Commonwealth v. Sauers

159 A.3d 1, 2017 Pa. Super. 84, 2017 WL 1162450, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 205
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 29, 2017
DocketCom. v. Sauers, N. No. 3123 EDA 2015
StatusPublished
Cited by47 cases

This text of 159 A.3d 1 (Commonwealth v. Sauers) 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. Sauers, 159 A.3d 1, 2017 Pa. Super. 84, 2017 WL 1162450, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 205 (Pa. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

*4 OPINION BY

SHOGAN, J.:

Nathan Robert Sauers (“Appellant”) appeals from the judgment of sentence entered on June 16, 2015, in the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas. We affirm the convictions, vacate in part the judgment of sentence, and remand for re-sentencing.

On August 4, 2013, Monroe County Detective Brian Webbe was using a proprietary police version of the Ares peer-to-peer file-sharing network 1 known as Ares Round-up Software (“software”) to investigate on-line child pornography. During his search, Detective Webbe identified a computer with an IP address of 50.29.128.171 and a username of “FromK9to5” as containing downloaded child pornography. The detective downloaded ten files from the suspect computer. Armed with a court order, Detective Webbe identified Appellant as the owner of the IP address and username. Upon execution of a search warrant at Appellant’s home, Detective Webbe found Appellant’s Dell laptop computer. Because no child pornography was immediately discovered on the computer, Detective Webbe used forensic software to examine the computer. He found files indicating that Appellant’s computer had recently downloaded the Ares program and that the program had been used to view, download, and share child pornography.

Appellant was charged with ten counts of possession of child pornography, ten counts of dissemination of child pornography, and one count of criminal use of a communications facility. 2 Following a more in-depth examination of Appellant’s computer, Detective Webbe found an additional eighty-seven files containing child pornography in the unallocated space of Appellant’s computer. Consequently, Appellant was charged under a separate docket with eighty-seven counts of possession of child pornography. The cases were joined for trial.

A jury convicted Appellant on all eleven counts on the first docket, and it acquitted him of the eighty-seven counts on the second docket. The trial court sentenced Appellant to incarceration for an aggregate term of sixty to 120 months. Additionally, the trial court designated Appellant as a Tier III sexual offender and directed his compliance with the lifetime reporting requirements of the Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”), 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9799.10-9799.41. Appellant filed post-sentence motions, which the trial court denied. Appellant filed a timely appeal. He and the trial court complied with Pa.R,A.P. 1925.

On appeal, Appellant raises the following questions for our review: 3

*5 1. Whether the trial court abused its discretion when it admitted into evidence video evidence of child pornography and photographic evidence of child pornography without first viewing the entire content prior to publishing same to the jury thereby inflaming the passions of the jury, and thus, denying [Ajppellant a fair trial.
2. Whether the failure of the Commonwealth to provide and/or allow forensic evaluation of their “Modified Ares—Roundup!”] Software denied [AJppellant a fair trial under Article I Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, and the 6th and 14th Amendments] of the United States Constitution,
AND
Whether the Commonwealth’s claim that the “Modified Ares—Round-up[”] Software is proprietary, and thus not subject to distribution or review by outside computer forensic experts denied [Appellant] a fair trial by¡ preventing [Appellant] from confronting the evidence against himself at trial under the Pennsylvania Constitution, Article 1 Section 9, and the “confrontation clause” of [the] 6th Amendment of the United States Constitution.
3. Whether the evidence was sufficient to support the verdict that [Appellant] actually possessed and/or disseminated child pornography.
4. Whether the trial court’s jury instructions regarding the definition of possession which included the trial court judge’s own instruction ignored other jurisdictions definitions of possession, and denied [Appellant] a fair trial under both Article I Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and the 6th Amendment of the United States Constitution.
5. Does a trial court deny a defendant a fair trial under Article I Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, Sixth Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution where it denies individual voir dire in a child pornography case where: the social prejudices associated with child pornography in a public forum voir dire denies a defendant the ability in vetting individual jurors regarding social, religious and personal prejudices on the subject of child pornography?
6. Whether the sentencing court abused its discretion where it made repeated references during sentencing, trial, and pretrial to the fact that [Appellant] made the trial court and the jurors see the child pornography during his trial, and thus, subjected the jury to being victims themselves.
7. Whether the sentencing court abused its discretion wherein the record demonstrates repeatedly that the sentencing court punished [Appellant] for taking his case to trial.
8. Whether the trial court abused its discretion where it used a far more egregious case as its reasons and justifications for imposing the sentence it did upon [Appellant].
9. Whether the sentencing court abused its discretion where it imposed incarceration upon [Appellant] (a first time offenderD] where the very case the sentencing court used to justify its sentence was a case involving a recidivist offender.

Appellant’s Brief at 7-8 (renumbered).

Appellant first challenges the admission of the Commonwealth’s photo *6 graphic and video evidence of child pornography. With regard to the admission of evidence:

we give the trial court broad discretion, and we will only reverse a trial court’s decision to admit or deny evidence on a showing that the trial court clearly abused its discretion. An abuse of discretion is not merely an error in judgment, but an overriding misapplication of the law, or the exercise of judgment that is manifestly unreasonable, or the result of bias, prejudice, ill-will or partiality, as shown by the evidence or the record.

Commonwealth v. Flamer, 53 A.3d 82, 86 (Pa. Super. 2012) (citations and quotation marks omitted). The trial court will be reversed only if an error in the admission of evidence contributed to the verdict. Commonwealth v. Konias, 136 A.3d 1014, 1022 (Pa. Super. 2016), appeal denied, 145 A.3d 724 (Pa. 2016).

Admissibility depends on relevance and probative value. Evidence is relevant if it logically tends to establish a material fact in the case, tends to make a fact at issue more or less probable, or supports a reasonable inference or presumption regarding a material fact.

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

Related

Adult Guardianship and Conservatorship of R.
Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2026
Com. v. Baboolal, A., M.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2025
Carrera II v. Mason
M.D. Pennsylvania, 2025
Douglas J Cincotta v. Office of Personnel Management
Merit Systems Protection Board, 2024
Com. v. Gates, G.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2024
Com. v. Miller, C.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2024
Com. v. Vance, R.
2024 Pa. Super. 99 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2024)
Com. v. Goodis, M.
2023 Pa. Super. 136 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2023)
Com. v. Troupe, A.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2023
Com. v. Tirado, V.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2023
In the Int. of: O.M., a Minor
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2023
Com. v. Thompson, E.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2023
Com. v. Gary, R.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2023
Com. v. Davis, W.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2022
Com. v. Norris, T.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2021
Com. v. Proctor, A.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2021
Com. v. McIntosh, T.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2020
Com. v. Haywood, D.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2020
Com. v. Hamilton, S.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2020

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
159 A.3d 1, 2017 Pa. Super. 84, 2017 WL 1162450, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 205, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-sauers-pasuperct-2017.