Com. v. Blakeney
| Decision Date | 01 May 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 404 CAP.,404 CAP. |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Herbert J. BLAKENEY, Jr. Appellant. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
OPINION
This is a direct appeal from a sentence of death imposed by the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas on August 8, 2002, following a capital jury trial. Because we find the issues raised by appellant without merit, we affirm the convictions and judgments of sentence.
Sacha Blakeney, the estranged wife of appellant, Herbert Blakeney, lived in an apartment at 63 North 14th Street in Harrisburg with Duana Swanson and their respective children. Responding to a report of a domestic disturbance at the apartment on February 1, 2000, Harrisburg Police found appellant and Sacha engaged in an argument. When appellant would not leave, the police escorted him from the apartment to his place of residence. Later that evening, Sacha left the apartment, leaving behind Swanson, Swanson's thirteen-year-old son, Maurice, and Sacha's two infant children, Basil and Aliya. Appellant later returned to the apartment to retrieve some clothing. Appellant also repeatedly telephoned the apartment asking to speak with Sacha. Fearful of further confrontations or telephone calls, Swanson had a friend, Garth George, stay with her until Sacha returned. Swanson also spoke with Sacha and informed her that appellant had been to the apartment.
While out buying beer, George encountered appellant, who told George "he was getting ready to do something" and did not want George to get involved. Notes of Testimony ("N.T."), 8/6/02, at 599, 602. George rejoined Swanson at the apartment and both soon discovered that the telephone lines had been cut, which appellant admitted to at trial. Leaving George with the children, Swanson and Maurice went to a nearby phone booth to call the police, who said that they would "keep an eye on the place." Id. at 550. Sometime thereafter, George left the apartment, and as he left, Swanson asked him to call the police again.
Later that night, in the early morning hours of February 2, 2000, appellant entered the apartment with a butcher knife and confronted Swanson and the children in a bedroom. Appellant jumped on the bed where Swanson and the children were gathered, grabbed Swanson by the arm, and dragged her from the bed. Maurice ran from the room and was immediately pursued by appellant, who had released Swanson to give chase. When Maurice reached the rear door he opened it to find Harrisburg Police Officer William Vernouski standing in the threshold with his gun drawn. Officer Vernouski, who was responding to a pending call, had arrived at the residence and approached the rear door after hearing a woman inside screaming for help.
At that point, appellant turned towards Swanson and stabbed her in the chest with his butcher knife. The two began to struggle, causing Swanson additional injuries to her hands. Appellant continued to try to stab Swanson while Officer Vernouski repeatedly told him to drop the knife. Appellant and Swanson fell to the floor. Appellant leaned over Swanson with his knife and choked her until she lost consciousness. Appellant walked away from Swanson and repeatedly walked in and out of the bedroom while making stabbing motions towards Officer Vernouski and shouting, "Shoot me, shoot me."
Appellant then reached toward the children, who had been asleep on the bed, picked up Basil, Sacha's 14-month-old son (not fathered by appellant), and held the child in his left arm while holding the knife in his right hand with the blade to Basil's throat. Officer Vernouski, who was now accompanied by other police officers, attempted to reason with appellant, but appellant refused to put the infant down and walked into a rear stairwell. Appellant then cut Basil's throat with the butcher knife in a back-and-forth sawing motion, cutting the child's neck down to the bone and producing a gaping stab wound. Appellant relinquished control of the child only after Officer Vernouski shot him three times. The officers attempted to revive the infant, but were unsuccessful. Basil was rushed to the hospital where it was determined that he died from the wounds inflicted by appellant. The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy of Basil described the wound as "a huge stab wound in the neck" made by "multiple cuts ... down into the bone," and that "[i]t appeared [appellant] was trying to cut the poor child's neck off." N.T., 8/6/02, at 649-51.
At trial, where appellant requested and was permitted to represent himself, the foregoing facts were presented. Officer Vernouski described the events recounted above. Regarding the murder of the child, Officer Vernouski testified:
[Appellant] is now, he is laying back on the stairwell, and he is still holding the baby. The baby's head is covering part of his head and most of the baby's body is on his torso and I seen him with the knife and I could see the baby. There is a lot of blood right here and he is cutting the baby and this is instantly.
