Commonwealth v. Kitchen

730 A.2d 513
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 19, 1999
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 730 A.2d 513 (Commonwealth v. Kitchen) 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. Kitchen, 730 A.2d 513 (Pa. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

BROSKY, J.

¶ 1 The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (“Commonwealth”) appeals from the October 6, 1998 trial court order that granted in part Defendant-Appellee Barbara Kitchen’s motion in limine to exclude from admission into evidence at trial a videotape of her interrogation by police.

¶ 2 On September 9, 1997 Donald F. Reiman, Jr., who was Appellee’s paramour, was shot to death beside an isolated fishpond in Northampton County; his body was discovered a few days later. On September 14, 1997 Pennsylvania State Police Trooper David Seip went to Appellee’s home and informed her of Mr. Reiman’s death. According to police, she expressed “feigned shock” upon hearing of Reiman’s murder. Commonwealth’s Brief at 14.

¶ 3 On September 15,1997, after investigation by local and the State Police, co-defendant John Mead, who was also Appel-lee’s paramour, was questioned by police. Mr. Mead admitted to police that he had shot and killed Mr. Reiman. Mead also told police that he and Appellee planned the murder and that Appellee had lured Mr. Reiman to the fishpond so that Mead could kill him. 1

¶ 4 According to the affidavit of probable cause attached to the criminal complaint against Appellee, further police investigation on September 15, 1997 revealed that on September 9, 1997 Andrew J. Gabovitz was at Harry White’s residence, along with Mead and a woman named Barbara (Appellee). According to Gabovitz, Mead stated that “Barbara’s old boyfriend ... named Don”, was harassing her and that Mead “was going to kill this man.” Affidavit of Probable Cause, 9/15/98, at p. 1. On September 11, 1997 Gabovitz was again at the White residence and White told him that Mead “had in fact killed the guy.” Id. Other alleged witnesses observed an “orange pickup truck with a white cap” on September 9, 1997 at the site at which Mr. Reiman was murdered. Id. White also allegedly told Gabovitz that Mead had driven his orange pickup to Ponderosa Fibres (where the killing occurred) and shot Reiman two times, that Barbara was present at the killing and that after Reiman had been killed, Mead and Barbara took several items belonging to Reiman, including a stool, lantern and fishing equipment. Id. After the killing on September 9, 1997 Mead allegedly asked WZhite to hide the murder weapon and placed it in White’s “welding rig.” Id. On September 11, 1997 Mead retrieved the murder weapon. Id.

¶ 5 The police subsequently identified “Barbara” as Appellee and on September 15, 1997 a warrant was issued for her arrest. That same day Appellee, while at *516 the Northampton Borough Police Department headquarters, voluntarily consented (i.e., she was read Miranda 2 warnings and she replied that she wanted to speak to the officers) to a videotaped interrogation by police officers. The interrogation lasted approximately two and one-half hours and was attended by several police officers and, at times, the Northampton County District Attorney. That same day Appel-lee was charged with homicide and criminal conspiracy to commit homicide.

¶ 6 The Commonwealth proposed to show the tapes in their entirety at Appel-lee’s scheduled October 6, 1998 jury trial. On October 5, 1998 Appellee filed a motion in limine to exclude from introduction into evidence at trial the two and one-half hours of videotape (comprised of three separate videotapes) of her September 15, 1997 interrogation by police; Appellee averred that “the total effect of the videotapes was impermissibly inflammatory and prejudicial to the defense.” Trial Court Opinion, 10/26/98, at 1. Appellee primarily objected to the alleged “hearsay-laden, inflammatory and accusatory nature of the entire custodial interrogation.” Appellee’s Brief at 4. On October 6, 1998 the trial court granted in part Appellee’s motion, stating that “relevant admissions” made by Appellee on the videotapes could be introduced into evidence at trial “but only as unaffected by the damaging hearsay and inflammatory accusatory statements of the police examiners, all of which are intertwined in the extra-judicial examination.” Trial Court Opinion, supra at 1. The trial court proposed an “abstract [ie., with redaction] of the [video]tape[s] or written transcript of the tapes....” Id. at 2. At the October 6,1998 hearing 3 Northampton Common Pleas Court Judge James C. Hogan stated,

Although the Commonwealth has not accepted the Court’s invitation to submit the portions of the interrogation it believes relevant nor provided any suggested redaction, the Court finds among others, the following relevant admissions in answer to non-inflammatory questions by the officer that developed:
A. A longstanding relationship with the un-tried [Sic] co-charged shooter [Mead], an intended Commonwealth witness.
B. A longstanding relationship with the victim, her “boyfriend. [Reiman]”
C. Knowledge of the shooter’s hatred and threats to kill the victim.
D. [Appellee’s] [presence in the shooter’s company on the night of the shooting.
E. Presence in the victim’s company on the night of the shooting; telephone arrangements to meet the victim in a remote fishing site, made within earshot of the shooter.
F. Presence at the scene, witness [ing] of the shooting, identification of shooter at the scene and ultimate flight from the scene.
The ruling to bar showing of the tapes to the jury in the case-in-chief is based on the intermingling throughout the interrogation of the [police] officers’ accusatory statements:
1. That she [Appellee] is going to be arrested for. conspiracy and murder.
2. That witnesses will connect the Defendant to the murder.
3. The co-defendant shooter [Mead] is in custody.
4. That the Defendant is lying, that she knows she is lying and the like.
5. That the officer would not be acting so accusingly if he did not have a firm case — and the like. *517 The tapes taken as a whole would inflame the jury to the side of the prosecution, and against the reluctant defendant — who though evasive, and on some matters self-contradictory — never abandoned her denial of criminal involvement.
On many occasions, the defendant stood mute, indicated by conduct her intention not to answer, or rendered non-responsive but not necessarily misleading answers to accusatory statements.
The [trial] Court has viewed the tapes in their entirety. They reflect a woman who acts bizarrely, frequently speaks with a pattern unrelated to answers to immediate questions, seems alternatively confused and distraught, or in full control — but always denying any knowing criminal involvement.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Commonwealth v. Malcolm, R., Aplt.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2026
Com. v. Nealy, D.
2025 Pa. Super. 55 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2025)
Com. v. Stuart, B.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2023
Com. v. Malcolm, R.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2023
Com. v. Kratz, S.
253 A.3d 329 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2021)
Com. v. Lanko, A.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2020
Boggs v. Shinn
D. Arizona, 2020
Com. v. Soto, L.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2019
Com. v. Reeves, K.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2019
State v. Rocha
890 N.W.2d 178 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 2017)
Com. v. Rumble, M.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2016
State v. Gary Gaudreau
139 A.3d 433 (Supreme Court of Rhode Island, 2016)
State v. Gaudreau
146 A.3d 848 (Supreme Court of Rhode Island, 2016)
Com. v. Rehm, D.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2015
J.M. Faatz v. UCBR
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2015
Com. v. Jones, I.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2015
Com. v. Herriott, M.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2014
State v. Willis
75 A.3d 1068 (Supreme Court of New Hampshire, 2013)
People v. Musser
835 N.W.2d 319 (Michigan Supreme Court, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
730 A.2d 513, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-kitchen-pasuperct-1999.