Com. v. Bradley

Citation575 Pa. 141,834 A.2d 1127
PartiesCOMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Taboo BRADLEY, Appellant.
Decision Date28 October 2003
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Dale E. Klein, for Taboo Bradley, Appellant.

Edward Michael Marsico, Francis T. Chardo, Harrisburg, for the Com. of PA., Appellee.

Before: ZAPPALA, and CAPPY, CASTILLE, NIGRO, NEWMAN and SAYLOR, JJ.

OPINION

Justice CASTILLE.

This Court granted discretionary review in this criminal appeal to address whether appellant's two prior armed robbery convictions arose from separate criminal transactions such that appellant was properly sentenced under what is commonly termed the "three strikes" provision of the Sentencing Code, 42 Pa.C.S § 9714(a)(2) (as amended December 20, 2000, effective in 60 days). For the reasons set forth below, we agree with the courts below that appellant's prior convictions arose from separate criminal transactions and, accordingly, appellant was properly given an enhanced sentence as a three strike offender. We therefore affirm the order of the Superior Court.

On September 15, 1999, a jury convicted appellant of escape, aggravated assault (two counts) and related offenses. The assaults occurred on January 28, 1999, when FBI Agent Charles Williams and Harrisburg City Police Officer Deborah Reigle attempted to arrest appellant on an escape charge. Rather than surrender, appellant put his vehicle into reverse and backed directly toward the officers, who had to leap out of the way of the oncoming vehicle in order to avoid being struck. Appellant rammed into Reigle's police cruiser and, when his own vehicle became disabled, appellant fled on foot. When appellant was later apprehended, he spat in the face of a third officer, stating, "you're lucky I didn't have my gun."

On October 13, 1999, a second jury convicted appellant in a matter involving unrelated charges of simple assault, terroristic threats and firearms offenses. These charges arose from appellant's conduct on January 27, 1999, when he had a confrontation with a woman in a bar during which he punched the victim in the face, pulled out a gun, pointed it in the victim's face and said, "I'll kill you bitch."

Appellant proceeded to a consolidated sentencing hearing on both cases on October 27, 1999. At the sentencing hearing, the Commonwealth introduced evidence proving that appellant had previously been convicted of two armed robberies in 1991 and argued that those robbery convictions constituted two prior crimes of violence arising from separate criminal transactions. The Commonwealth asserted that the assault of Officer Reigle, which was graded as a first degree felony, constituted a third crime of violence for which appellant should receive a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years imprisonment pursuant to the "three strikes" law. In support of its contention, the Commonwealth introduced certified copies of the criminal indictments charging appellant with the 1991 robberies. In addition, the Commonwealth presented testimony concerning the circumstances of the prior offenses. Specifically, the Commonwealth introduced testimony that appellant and two co-defendants, John Straining and Charles Brown, robbed a person as he stood outside of the Maverick Steakhouse in Harrisburg at approximately 8:13 p.m. on the evening of February 7, 1991. See N.T. 10/27/1999 at 10-11, 16. Later that evening, at approximately 8:41 p.m., appellant and his two co-defendants robbed a second victim as she stood outside of Sisco's Pizza Shop which is also in Harrisburg. The distance between the two locations is 3.3 miles and, the investigating detective testified, it took him approximately seven minutes to drive that particular distance at a speed of up to 45 miles per hour. Id. at 16-17.

Appellant, for his part, argued that he should not be sentenced under the "three strikes" law because the 1991 robberies arose from a single criminal transaction. In support of this argument, appellant read into the record an excerpt of co-defendant Straining's testimony at his joint trial with appellant and co-defendant Brown on the 1991 robbery charges. Straining testified that after the Maverick Restaurant robbery, the three confederates divided the money they had stolen and then drove to Sisco's. Id. at 37-38. Appellant also read into the record the portion of Brown's testimony from trial in which he testified that, as far as he could recall, Sisco's was the next place the three men went after committing the Maverick Restaurant robbery. Id. at 38.

