Commonwealth v. MacHicote

172 A.3d 595
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 26, 2017
Docket1621 WDA 2016
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 172 A.3d 595 (Commonwealth v. MacHicote) 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. MacHicote, 172 A.3d 595 (Pa. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION BY

STRASSBURGER, J.:

Anthony Machicote (Appellant) appeals from the August 19, 2016 judgment of sentence imposed following a resentencing hearing pursuant to Commonwealth v. Batts, 620 Pa. 115, 66 A.3d 286 (2013) (“Batts I"). We affirm.

On November 10, 2003, [Appellant (then age 17) ] and Jeremy Melvin executed their plan to escape from the George Junior Republic Facility, a housing facility for delinquent and dependent children [located in Pine Township, Mercer County], [Appellant] called a night supervisor, Wayne.Urey, Jr., [ (“the victim”)] to [Appellant’s] room by faking an illness. Melvin came up behind [the victim] and locked him in a choke hold while [Appellant] tied [the-victim’s] legs with a sheet. Melvin put a sock in [the victim’s] mouth and tied a sheet around it'. [Appellant], and Melvin stole [the victim’s] money, keys, and car and fled from the facility. Later that day, [Appellant] and Melvin confessed the details, of the incident to a school: security guard and turned themselves in to police. [The victim] suffocated as a result of the incident.
Both [Appellant] and Melvin were charged as adults with criminal homicide, robbery, and related charges. On November 3,- 2004, [Appellant] pled guilty to second-dégree murder. In exchange for the guilty plea, the Commonwealth nol prossed the remaining charges. In addition, the Commonwealth agreed to provide [Appellant] with a letter indicating that it would take no position if [Appellant] filed an application for commutation of sentence after serving twenty-five years of imprisonment. On January 6, 2006, the trial court sentenced [Appellant] to serve a term of life imprisonment. [Appellant] did not file a direct appeal.
On January 9, 2006, [Appellant] filed a timely pro se PCRA petition, which was his first. Appointed counsel then filed an amended PCRA petition, and the PCRA court denied relief. On May 30, 2007, this Court affirmed the denial 'of PCRA relief,' and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied [Appellant’s]' petition for allowance of appeal. Commonwealth v. Machicote, [ ] 929 A.2d 242 (Pa. Super. 2007) (unpublished memorandum), appeal denied, [594 Pa. 677] 932 A.2d 1287 (Pa. 2007).
On August 22, 2012, [Appellant] filed an untimely second PCRA petition, in which he ’ sought to have his life sentence without parole vacated, and to be resehtenced pursuant to Miller v. Alabama, [567 U.S. 460, 479, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012) ]. Disposition of the PCRA petition was continued several times awaiting a ruling, on the applicability of Miller in Pennsylvania. On September 30, 2013, the PCRA court entered an order granting [Appellant’s] request for relief on the grounds that the Miller decision rendered the life sentence unlawful. The Commonwealth appealed and then withdrew the appeal. Thereafter, the Commonwealth’s appeal was reinstated, but it was ultimately dismissed due to failure to .file a brief.
Consequently, [Appellant] was resen-tenced on June 24, 2014, to a term of life in prison with parole, with a recommendation that [Appellant] not be paroled until his 68th birthday. On July .2, 2014, the Commonwealth filed a post-sentence motion alleging that the lower court lacked the authority to resentence [Appellant] in light of Commonwealth v. Cunningham, [622 Pa. 543] 81 A.3d 1 (Pa. 2013). The motion was denied on July 2, 2014. [An- appeal by the Commonwealth followed.]

Commonwealth v. Machicote, 122 A.3d 1144 (Pa. Super. 2015) (unpublished memorandum at 1-3).

On June 24, 2015, a panel of this Court vacated the June 24, 2014 judgment of sentence and remanded for the lower court to “reinstate the original judgment of sentence imposed upon” Appellant. Id. at 9.

[The lower c]ourt resentenced [Appellant], in accordance with the [o]rder of the Superior Court, on September 11, 2015, to a term of life in prison without parole.
On March 22, 2016, [Appellant] filed a third PCRA [petition], alleging his, sentence was unlawful in light of Montgomery v. Louisiana, — U.S. —, [136 S.Ct. 718, 193 L.Ed.2d 599] (2016).
At a conference on April 22, 2016, [the PCRA c]ourt vacated the sentence of September 11, 2015, and scheduled sentencing^]
On August 19, 2016, [the PCRA c]ourt sentenced [Appellant] to a term of imprisonment of not less than 30 years nor more than life.
[Appellant] filed a post-sentence motion. That motion was denied on August 30, 2016, without a hearing. This appeal followed.

PCRA Court Opinion, 11/3/2016, at 5-6.

Both Appellant and the PCRA court have complied with the mandates of Pa. R.AP. 1925. Appellant raises the following issues for this Court’s review.

A.The only statutorily authorized punishment for second-degree, murder where the defendant was convicted before June 25, 2012 is life without parole. As a matter of federal constitutional law, a juvenile such as [Appellant] cannot be automatically ■ sentenced to life without parole. Was the [PCRA] court’s sentence of 30 years to life illegal because the General Assembly has not authorized a constitutional punishment for those in [Appellant’s] position' and, therefore, should he be sentenced to the lesser included offense of third-degree murder?
B. Did the trial court abuse its discretion by resentencing [Appellant], a juvenile convicted of second-degree murder and facing a potential sentence of life without parole, without fully considering [Appellant’s] youth and development, as required under Miller[ ], and Commonwealth v. Knox, 50 A.3d 732 (Pa. Super. 2012)?
C. Did the trial court abuse its discretion by simultaneously granting [Appellant’s] request for funds to hire an expert to perform a mitigation study while denying him a continuance to locate and retain an expert to undertake this mitigation study?

Appellant’s Brief at 2-3 (PCRA court answers omitted).

In his first issue on appeal, Appellant presents a challenge to the legality of his sentence, arguing that the PCRA court had no valid statutory authority to impose a term of years sentence with a maximum term of life imprisonment at his resentencing and, because the crime at issue here was committed before June 25, 2012, the only possible legal sentence is “on the lesser included offense of third[-]degree murder or the underlying felony of robbery.” Appellant’s Brief at 25-49. “When reviewing the legality of a sentence/ our standard of review is de novo and our scope of review is plenary.” Commonwealth v. Brown, 159 A.3d 531, 532 (Pa. Super. 2017) (citation omitted).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
172 A.3d 595, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-machicote-pasuperct-2017.