Commonwealth v. Son Truong

36 A.3d 592, 2012 Pa. Super. 8, 2012 Pa. Super. LEXIS 8
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 13, 2012
StatusPublished
Cited by139 cases

This text of 36 A.3d 592 (Commonwealth v. Son Truong) 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. Son Truong, 36 A.3d 592, 2012 Pa. Super. 8, 2012 Pa. Super. LEXIS 8 (Pa. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinions

OPINION BY

FORD ELLIOTT, P.J.E.:

Son Truong appeals from the June 9, 2009 judgment of sentence entered in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, following his conviction for third-degree murder and possession of an instrument of crime (“PIC”).1 For the following reasons, we affirm.2

At some point during the late evening hours of December 10, 2007 and going into the early morning hours of December 11th, appellant stabbed his father, Lok Truong, to death in the home he shared with his parents in Philadelphia. Appellant was arrested and charged with murder and PIC. A preliminary hearing was held wherein appellant’s mother, Co Vo, testified that for approximately three days prior to his death, the victim had been drinking large quantities of alcohol and not eating. (Notes of testimony, 3/4/08 at 21.) On December 10, 2007, he was again drinking and was acting mean, threatening to cut Co Vo’s throat and stab appellant’s eyes out. (Id. at 22-23.) Because of the victim’s conduct, she went to bed at 7:00 p.m. and locked the bedroom door so the victim could not enter. (Id. at 23-24.) Co Vo stated that appellant had also retreated to his bedroom during the day and remained there into the night. (Id. at 23.)

Co Vo went on to explain that she arose in the night to use the bathroom and discovered that her husband was dead. (Id. at 10-12.) Prior to going to the bathroom, she heard a noise and opened the door to see her son and the victim wrestling in appellant’s bedroom. (Id. at 24, 26.) In a signed statement she gave to the police following the incident, Co Vo stated that when appellant and the victim were wres[594]*594tling, she saw “a knife drop down but [she] [didn’t] know who was holding it.” (Id. at 17.) She stated that the victim was bleeding from the head, and she told him and appellant to stop. (Id. at 16.) When the men did stop, Co Vo saw a copious amount of blood coming from the victim. (Id.) Co Vo explained that appellant wanted to call the police, but she wanted to wait to notify family first. (Id. at 29.) Consequently, the victim had been dead for several hours before the police were notified. (Id. at 27.)

Based on Co Vo’s testimony and other evidence presented by the Commonwealth, appellant’s case proceeded to trial. During its case-in-chief, the Commonwealth admitted Co Vo’s preliminary hearing testimony. Additionally, the Commonwealth proffered the testimony of appellant’s brother, Anh Truong. Anh testified that on December 11, 2007, he received a telephone call from appellant at approximately 6:30 a.m. informing him that their father had died. (Notes of testimony, 4/6/09 at 59, 61.) In response, Anh traveled to his parents’ home to find the police had arrived; appellant was in handcuffs. (Id. at 63-64.) Anh stated that his mother, who was crying, told him that for the past four or five days, the victim had been drinking and not eating. (Id. at 75.) In fact, the last time Anh saw his father, his father had been drinking. Anh explained that when the victim drank, he often became surly and threatened Co Vo. (Id. at 72.) Anh testified that on prior occasions, he heard the intoxicated victim tell Co Vo that he would cut her head off while wielding a knife. (Id. at 67-68.)

Officer Najihma Morris and his partner responded to the scene after receiving a domestic disturbance call. Upon arrival, he knocked on the door for approximately two to three minutes before appellant opened it. (Id. at 112-113.) When the officers asked appellant if everything was alright, appellant told the officers that everything was fine and denied calling the police. (Id. at 114.) However, the officer observed that appellant’s shirt was bloody and stretched out of shape; appellant also had tissue wrapped around two of the fingers on his right hand. (Id.) Officer Morris testified that he heard a woman crying and screaming. (Id.) Thus, the officers asked appellant if they could come inside, and appellant permitted them to enter the residence. (Id. at 115.)

Officer Morris proceeded to the second floor where the woman was located. (Id. at 116.) He observed that Co Vo had blood on her hands and was standing close to a bucket with bloody paper towels inside of it. (Id. at 117.) Officer Morris also saw the victim lying on the floor of a bedroom with a blanket covering his body; the victim did not appear to be breathing. (Id. at 118, 120.) After determining that he was deceased, Officer Morris went back downstairs and spoke with appellant who stated, “I did it, we had a fight, I called my brother.” (Id. at 123-124,127.) Appellant revealed a knife that was hidden under the couch in the living room, and told the officers that there were two other knives in the bathroom on the second floor. (Id. at 128, 138, 140.) Those knives were subsequently discovered in a hamper in the bathroom.

Gary Collins, M.D., who worked for the Medical Examiner’s Office, testified as an expert in the field of forensic pathology in the Commonwealth’s case-in-chief. Dr. Collins performed the autopsy on the victim. Dr. Collins stated that the victim suffered multiple stab wounds to his chest, abdomen, and back.3 (Id. at 81, 84, 86, 92.) [595]*595The victim also suffered several blunt force injuries to the head. (Id. at 95.) The doctor could not state with scientific certainty in which order the wounds had been inflicted. (Id. at 98.)

In regards to how the injuries may have affected the victim physically, the Commonwealth and Dr. Collins had the following exchange:

[The Commonwealth]: ... I have a question as to, specifically, the wounds that caused a great deal of blood loss. What effect, if any, would they have on a person’s ability to stay upright and their physical strength after receiving those wounds?
[Dr. Collins]: Let me just see, you are asking what would be the effect of significant blood loss?
[The Commonwealth]: Yes.
[Dr. Collins]: Well, if someone loses a lot of blood fairly rapidly, they begin to get weak and lose their consciousness or not be as alert as they should be, they’re going to become faint and then collapse, and then they’re not necessarily going to be able to respond clearly to any questions, they’re not probably going to be able to put up a fight, and then with the sufficient blood loss, they’re going to lose total consciousness and then eventually die because of the blood loss.
[The Commonwealth]: Where you’ve described as not being able to stand upright, how long of a period of blood loss would it take for that to happen?
[Dr. Collins]: It depends, but someone goes into shock if they lose approximately a third of their blood volume, and if it’s rapid and there are other mitigating factors, it could take anywhere from 30 seconds to three minutes, difficult to say.
[The Commonwealth]: And aside from blood loss, were there any other injuries, any other of the injuries that you described in this report that had an effect on [the decedent’s] motor functions?
[Dr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
36 A.3d 592, 2012 Pa. Super. 8, 2012 Pa. Super. LEXIS 8, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-son-truong-pasuperct-2012.