Commonwealth v. Irvin

134 A.3d 67, 2016 Pa. Super. 27, 2016 WL 638722, 2016 Pa. Super. LEXIS 77
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 8, 2016
Docket726 MDA 2015
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 134 A.3d 67 (Commonwealth v. Irvin) 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. Irvin, 134 A.3d 67, 2016 Pa. Super. 27, 2016 WL 638722, 2016 Pa. Super. LEXIS 77 (Pa. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION BY

STEVENS, P.J.E.:

David Scott Irvin (“Appellant”) appeals from the judgment of sentence entered after a jury convicted him of possession with intent to deliver (“PWID”), 1 possession of drug paraphernalia, 2 criminal conspiracy to unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, 3 and tampering with evidence. 4 Sentenced to an aggregate of 25 months’ to 12 years’ imprisonment, 5 Appellant challenges the denial of his motion to suppress and the sufficiency of the evidence offered at trial. We affirm.

Appellant’s arrest and convictions stem from evidence obtained during both a war-rantless search of trashcans placed behind the residence of Appellant’s co-defendant (“Co-Defendant”) and the subsequent execution of search warrants relating to the residence. According to the affidavit of probable cause prepared in support of the first residential search warrant, Detective Rodney Temple of the Mechanicsburg Police Department/Cumberland County Criminal Investigation Division, Drug Task Force received multiple visitors to the police station complaining of apparent drug activity at the residence. Appl. for Search Warrant/Aff. of Probable Cause at 2, March 14, 2013. These neighbors specifically complained of the tenant, a white male in his 40s, and a tall, thin black male who they said frequently stayed at the residence for long periods. Id. at 3. The detective’s own research confirmed he had recently encountered the tenant, Co-Defendant, as part of an emergency dispatch to the residence on reports of a man brandishing a rifle while standing on the back porch. Id. at 2. A criminal history check of Co-Defendant revealed three pri- or drug paraphernalia convictions.

Prompted by this information, Detective Temple went to the residence on the morning of a regularly scheduled trash pick-up day and conducted a trash pull from trashcans placed alongside an alleyway directly behind Co-Defendant’s back yard. Id. at 3. Found among the trash were two partial marijuana cigarettes rolled with cigar papers, a tied sandwich bag consistent with packaging for marijuana distribution, and three discarded receipts from the U.S. Post Office, Sprint, and Patient First in Mechanicsburg, respectively, each bearing Appellant’s name. Id. at 2.

Detective Temple applied for a warrant to search Co-Defendant’s residence on *70 probable cause of possession of drug paraphernalia. ' On the application’s line for “owner, occupant, or possessor of said premises,” the detective correctly entered Co-Defendant’s name but misidentified Appellant as “Benjamin Irvin.” Id. at 1. Next to this name, however, the application correctly listed Appellant’s date of birth, and the attached affidavit correctly referred to Appellant as “David Irvin” and indicated that a computer search of his Pennsylvania drivers’ license revealed a photograph of what appeared to be a tall, thin black male consistent with the description given by one, of. the neighbor complainants. Id. at 3. On.March 14, 2013, а,magistrate issued a search warrant.

On-March 15, 2013, police executed the search warrant and detained Appellant after he ran into a bathroom in a failed attempt to flush two bags of heroin down the toilet. Trial Tr. at 26, 78, December 4-5, 2013. A search of Appellant’s person uncovered $2,570 in cash, $2,500 of which was bound with the same type of small, black rubber bands that were used to tie the bags of heroin. Id. at 91. In addition to discovering the heroin, Detective Temple detected the smell of burnt marijuana, viewed drug paraphernalia during a protective sweep of the residence, and noticed that Appellant’s cell phone was continuously ringing. Detective Temple, therefore, applied' for a second search warrant on probable cause of PWID, which the issuing authority granted that same day.

Execution of the second search warrant included the discovery of a safe located in the closet of an upstairs bedroom. Appellant and Co-Defendant heard the noise as police worked to open the safe, prompting Appellant to advise a detective he could give them the combination although there was nothing inside the safe. Id. at 102. The safe, in fact, contained six bundles— consisting of 60 bags — of heroin. Id. at 96.

The bedroom in which the safe was located lacked a bed 6 , but it contained articles belonging to Appellant, including his medical cards, driver’s license, and identification cards. Id. at 93. A good deal of clothing was in the room, and the closet was “filled with dry cleaning” bearing a dry cleaning tag with Appellant’s name and phone number written on it. Id. at 93-94. The safe containing heroin sat directly underneath Appellant’s stack of clothes from the dry cleaners. Id.

During the second search, a detective noticed Appellant sitting on a cell phone and its memory card that were both broken in half. Id., at 102. The detective who initially Terry 7 frisked Appellant had felt what he believed to be an intact cell phone in Appellant’s pocket, but he left it in place pursuant to orders to remove only suspected weapons. Id. at 87-88. A lieutenant at the search testified he had heard a crackling noise emanating from the room holding, Appellant and Co-Defendant and attributed it to the destruction of the phone and card. Id. at 179, 181-82. Appellant also possessed, a white cell phone in his front pocket that another officer had removed and place on a window sill. Id. at 90-91.

Charged with various counts of drug-related offenses and tampering with evidence, Appellant filed an omnibus pre-trial motion to suppress evidence obtained from the warrantless search of trash and the execution of warrants to search the residence for paraphernalia and evidence re *71 lating to PWID. The court denied the motion after a joint hearing on Appellant’s and Co-Defendant’s respective motions 8 and scheduled the case for jury trial. On December 5, 2013, a jury convicted Appellant as noted supra, and the court imposed an aggregate sentence of 28 months’ to 12 years’ imprisonment. A successful collateral challenge to Appellant’s sentence, however, required the PCRA court to vacate and remand for resentencing. On March 31, 2015, the court resentenced Appellant to 25 months’ to 12 years’ imprisonment. This timely direct appeal followed.

Appellant raises the following issues for our review:

I. WHETHER THE PRETRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING APPELLANTS’ OMNIBUS PRETRIAL MOTION TO SUPPRESS.
II. WHETHER THE EVIDENCE PRESENTED AT TRIAL WAS SUFFICIENT TO CONVICT APPELLANT OF POSSESSION WITH INTENT TO DELIVER A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
134 A.3d 67, 2016 Pa. Super. 27, 2016 WL 638722, 2016 Pa. Super. LEXIS 77, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-irvin-pasuperct-2016.