Commonwealth v. Koehler

914 A.2d 427, 2006 Pa. Super. 355, 2006 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4481
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 8, 2006
StatusPublished
Cited by58 cases

This text of 914 A.2d 427 (Commonwealth v. Koehler) 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. Koehler, 914 A.2d 427, 2006 Pa. Super. 355, 2006 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4481 (Pa. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION BY STEVENS, J.:

¶ 1 This is an appeal from the judgment of sentence entered by the Court of Common Pleas of Erie County after a jury convicted Appellant of 14 counts of Sexual Abuse of Children/Possession of Child Pornography, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 6312(d), infra. Appellant challenges the denial of his suppression motion, the sufficiency of evidence in support of the jury verdicts, and the legality of imposing 14 separate punishments for each conviction under Section 6312(d). We affirm.

¶ 2 The trial court has aptly summarized the factual and procedural background of the case, in pertinent part, as follows:

On May 13, 2004, a Criminal Information was filed charging Appellant with nineteen (19) counts of Possession of Child Pornography [under Section 6312(d)] [footnote 1 omitted]. The charges stem [from the following investigations]:
On or about August 15, 2003, Agent William Wehrle of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, the parole agent for [Appellant], was contacted by Eric Smith of the Millcreek Police Department. Officer Smith informed Agent Wehrle that he believed [Appellant] had been involved with two young female runaways. Agent Wehrle began an investigation into this matter because [Appellant’s] parole contract provided that he was to have no contact with minor females.
Agent Wehrle interviewed a seventeen year old girl [not one of the runaways] who told him that she had gone to dinner with [Appellant]. She indicated to Agent Wehrle that she had gone out with [Appellant], that he knew how old she was, and that he asked her if she knew anyone who would want to go out with him[, and that he was looking for sex from somebody.] She also stated [her familiarity with the fact that Appellant] worked at a cellular phone kiosk at the mall and that a number of minors hung around [Appellant’s] kiosk. [On the basis of this information, Agent Wehrle obtained authorization from his supervisor to arrest Appellant on a parole violation and to search Appellant’s place of business, car, and residence. To accomplish this,] Agent Wehrle requested assistance from the Millcreek Police Department.
Agent Wehrle met with three uniformed police officers at the Millcreek mall. Agent Wehrle took [Appellant] into custody for a violation of the special conditions of his parole and informed him that he was going to search his business, his vehicle, and his residence. At that time, [Appellant] informed Agent Wehrle that he had another apartment in addition to his approved residence, and he gave Agent Wehrle permission to search that apartment. He also provided Agent Wehrle with the keys to his car and told him where it was. [Appellant] did not object to the search of the kiosk. [Appellant did not, however, give consent to search his approved residence.]
[431]*431[While still at the kiosk, Appellant] told Agent Wehrle that he did have contact with the two runaways and showed Agent Wehrle that he had there [sic] phone numbers stored in his cell phone and allowed Agent Wehrle to call the number. Agent Wehrle spoke with the girls’ mother [right then, who informed Agent Wehrle that the girls had since returned to her in Ohio.] Agent Wehrle also found [Appellant’s personal] digital camera in the kiosk[, the type that you hook up to a computer and print the pictures.]
Agent Wehrle then went to [Appellant’s] approved residence. Agents Michael Wilcox and Vanessa Booker went along as back up. No police officers were present at the residence. [Appellant’s] aunt showed the agents to [Appellant’s] room as well as two other areas where [Appellant] had property. [Appellant] had a computer in his bedroom, and Agent Wehrle asked Agent Wilcox to access it. Agent Wilcox moved the mouse, and the monitor came on. Agent Wilcox opened a file that had the word “nude” in the title. A picture of a nude female came onto the screen. Agents found about twenty-five other photos of females who appeared to be minors.... Agent Wehrle had Agent Wilcox print out the photos and then ended the search. Agent Wehrle seized the digital camera, two cell phones, the e-mail addresses [contained in a shoebox], a book about how to come up with a new identity, a book about making a silencer for a gun, Mastercard bills, and a black nylon holster.
Agent Wehrle contacted the FBI office in Erie because he believed they had found criminal activity that was beyond the scope of a parole violation. Agent Wehrle was then contacted by a member of the Erie County District Attorney’s Office and the City of Erie Police Department. Two uniformed police officers and Detective Barber of the Sex Crimes Unit were dispatched to [Appellant’s] residence. [Concluding the materials recovered were sexually explicit photos of minors, Detective Barber applied for a search warrant for Appellant’s bedroom.]
[T]he execution of [the] search warrant ... by Detective Barber ... [occurred that same day]. Detective Barber seized Appellant’s computer (CPU tower, printer, monitor, keyboard & mouse), disks, CD’s and other memory storage devices. The seized computer was sealed with evidence tape and all items were taken to ECPD headquarters and locked up over the weekend until August 18, 2008. On that date, all of the items seized were transferred to a property evidence locker and remained there until August 25, 2003, when Detective Barber removed them and took the items to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office. Detective Barber requested that they perform a computer forensic analysis of the seized items.
Erie County Detective Jessica Lynn performed a computer forensic examination of Appellant’s computer hard-drive by creating and utilizing an image of the hard-drive, to avoid corrupting or contaminating the original. Detective Lynn used a computer forensic software program known as Forensic Tool Kit (“FTK”) to analyze the image of Appellant’s computer hard-drive in September 2003. Detective Lynn testified she discovered two hundred fifty-six (256) video clips depicting children, and bookmarked three hundred thirty-five (335) items as possibly being child pornography. Detective Lynn turned this information over to Detective Barber, who used it to form the basis for the nineteen (19) charges filed against Appellant. [432]*432The video clips forming the basis of these charges consisted of several different young females engaged in various acts of sexual exhibition, in either a nude or partially nude state.2 These video clips also included one video clip of one young nude female urinating into another young nude female’s mouth, and another video clip depicted a young nude female engaged in the act of masturbation with a vibrator.3
On June 24, 2004, Appellant filed an Omnibus Pre-Trial Motion seeking suppression of the evidence seized as a result of the search warrant. The Honorable Fred P. Anthony issued an Order on June 30, 2004, scheduling a hearing to take place on August 23, 2004. [After several continuances,] an evidentiary hearing was held before Judge Anthony to address Appellant’s Omnibus PreTrial Motion.... On December 23, 2004, Judge Anthony issued an Opinion denying Appellant’s Suppression Motion.
* * *
On July 19, 2005, after a four-day jury trial, Appellant was found guilty of fourteen (14) counts of Sexual Abuse of Children/Possession of Child Pornography.4

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Bluebook (online)
914 A.2d 427, 2006 Pa. Super. 355, 2006 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4481, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-koehler-pasuperct-2006.