Commonwealth v. Walker

874 A.2d 667, 2005 Pa. Super. 170, 2005 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1026
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 6, 2005
StatusPublished
Cited by47 cases

This text of 874 A.2d 667 (Commonwealth v. Walker) 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. Walker, 874 A.2d 667, 2005 Pa. Super. 170, 2005 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1026 (Pa. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

OPINION BY

ORIE MELVIN, J.:

¶ 1 Appellant, James Walker a/k/a Willie Kendrick, appeals from the judgment of sentence imposed following his convictions, in a bench trial, of Possession with Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance 35 P.S. § 780-113(a)(30), Possession of an Instrument Crime, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 907, and other related charges. He challenges the denial of his motion to suppress and the sufficiency of the evidence to support a finding that he constructively possessed the drugs and guns recovered. We affirm.

¶ 2 The trial court summarized the facts as follows:

On November 19, 1997 at approximately 8:45 p.m., Philadelphia Police Officer Jeffrey Hampton conducted a nar-coticfs] surveillance targeting the rear of a property located at 7302 N. 21st Street in Philadelphia. At the location, the officer observed numerous people pull up onto 21st Street in their vehicles, park across the street and walk up the driveway to the rear entrance door on the ground level of the home. The officer observed several people knock on the *670 basement door, spend a few minutes inside and leave shortly thereafter in their vehicles. At approximately 8:50 p.m. Philadelphia police officers observed two black females approach the property and exit shortly thereafter looking at objects in their hands. Police Officer Pinckney stopped the women a few feet away from the location, and confiscated from them a blue tinted plastic packet which contained a white powder substance. This substance later tested positive for cocaine. A green substance also confiscated tested positive for marijuana.
The next day November 20, 1997 at approximately 1:35 a.m. officers of the Philadelphia police arrived at the house located at 7302 N. 21st street with a search warrant. The officers knocked on the basement door, announced their identity and purpose and heard a male voice respond. After a few seconds with no further response, the officers rammed the basement door. Upon entering the building the officers observed a large room at the basement level. The defendant had dominion and control over the basement area where he kept his clothes and mail addressed to him. He was standing at the top of the stairs when he was arrested. The defendant was in constructive possession of the narcotics in his home.
Inside the basement area, the officers found a camera that monitored the whole walkway, and in the middle of the room was a desk with two piles of a white substance that tested positive for cocaine. The officers recovered a bag underneath the desk with a white powder substance and a camera viewing the driveway area. Also recovered from the basement were scales, 29 packets of eo-caine, clear plastic baggies, $10,203.00 in U.S. currency and seven (7) guns in the basement. Two other people lived with the defendant; a sixty (60) year old female and an eighty (80) year old male. These individuals were not arrested.

Trial Court Opinion, filed 3/31/04, at 1-3 (citations to the record omitted). Appellant filed a motion to suppress the physical evidence as the product of a search made in contravention of the “knock and announce” rule embodied in Pa.R.Crim.P. 207 (formerly Rule 2007). The trial court conducted a hearing on June 30, 1998, in which only Officer Marvin Young testified. The trial court found that the officers complied with Rule 207 and denied the motion. Accordingly, a waiver trial followed, and Appellant was convicted of possession with the intent to deliver, firearms violations and related offenses. 1 This appeal follows.

¶ 3 Appellant presents the following questions for our review:

1. The trial court erred in denying Appellant’s Motion to Suppress Physical Evidence inasmuch as police officers, in possession of a search warrant, forcibly entered a home without waiting a reasonable period after their announcement, as required by law, and without exigent circumstances to justify the unreasonable manner of their entry, in violation of Appellant’s rights under Pa. R.Crim.P. 207, Article 1, § 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, and the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
2. The trial court erred in denying Appellant’s Motion to Suppress Physical Evidence because the search warrant illegally authorized a nighttime search, as the Affidavit failed to state additional reasonable cause for seeking permission *671 to search at nighttime as required by Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure 203(E) and 206(7), and therefore the search was a violation of Article 1, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and Pa.R.Crim.P., [Rules] 203(E) and 206(7).
3. The Commonwealth failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Appellant constructively possessed [neither] the drugs nor the weapons recovered where the testimony was simply that Appellant was merely present and arrested on the second floor of a house in which drugs were found, and were being sold from a sealed area in the basement.

Appellant’s brief, at 3.

¶4 Appellant’s first two issues concern the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress. Our scope of review of a suppression order is well-settled. Where the Commonwealth prevailed on the issue before the trial court, an appellate court “may consider only the Commonwealth’s evidence and so much of the evidence for the defense as remains uncontradicted when read in the context of the record as a whole.” Commonwealth v. Boczkowski, 577 Pa. 421, 446, 846 A.2d 75, 89 (2004). Where the record supports the factual findings as determined by the trial court, this Court is bound by those facts and may reverse only if the legal conclusions drawn therefrom are in error. Id. Additionally, we defer to the credibility determinations made by the trial court hearing the suppression evidence so long as its findings are supported by the record. Commonwealth v. Johonoson, 844 A.2d 556, 560 (Pa.Super.2004), appeal denied, — Pa. -, 863 A.2d 1144 (2004).

¶5 Appellant first argues that the police violated the knock and announce rule during execution of the instant search warrant by failing to wait a reasonable period of time after their announcement of presence and purpose before forcibly entering the premises. This so-called “knock and announce” rule states:

(A) A law enforcement officer executing a search warrant shall, before entry, give, or make reasonable effort to give, notice of the officer’s identity, authority, and purpose to any occupant of the premises specified in the warrant, unless exigent circumstances require the officer’s immediate forcible entry.
(B) Such officer shall await a response for a reasonable period of time after this announcement of identity, authority, and purpose, unless exigent circumstances require the officer’s immediate forcible entry.

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Bluebook (online)
874 A.2d 667, 2005 Pa. Super. 170, 2005 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1026, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-walker-pasuperct-2005.