The trial court concluded that the 1991 robbery convictions constituted two predicate crimes of violence arising from separate criminal transactions. Accordingly, the trial court held that the instant aggravated assault conviction involving Officer Reigle qualified as appellant's third crime of violence which triggered the "three strikes" provision. Consistently with that provision, the court sentenced appellant to a 25 to 50 year term of incarceration on this charge. The aggregate sentence imposed on all charges was 39 to 78 years of imprisonment. Appellant filed a motion to modify sentence, renewing his claim that the two prior robberies should be deemed a single transaction for purposes of Section 9714. The trial court denied the motion.

On appeal to the Superior Court, appellant renewed his claim that the trial court erred in sentencing him as a third strike offender because the 1991 robberies constituted a single criminal transaction. The Superior Court affirmed in an unpublished opinion, with Judge Cavanaugh concurring in the result only. The panel began its analysis of appellant's "three strikes" claim by noting that it was a challenge to the discretionary aspects of appellant's sentence and that such a claim may only be entertained by the appellate court when there is a substantial question that the sentence is not appropriate under the Sentencing Code as a whole. Superior Court slip op. at 5. The panel then observed that Pennsylvania courts have not defined the term "transaction" for purposes of the "three strikes" law. The panel noted, however, that the fourth edition of the Pennsylvania Sentencing Guidelines, which were in effect at the time the "three strikes" provision was enacted,1 had defined "transaction" as follows:

A transaction is a crime or crimes which were committed by an offender at a single time or in temporally continuous actions that are part of the same episode, event, or incident, or which are conspiracy and the object offense. "Spree" crimes are not part of the same transaction unless they occurred as continuous actions not separated in time by law-abiding behavior.

202 Pa.Code § 303.7(c) (amended effective June 13, 1997). Working from this definition, the Superior Court noted that the 1991 crimes were committed approximately 28 minutes apart and more than three miles apart. The temporal and geographical separation of the crimes, the panel reasoned, "constituted a break in criminal activity." Slip op. at 7. Thus, the Superior Court concluded that the crimes were separate criminal transactions. Accordingly, the court held that there was no substantial question as to the appropriateness of the sentence and affirmed the trial court's judgment of sentence. This Court granted discretionary review.

Appellant claims that the trial court erred in sentencing him under the "three strikes" law. Appellant agrees with the Superior Court that, in construing the term "transaction" in Section 9714, this Court should look to the definition of that term which was included in the fourth edition of the Sentencing Guidelines. Appellant contends that under this definition, the two robberies were a same transaction "spree crime:" i.e., it was a continuous action that was not sufficiently separated in time by lawful conduct so as to comprise more than one criminal transaction. In support of this assertion, appellant notes that he received concurrent sentences of seven and one-half to fifteen years' imprisonment for the 1991 robbery convictions, a fact which suggests that the 1991 sentencing court viewed his crimes as arising from the same transaction. In addition, appellant contends that the underlying facts of the incidents show that they comprised a single criminal transaction. Specifically, appellant asserts that immediately after he and his cohorts committed the first robbery, they divided the proceeds among themselves and then proceeded to the scene of the second robbery. Appellant argues that: "[t]hey never reached a point of safety whereby ending the first conspiracy and robbery. Nor did they ever resume their normal activities." Brief for Appellant at 10.

The Commonwealth responds that the 1991 robbery convictions arose from crimes that "were separated in time and space" and thus appellant was properly sentenced as a "three strikes" offender. The Commonwealth notes that the common meaning of "transaction" is "an act, process, or instance of transacting." Brief for Appellee at 3 (quoting Webster's Third New International Dictionary). The Commonwealth argues that the two robberies, which occurred twenty-eight minutes apart at different locations separated by over three miles, "constituted separate acts and, therefore, separate transactions." Id. at 3. The Commonwealth agrees with appellant that it is appropriate to look to the Sentencing Guidelines' definition of the word "transaction," but argues that, under that definition, appellant's two previous robberies were not a spree crime that occurred as a single continuous action, but rather were separated by sufficient time and distance to constitute a break in criminal activity.

At the outset, we note that if this appeal were a challenge solely to the discretionary aspects of appellant's sentence, this Court generally would lack jurisdiction to entertain the matter. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9781(f) ("No appeal of the discretionary aspects of the sentence shall be permitted beyond the...

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