Commonwealth v. Milligan

693 A.2d 1313, 1997 Pa. Super. LEXIS 991
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 29, 1997
DocketNo. 02110
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 693 A.2d 1313 (Commonwealth v. Milligan) 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. Milligan, 693 A.2d 1313, 1997 Pa. Super. LEXIS 991 (Pa. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinions

OLSZEWSKI, Judge:

On March 14, 1996, a jury found appellant Gary Lee Milligan guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol. He was subsequently sentenced to 48 hours to 23 months imprisonment and fined $300. This appeal follows wherein Milligan presents the following issues for our review:

1. Whether the trial court erred in failing to suppress certain inculpatory statements made to the police.
2. Whether the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on flight as consciousness of guilt concerning a person alleged to have been at the scene of the accident before police arrived.
3. Whether trial counsel was ineffective for failing to call, as a witness, a police officer who had stopped the appellant’s vehicle earlier in the evening.

Our standard for reviewing a denial of a motion to suppress is well settled. We must determine

[1315]*1315whether the factual findings are supported by the record. In making this determination, we must consider only the evidence of the prosecution’s witnesses, and so much evidence of the defense that remains un-contradicted when fairly read in the context of the record as a whole. When the evidence supports the factual findings, we are bound by such findings, we may reverse only if the legal conclusions drawn therefrom are erroneous.

Commonwealth v. Medley, 531 Pa. 279, 612 A.2d 430, 482 (1992).

Instantly, the trial court’s following findings of fact are supported by the record:

1. On April 5, 1995, Officer Timothy Hopp[e]s, of North Coventry Township, was dispatched to the scene of a traffic accident on Laurelwood Road.
2. Upon arriving at the scene, the officer observed a single car with heavy front-end damage resting at a telephone pole.
3. The officer observed that there was considerable damage to the car windshield which, in his eight years of experience as a police officer and investigating traffic accidents, he believed was consistent with someone hitting their head against the windshield.
4. The officer observed [Milligan] sitting across the street from the vehicle on a bank and observed lacerations on his mouth and head which were bleeding, but not excessively.
5. The officer was told by bystanders that another person was observed walking away from the accident.
6. The officer questioned [Milligan] during the approximate three to four minute period while they were waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
7. [Milligan] told the officer that he was an occupant in the vehicle.
8. The police officer observed [Milligan] to have slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, a heavy odor of alcohol, and that he had difficulty understanding what the man was saying.
9. When [Milligan] was asked who else was in the vehicle, he indicated that there were two people, but gave different names of individuals and the number of names exceeded two.
10. On two occasions, [Milligan] denied that he was the driver of the vehicle.
11. The officer then asked [Milligan] if one of the other names he gave was the driver of the vehicle, [Milligan] said “no.”
12. The officer followed this up with the question, “so you were the driver, weren’t you?”, and the defendant responded “yes.”
13. [Milligan] was asked for his driver’s license and owner’s card, and in attempting to reach his wallet, which was behind him, [Milligan] started to fall face-first down an embankment.
14. When the ambulance arrived, [Milli-gan] vacillated in deciding whether to receive treatment, and the officer encouraged [him] to do so based on the injuries [the lawman] observed and the damage to the vehicle.
15. [Milligan] was transported to the hospital, and the officer followed, where he obtained [Milligan’s] consent to have blood drawn.
16. When [Milligan] was asked at the hospital how the accident happened, he responded, “I was perfectly legal and someone illegal came by.”
17. The officer described [Milligan] as “barely coherent” in his police report, but explained that to mean he was difficult to understand although his thoughts were understandable.
18. The officer has been involved in approximately 150-200 arrests for driving under the influence and has been an assisting officer in numerous other offenses. The officer has also been involved in investigating accidents and in approximately 25-50 times the accidents have involved a combination of injury and driving under the influence.
19. It was the officer’s opinion that [Milli-gan’s] speech pattern and content of his [1316]*1316speech w[ere] due to intoxication and not injury.

Opinion 3/7/96, at 1-3.

On appeal, Milligan alleges that the trial court erred in failing to suppress his statements to Officer Hoppes at the accident scene. Beyond restating the facts, the totality of Milligan’s argument in support of his claim is as follows:

The appellant contends that his statement was not voluntary due to the nature and extent of his injuries and his level of intoxication. In Commonwealth v. Perry, 475 Pa. 1, 379 A.2d 545 (1977) the Court held that a statement which is involuntary due to an accused’s physical and mental condition must be suppressed. The appellant herein asserts that Officer Hoppes [sic] testimony clearly established that his injuries and and level of intoxication resulted in an involuntary statement which should have been suppressed.

Appellant’s brief at 2.

At the outset, we must voice our displeasure with appellant’s ink-deprived argument. First, appellant’s lone cite is improper in both form and substance. Appellant’s claim, that Commonwealth v. Perry may be found at 279 A.2d 545, is simply erroneous. Perry is not reported in volume 279, but can, in actuality, be found in volume S 79.

Further, appellant’s reliance upon Perry is clearly misplaced. A simple reading of Perry reveals that it is a plurality decision. There, appellant, who had shot himself in the chest, alleged that the trial court erred in suppressing his confession because it was involuntary due to his weakened mental and physical condition. Justice Manderino’s opinion, finding that the confession was involuntary and, thus, in support of reversing the judgment of sentence, was joined only by Justice Roberts. Chief Justice Eagen and Justice Nix concurred in the result. Moreover, Justice Pomeroy authored a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justices O’Brien and Packel, finding that the confession was, in fact, voluntary. As such, Perry is clearly a plurality decision and “it is axiomatic that a plurality opinion ... is without precedential authority.” CRY, Inc. v. Mill Senice, Inc., 536 Pa.

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Bluebook (online)
693 A.2d 1313, 1997 Pa. Super. LEXIS 991, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-milligan-pasuperct-1997.