Commonwealth v. Walker

139 A.3d 225, 2016 Pa. Super. 100, 2016 WL 2848694, 2016 Pa. Super. LEXIS 267
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 13, 2016
Docket485 EDA 2014
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 139 A.3d 225 (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, 139 A.3d 225, 2016 Pa. Super. 100, 2016 WL 2848694, 2016 Pa. Super. LEXIS 267 (Pa. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION BY BENDER, P.J.E.:

Appellant, Derrick TT Walker, appeals from the judgment of sentence of an aggregate term of 4 to 10 years' incarceration, imposed after a jury convicted him, in four separate cases, of four counts of unlawful contact with a minor, 18 Pa.C.S. § 6318(a)(1), four counts of corruption of minors, 18 Pa.C.S. § 6301(a)(1)(i), and one count each of unlawful restraint, 18 Pa.C.S. § 2902(a)(1), luring a child into a motor vehicle or structure, 18 Pa.C.S. 2910(a), and simple assault, 18 Pa.C.S. § 2701(a)(1). On appeal, Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his convictions. After careful review, we affirm.

The facts of Appellant's cases, which were consolidated for trial, can be summarized as follows: 1

On May 4, 2011, four days shy of her [tenth] birthday, Z.A. was walking to school at around 7:15 a.m. when she stopped at a store at 29th and Moore Streets to buy juice and chips. While inside shopping, she looked up at a mirror hanging on the wall and noticed [A]ppellant, [ 2 ] whom she did not know, staring at her. She went to the counter to pay for her items, and [A]ppellant followed her, stood next to her, and continued to stare at her. Appellant left the store, and when Z.A. walked outside shortly thereafter, she saw [A]ppellant in a parked red car. As she walked down 29th Street, [A]ppellant drove up next to her, stopped the car and said "Come here[.]" Z.A. ran to school and [A]ppellant drove off. After school, Z.A. told her aunt ... what happened. Her aunt called the police, who came to the house and took a statement from Z.A.
L.C. testified that she was nine years old on May 6, 2011. On that date at around 6:45 a.m., she was standing alone at the school bus stop at 12th Street and Lehigh Avenue when [A]ppellant, whom she did not know, pulled up in a car. He asked L.C. if she had "hair on her pussy[.]" L.C. ran to school. Later that day, L.C. told a teacher, her mother, and her grandmother what had happened. She also spoke with police and identified [A]ppellant from a group of photos shown to her.
K.B. testified that on May [11], 2011, she was eleven years old. On that date at about 7:45 a.m., she and her six year-old brother were walking to Frederick Douglas Charter School near Ditman Street. As they walked, a red car drove up beside her and the driver, [A]ppellant, whom she did not know, asked her if she had "hair on her pussy[.]" She and her brother quickly walked to school and [A]ppellant drove off. K.B. told a teacher, who notified K.B.'s mother and *228 the police. K.B. later identified [A]ppellant from a group of photos shown to her by police.
T.H. testified that on May 11, 2011, she was eleven years old. 3 On that date at around 7:15 a.m., she was on a bus heading to school near Cleveland and Susquehanna Streets when she realized she forgot something at home. She got off the bus and began to walk home. A red car pulled up beside her and the driver, [A]ppellant, whom she did not know, asked her if she had "hair on her pussy[.]" Appellant then reached out the car window with his left hand and grabbed T.H.'s wrist. She put her foot against the car and pulled her wrist free. T.H. testified that [A]ppellant had "a good grip" and that it hurt, but that she was not cut or bruised. She ran home and [A]ppellant drove away. At home she told her grandmother, ... who called the police. Officers came to their house and, as T.H. was outside speaking to them, she saw [A]ppellant's car drive by. She pointed out the car to the officers, who then pursued [A]ppellant and arrested him.
3 Other Commonwealth evidence, including T.H.'s own testimony [about] her birthdate ... indicate[d] that T.H. was actually twelve years old on the day in question.
Corporal Eric Reiser testified that he was the officer who arrested [A]ppellant as he was stopped at a red light. He ordered [A]ppellant out of the car, and when [A]ppellant got out, his loose sweatpants fell down. [Appellant] was not wearing underwear and the officer leaned down to pull [A]ppellant's pants up. T.H. then identified [Appellant] as the man who had approached her.
Police Officer Michael O'Brien testified that he took photographs of items found inside [A]ppellant's car on the day of his arrest. The items included binoculars and a camera in its case on the rear floor, newspapers and a trash bag on the driver's seat. These items, in addition to a mirror, were later seized pursuant to a search warrant.
Detective Linda Pace testified that she showed photo arrays on separate occasions to each of the four complainants. Each girl identified [A]ppellant. She also stated that the four incidents occurred within a ten- to twenty-block radius in the 22nd Police District.

Appellant's Brief at 6-8 (citations to the record and some footnotes omitted).

Appellant was charged in four separate cases pertaining to each of his four victims. The cases were consolidated and he proceeded to a jury trial in June of 2013. At the close thereof, the jury convicted Appellant of the above-stated offenses. On January 23, 2014, he was sentenced to an aggregate term of 4 to 10 years' imprisonment. He filed a timely notice of appeal. As the presiding trial judge had retired, Appellant was not ordered to file a Pa.R.A.P.1925(b) concise statement of errors complained of on appeal, and no trial court opinion was filed. Appellant raises the following four issues for our review:

1. Was not [A]ppellant erroneously convicted of four counts of unlawful contact where the trial court instructed the jury that, to be convicted of that offense, [A]ppellant must have contacted each of the four complainants with the specific intent to commit indecent assault or sexual assault, and there was insufficient evidence he contacted the complainants for that particular purpose?
2. Was not the evidence insufficient to convict [A]ppellant of luring as to the complainant T.H. as his act of grabbing her wrist was not calculated to entice or induce her to get in his car?
*229 3. Was not [A]ppellant erroneously convicted of simple assault as to the complainant T.H. where there was insufficient evidence that [A]ppellant specifically intended to put T.H. in fear of serious bodily injury by physical menace?
4. Was not [A]ppellant erroneously convicted of corruption of minors as to the complainant Z.A. where there was insufficient evidence that his conduct tended to produce or encourage delinquent behavior on Z.A.'s part?

Appellant's Brief at 3.

Appellant's issues challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his convictions.

In reviewing a sufficiency of the evidence claim, we must determine whether the evidence admitted at trial, as well as all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, when viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict winner, are sufficient to support all elements of the offense. Commonwealth v. Moreno,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
139 A.3d 225, 2016 Pa. Super. 100, 2016 WL 2848694, 2016 Pa. Super. LEXIS 267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-walker-pasuperct-2016.