Commonwealth v. Hunter

963 A.2d 545, 2008 Pa. Super. 294, 2008 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4376, 2008 WL 5413499
Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided December 31, 2008·No. 956 EDA 2005·Published·Cited by 19 cases

Opinions

[547] OPINION BY

BENDER, J.:

¶ 1 Norman Hunter appeals from the March 5, 2005 judgment of sentence of an aggregate of four to ten years’ imprisonment imposed following his convictions of theft receiving stolen property, burglary, and identity theft. Appellant challenges the denial of his motion to suppress evidence seized during a search of his bedroom, conducted while he was a parole violator. We affirm.

¶ 2 The trial court set forth the following facts of the instant case:

On November 19, 2003 at approximately 8:00 a.m., Complainant, Lisa Bar-day, arrived at work. She was employed as [a] receptionist for Herman Miller, Inc., located on the second floor at 1818 Market Street, Philadelphia. As was her custom, she placed her personal belongings, which included her purse, underneath her work station, tucked near her printer.
Approximately two hours later, Ms. Barday went to her purse and noticed that her wallet was missing. She immediately notified the building security and police, as well as her credit card companies. Several credit cards, a driver’s license and cash were in Ms. Barday’s wallet. Thereafter, four unauthorized attempts had been made for the opening of a line of credit in Ms. Barday’s name.
The next day, November 20, 2003, Thomas Roden, who was an IBM employee, was at Liberty Plaza on the 1600 block of Market Street in Philadelphia. He arrived at the building between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. After placing his belongings in one of the board rooms, he went to another room to work on a project.
At approximately noon, Mr. Roden was on his way to lunch when he realized that his wallet was missing. He immediately called the police. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Roden was notified by his bank that there had been unusual activity on his credit card. His wallet contained cash, several work and personal credit cards, his social security card and driver’s license.
Thereafter, an application for a credit card from “The Children’s Place” was prepared utilizing his personal information, including his address. In addition, a Pennsylvania Identity Card utilizing his address was taken out.
In the fall of 2003, Andrew McGowan and Kathleen Perillo were employed by Towers Perrin, Foster & Cosby, with offices at 1500 Market Street. Both Mr. McGowan and Ms. Perillo worked on the 21st floor. Entry to the floor was obtained by either an access card or a visitor’s pass.
The day before Thanksgiving, November 26, 2003, Mr. McGowan had arrived at work and placed his wallet in the drawer of his work station early in the morning. He was away from his desk for several hours. When he prepared to leave for lunch, Mr. McGowan noticed that his wallet was missing. He notified his employer’s security service and the police.
As with the other complainants, Mr. McGowan had cash, credit cards, business cards and his driver’s license in his wallet. He had to cancel his credit cards, but before doing so, several unauthorized charges were made on his accounts.
Ms. Perillo was likewise victimized several weeks later on December 23, 2003. As with the other victims, she arrived to work early in the morning and placed her personal belongings in a drawer in her work area. At some point during the morning, Ms. Perillo left her work station and upon her return she noticed that the knob to the drawer in [548] which she had placed her purse was on the floor.
When Ms. Perillo checked her purse, she discovered that her wallet was missing. Credit cards, a medical card, her social security card and driver’s license were in her wallet.
During Ms. Perillo’s and Mr. McGowan’s employment, James Dodd worked for Towers Perrin as head of security. As a result of Ms. Perillo’s and Mr. McGowan’s reports of stolen items, Mr. Dodd reviewed the security surveillance tapes for the dates in question[,] November 26, 2003 and December 23, 2003, and determined that an unauthorized individual entered the 21st floor of the building, where both Ms. Perillo and Mr. McGowan worked, on the dates in question. The individual was able to gain entry without an access card or visitor’s pass by following an authorized vendor on one occasion and an employee on another onto the secured floor. The unauthorized individual was not identified.
In January of 2004, William Jones was a parole agent for the Commonwealth. At that time the Defendant was under his supervision for an Aggravated Assault and Resisting Arrest conviction. 2033 North 20th Street was listed as an approved residence on his Pennsylvania parole paperwork.
The Defendant was originally released from custody in October of 1998 to a community house. He, however, absconded from supervision and was declared delinquent. Officer Jones learned that subsequent to his release from custody in Pennsylvania the Defendant had been convicted in New Jersey of charges involving the fraudulent use of credit cards and was released from that state’s custody in the fall of 2003.
The jury was not advised of these previous facts, but learned that on January 9, 2004, Agent Jones was working with Philadelphia law enforcement. On that date, Officer Jones went to 2033 North 20th Street to arrest the Defendant. He was accompanied by his supervisor and a co-worker. At the residence, the officers met Defendant’s aunt, Isabel Hall. She allowed the police into the house and directed them to Defendant’s room. The Defendant was not present.
The officers began searching the Defendant’s room for leads as to his current whereabouts. During the search, the officers discovered men’s clothing, mail addressed to the Defendant and three black wallets.
Two of the wallets belonged to Thomas Roden and Kathleen Perillo. In addition, Officer Jones recovered numerous credit cards belonging to Kathleen Peril-lo, Lisa Barday and Thomas Roden, a state resident identification card with the Defendant’s photo and Thomas Ro-den’s name, as well as a credit card application in Thomas Roden’s name, a driver’s license in Kathleen Perillo’s name and the social security cards for Lisa Barday and Thomas Roden. Mr. McGowan’s business card, which had been in his wallet, was also found in Defendant’s room.
Also recovered that day was a piece of paper with Ms. Barday’s personal information!;,] social security number, date of birth, address and driver license number, as well as Mr. Roden’s business card with similar personal information written on it. The information was not written by either Ms. Barday or Mr. Roden.
The Defendant never worked with any of the complainants, did not have appointments to meet with them on the [549] dates in question nor was he given permission to take their personal belongings.

Trial Court Opinion (T.C.O.), 11/19/07, at 2-6 (citations to trial transcript omitted).

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Commonwealth v. Hunter, 963 A.2d 545, 2008 Pa. Super. 294, 2008 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4376, 2008 WL 5413499 (Pa. Ct. App. 2008).

963 A.2d 545 (Commonwealth v. Hunter) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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