N.T., 8/6/02, at 682. Harrisburg Police Officers David Kyle and Charles Painter also testified. Although Officer Painter saw appellant hold the knife to Basil's throat and was immediately behind Officer Vernouski when appellant cut the infant's neck, neither Officer Painter nor Kyle saw the murderous act itself.
The jury returned a verdict of guilty for the first-degree murder of Basil Blakeney, as well as the attempted murder and aggravated assault of Duana Swanson. At the sentencing phase, the Commonwealth presented three aggravating circumstances pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(3), (7), and (16).1 Appellant elected not to pursue any mitigating circumstances. On October 17, 2002, the jury found two aggravating circumstances, Sections 9711(d)(3) and (16), and no mitigating circumstances, and, because there were no mitigators, returned a sentence of death as mandated by law. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(c)(iv). The trial court later formally imposed the sentence of death, as well as a lesser concurrent sentence of 20-to-40 years' incarceration for the attempted murder of Duana Swanson.
Appellant, who is now represented by counsel, raises six issues on appeal, five addressing the guilt phase of his trial and one regarding the penalty phase.2
Appellant first claims that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions for first-degree murder and attempted murder.3 With respect to his conviction for the first-degree murder of Basil Blakeney, appellant states that the Commonwealth did not demonstrate that he killed Basil and that, even if it did, it was insufficient to show that he did so with the specific intent to kill. As for the attempted murder of Duana Swanson, appellant claims that, while he admittedly was in an altercation with Swanson, he did not take a substantial step towards killing her. Although he may have intended to cause her bodily harm, appellant contends, the Commonwealth failed to prove that he had the specific intent to kill her. Appellant does not develop either argument in any meaningful fashion. He does not discuss the evidence at trial, or tie it to any theory of insufficiency.
The Commonwealth responds that the evidence was sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant acted with specific intent to kill both when he murdered Basil and when he attempted to murder Swanson. Additionally, the Commonwealth states that no evidence of legal justification for appellant's actions was presented at trial.
In its Pa.R.A.P.1925(a) opinion, the trial court determined that the evidence satisfied the elements of murder in the first degree as to Basil. Specifically, the evidence demonstrated that: (1) Basil Blakeney was a fourteen-month-old child who was unlawfully killed; (2) appellant was responsible for the killing of Basil; and (3) the jury could infer specific intent from appellant's use of a deadly weapon upon a vital part of Basil's body. The trial court also found the evidence sufficient to prove the attempted murder of Duana Swanson because the jury could find specific intent to kill from appellant's use of a deadly weapon upon a vital part of Swanson's body, and thereby took a substantial step towards the goal of killing her.
Evidence presented at trial is sufficient when, viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as verdict winner, the evidence and all reasonable inferences derived therefrom are sufficient to establish all elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Commonwealth v. Edwards, 588 Pa. 151, 903 A.2d 1139, 1146 (2006), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 2030, 167 L.Ed.2d 772 (2007) (citing Commonwealth v. Bridges, 563 Pa. 1, 757 A.2d 859, 864 (2000)). In the case of first-degree murder, a person is guilty when the Commonwealth proves that: (1) a human being was unlawfully killed; (2) the person accused is responsible for the killing; and (3) the accused acted with specific intent to kill. 18 Pa. C.S. § 2502(d); Commonwealth v. Spotz, 563 Pa. 269, 759 A.2d 1280, 1283 (2000), cert. denied, 534 U.S. 1104, 122 S.Ct. 902, 151 L.Ed.2d 871 (2002). An intentional killing is a "[k]illing by means of poison, or by lying in wait, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate and premeditated killing." 18 Pa.C.S. § 2502(d). The Commonwealth may prove that a killing was intentional solely through circumstantial evidence. The finder of fact may infer that the defendant had the specific intent to kill the victim based on the defendant's use of a deadly weapon upon a vital part of the victim's body....
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