Commonwealth v. Huggins

68 A.3d 962, 2013 Pa. Super. 107, 2013 WL 1883252, 2013 Pa. Super. LEXIS 718
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 7, 2013
StatusPublished
Cited by133 cases

This text of 68 A.3d 962 (Commonwealth v. Huggins) 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. Huggins, 68 A.3d 962, 2013 Pa. Super. 107, 2013 WL 1883252, 2013 Pa. Super. LEXIS 718 (Pa. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION BY

OLSON, J.:

Appellant, David Huggins, Jr., appeals from the judgment of sentence entered on August 4, 2011 following his jury trial convictions for corrupt organizations, criminal conspiracy, criminal use of a communication facility, and four counts of delivery or possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.1 Upon careful consideration, we affirm.

The trial court aptly set forth the facts and procedural history of this case as follows:

The criminal charges filed against Appellant [ ] and his seven co-defendants in this consolidated case — Henry L. Williams, Justin E. Wiley, Leroy K. Warrick, David L. Lambert, Amin L. Owens, Salim D. Brokenborough, and Felicia Cooper — were instituted by the filing of criminal complaints based on Presentment No. 19, which was returned by the Twenty-Ninth Statewide Investigating Grand Jury. By Order dated October 8, 2009, the Honorable Barry Feu-dale, Acting Supervising Judge of the Twenty-Ninth Statewide Investigating Grand Jury, accepted the Grand Jury’s Presentment and directed that venue for prosecution of the defendants’ crimes be held in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

[964]*964The Grand Jury provided the following summary of the investigation that resulted in the filing of the criminal charges against these co-conspirators:

During the summer of 2008, members of the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Drug Control (BNIDC), Region II, Philadelphia Office, investigated the distribution of marijuana and cocaine in and around Philadelphia, Montgomery, Delaware and Lancaster counties in Pennsylvania. The investigation began with controlled purchases of marijuana from an individual supplied by David Lambert.
As the investigation developed, the agents concentrated on the controlled substance trafficking of David Lambert, a.k.a. Lamont Brooks, a.k.a. D-Rock. The evidence developed to show that Lambert had an organization that mainly dealt with trafficking cocaine and marijuana to customers in several counties from Philadelphia to Lancaster.
In November of 2008, this Grand Jury began to hear testimony from BNIDC about this illegal drug trafficking organization. Agents William Ralston and David Carolina, along with two lay witnesses involved in the organization’s business testified about the operations of the illegal distribution of David Lambert.
In September 2008, pursuant to the applications made by Thomas W. Cor-bett, Jr., Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, [this] Court [ ] issued orders authorizing the interception of wire and electronic communications on two telephones used by David Lambert to conduct this illegal business. Non-consensual interceptions began on September 11, 2008.
Based upon interceptions and surveillance of David Lambert, agents corroborated that Lambert was selling marijuana and cocaine that he received from various sources. Some of the identified sources of cocaine were Henry Williams, [Appellant], Amin Owens, and Salim Brokenborough. Brokenborough also supplied marijuana to Lambert. Justin Wiley, a resident of Lancaster, PA worked with Lambert in obtaining and distributing cocaine throughout the region. Felicia Cooper and Leroy Warrick were employed by Lambert to assist him in carrying out his drug business. The investigation showed that, from September through October 2008, these individuals enabled Lambert to supply various other individuals with quantities of cocaine ranging from multi-ounce to multi-grams and pound quantities of marijuana.
Evidence from the non-consensual interceptions and the accompanying surveillance provided probable cause for BNIDC agents to execute multiple search warrants in Lancaster and Philadelphia counties.
As a result of this Grand Jury Presentment, criminal complaints were filed against all of the co-defendants on October 22, 2009. The charges common to all defendants include corrupt organizations, criminal conspiracy, criminal use of [a] communication facility, and violations [of] the Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act. Co-defendant Lambert was additionally charged with person not to possess or sell firearms. Pursuant to Pa.R.Crim.P. 582, the criminal cases were consolidated for trial.
[965]*965A pre-trial conference was held on August 18, 2010, which resulted in a scheduling order requiring all pre-trial motion[s] to be filed on or before October 29, 2010. Appellant Huggins filed timely motions to suppress evidence obtained by electronic surveillance and evidence seized from his person and his home following his arrest on November 9, 2009. [Appellant] Huggins also filed an untimely motion for a change of venue pursuant to Pa.R.Crim.P. 584 on January 31, 2011. In an Opinion and Order dated February 3, 2011, [the trial court] denied Huggins’ motion for change of venue. Following the pre-trial hearing February 25, 2011, [the trial court] denied Huggins’ motion to suppress physical evidence and motion to suppress evidence obtained by electronic surveillance by Order dated March 28, 2011.
The case proceeded to a jury trial on April 4, 2011, against [five] of the original eight co-conspirators. Leroy War-rick and Justin Wiley entered guilty pleas just prior to trial. Felicia Cooper, in hopes of negotiating a favorable guilty plea with the Commonwealth, testified at trial against her co-conspirators. In addition to her testimony, the Commonwealth presented evidence from a search of Wiley’s house. The search, conducted pursuant to a search warrant, turned up crack and powder cocaine, cash, ammunition, and drug-distribution paraphernalia. The Commonwealth also introduced recordings of drug-related conversations from lawful wiretaps on two cell phones belonging to Lambert. Some of the conversations included Lambert talking with [Appellant], Other members of the conspiracy were caught on tape discussing narcotics transactions involving [Appellant].
On April 19, 2011, a verdict was entered against Appellant Huggins and his co-defendants. [Appellant] was found guilty of corrupt organizations, criminal conspiracy, four counts of delivery or possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, and criminal use of [a] communication facility. On August 4, 2011, [Appellant] received an aggregate sentence of 9$ to 19 years[’] incarceration.
A timely notice of appeal to [this] Court [ ] was filed on September 6, 2011. Pursuant to the [trial c]ourt’s directive, [Appellant] furnished a statement of errors complained of on appeal which raised just one issue: whether the [trial c]ourt erred in overruling Appellant’s objection and in permitting the Commonwealth to introduce testimony from Agent David Carolina, which consisted of his personal summarization of and commentary upon various telephone conversations which were intercepted by agents of the Commonwealth.

Trial Court Opinion, 10/6/2011, at 1-4 (citation and footnotes omitted).

On appeal, Appellant presents the following issue for our review:

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Bluebook (online)
68 A.3d 962, 2013 Pa. Super. 107, 2013 WL 1883252, 2013 Pa. Super. LEXIS 718, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-huggins-pasuperct-2013.