trial, the following was elicited: *724 the door. She said.... ’ I’ve just been through hell.’ ... I got out of my car into the trunk and gave her a blanket.” N.T. 2/2/05 at 54-55. Michael Zukowski further testified:

*723 Michael Zukowski, a tractor-trailer driver, testified that on January 13, 2004, he “exited off of 13 onto Route 1 and saw a woman unclothed in the middle of the highway flagging (me) down.” Zukowski related that he immediately “pulled off to the side of the road ... The lady came to my door. I opened
*724 She (L.H.) said she had been picked up in Kensington ... (and) was forced to perform sex in a car, orally. She was then in the trunk and taken to a home where she was raped and tortured. She showed me the back of her shoulder having been burned by cigarettes ... She was then taken to the woods where she was strangled. She fought the man off, and he grabbed her by her hair and pulled her down the highway. Her hair was missing, clumps of hair were missing on her head. Her head was matted and (there was) blood on her forehead -She was terrified ... She was crying the whole time. I told her she was very brave and that she had just fought for her life and won.

N.T. 2/2/05 at 54-55.

Zukowski testified that “she asked me to take her to the hospital. I thought it was better just [to] get her to the police, the bridge police ... I went to the tollbooth ... they sent for an ambulance ... I stayed with her.” Zukowski testified that [L.H.] “said she had a description of her attacker and a car ... (and) she could show or know where the house would be, the car, and part of the license plate.” Id.

Officer Wayne Apice of the Morrisville Borough, Bucks County, Police Department testified that on January 13, 2004 at approximately 4:28 a.m., he responded to the area of the Route 1 Toll Bridge:

[A]n officer from the bridge commission reported that they had a woman there that was raped ... I seen a woman in the front seat of a vehicle. She was crying. She (L.H.) was very upset. She had no clothing on. She was clinging to an article of material as she was balled up in the front seat of the car ... She told me that she was picked up down in Philadelphia ...., at which point this individual raped her repeatedly.

N.T. 2/2/05 at 73.

[L.H.] age forty-one (41) testified that on January 13, 2004, she “was at Kens-ington Avenue and Venango Street in Philadelphia ... I was standing on the corner and a man (Clinton Hitner) in a car approached me, asked me if I was “working”... I was. He said that he had $10 for a blow job. And I said, okay. And I got into the car.” N.T. 2/2/05 at 83.

She testified that the car that approached her on January 13, 2004, “was a Ford Tempo ... I had owned one before a few years prior to this night ... It was a four door, so I was familiar with that model car ... it was 1:30 in the morning ... from what I remembered it was, like, a maroon-type of color ... there were bucket seats with a console in between the two bucket seats.” N.T. 2/2/05 at 84.

After getting into the car, [L.H.] testified that “(Hitner) had said that he wanted to go down to Richmond and Castor Avenue ... Nothing felt wrong at the time ... He was drinking a 40-ounce of beer, and we didn’t talk much ... It was pretty quiet in the car. And when we got down to Richmond and Castor, he had basically passed that location.”

[L.H.] further related:

*725 (W)e continued to drive on ... (W)e came to this intersection. He had turned left, and he said “chuck the bottle.” And I opened the door and chucked the bottle, and then we continued on driving. About not even quite a minute after that is when he grabbed my hair and twisted it around his hand twice and said, “suck my dick, bitch, or I’ll kill you.”
I couldn’t move ... it was, actually, it was really hurting ... he started pulling on my hair. He was starting to go towards his part of his seat ... he told me to undo his belt and pull down his zipper, and I was so nervous, and I started fighting.
And I said, “I’m not sucking your dick. I don’t care.” And I started fighting with everything I had where I was punching and kicking and moving ... He was driving the car and holding me at the same time. At the time I was punching and kicking him[,] he had my hair turned around his hand and holding my neck and kinked my neck, but I still fought. I couldn’t get loose, and I fought with everything that I had.
At one point[,] he actually — I thought I could get out of the car and jump, but he had my hair so tight in his hand there was no way. And I actually got to a point where my feet were dragging alongside the car with the door open and him holding my head, my hair, inside of the car, and I was like this. And he’s, “if you want to jump, bitch, I’m going 40 miles an hour.” And I thought I’d die if I did jump because going bald at that point ... wasn’t a factor. It was just to get away from him. He was like Satan. [H]e kept my head twisted and kinked and down into his crotch area.
[L.H.] testified that she pushed her feet outside the car:
I had opened the door. I tried — I was going to jump. I was going to jump, but the rate of speed he was going, I was, like, not sure if I was going to live through that ... Yeah, I just pulled on it because I did not want to be pushed out, either ... We fought a little more. We passed a cop, in fact, and I tried honking the horn, and I did, but the cop didn’t take notice. And at the speed we were going, he still didn’t take notice. And Clinton Hitner started laughing ...

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
910 A.2d 721, 2006 Pa. Super. 299, 2006 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3540, 2006 WL 3041858, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-hitner-pasuperct-2006.