Com. v. Champney

• Decision Date: 24 September 2003
• Citation: 832 A.2d 403,574 Pa. 435
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Ronald Grant CHAMPNEY, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

832 A.2d 403

574 Pa. 435

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Ronald Grant CHAMPNEY, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued December 5, 2000.

Decided September 24, 2003.

Marsha Ann Chwastiak, Kent D. Watkins, St. Clair, for Ronald Grant Champney, Appellant.

Claude A.L. Shields, Charles A. Bressi, Pottsville, Amy Zapp, Harrisburg, for the Com. of PA, Appellee.

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

OPINION OF THE COURT

JUSTICE CASTILLE.

Before this Court is appellant's direct appeal from the sentence of death imposed by a jury on October 26, 1999. Because we find no merit to the issues appellant raises, we affirm the judgment of sentence.

Appellant was arrested on October 8, 1998 and charged with first degree murder,¹ aggravated assault,² burglary,³ criminal trespass,⁴ theft by unlawful taking,⁵ receiving stolen property⁶ and possessing instruments of crime.⁷ On October 25, 1999, a jury convicted Champney of all charges. The following day, the same jury, having found two aggravating circumstances⁸ and three mitigating circumstances,⁹ and finding that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances, sentenced appellant to death. This appeal followed.

In cases where a sentence of death has been imposed, this Court performs a self-imposed duty to review the sufficiency of the evidence for first degree murder. Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer, 500 Pa. 16, 454 A.2d 937, 942 n. 3 (1982), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 970, 103 S.Ct. 2444, 77 L.Ed.2d 1327 (1983). The evidence introduced at trial and summarized below plainly was sufficient to support appellant's first degree murder conviction.

On June 4, 1992, Roy Bensinger was shot and killed in the driveway of his home in Schuylkill County with a .30-.30 caliber Winchester rifle stolen from his home. The evidence, which included appellant's admissions to others, showed that Bensinger's wife, Beth Bensinger, hired appellant to kill her husband and agreed to pay appellant from the proceeds of her husband's life insurance policy. David Blickley, a prosecution witness, testified that appellant told him that he killed Roy Bensinger because Beth Bensinger hired him to do so. Blickley also stated that appellant took him to the place where the killing had occurred and demonstrated how he had killed the victim. Appellant also told Blickley that he took weapons and ammunition from the victim's home: appellant's account to Blickley of items that he stole matched the items missing from the victim's home. One of the victim's neighbors testified that he heard a gunshot between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on the day of the murder, and the pathologist placed the victim's time of death at between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Appellant presented alibi witnesses, none of whom were able to account for appellant's whereabouts before nearly sunset, which occurred at 8:31 p.m. on the day of the murder.

Appellant fled to Oregon shortly after the killing and visited his half-sister. She described his actions as those of someone who was afraid of being observed. For example, appellant closed curtains in any room in which he was sitting. He immediately left Oregon after police visited his sister's home. He made his way to North Carolina where he worked for a trucking firm. There, he made several statements to Joy Hinshaw in which he described killing someone in a driveway with one shot from a .30 caliber rifle.

In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we must determine whether the evidence admitted at trial, and all reasonable inferences derived therefrom, when viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as the verdict winner, supports the jury's finding of all of the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Spotz, 563 Pa. 269, 759 A.2d 1280 (2000)

. The elements of first degree murder exist where the Commonwealth shows "that the defendant acted with the specific intent to kill, that a human being was unlawfully killed, that the person accused did the killing, and that the killing was done with premeditation or deliberation." Id. at 1283 (citing 18 Pa.C.S. § 2502(d)); Commonwealth v. Mitchell, 528 Pa. 546, 599 A.2d 624, 626 (1991). Viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as the verdict winner, the evidence of appellant's contract killing of Roy Bensinger was amply sufficient to support the first degree murder verdict.

Appellant claims, however, that the guilty verdict was against the weight of the evidence because, inter alia, (1) the jury supposedly ignored evidence that the police did not thoroughly investigate the circumstances under which the victim's body was discovered and that there were contradictory accounts by those present at the murder scene; (2) testimony regarding appellant's admissions was inconsistent; and (3) there were no eyewitnesses to the murder and the murder weapon was never found. The standard for review of a claim that a verdict is against the weight of the evidence is well-established:

The weight of the evidence is exclusively for the finder of fact who is free to believe all, part, or none of the evidence and to determine the credibility of the witnesses. Commonwealth v. Johnson, 542 Pa. 384, 394, 668 A.2d 97, 101 (1995), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 827, 117 S.Ct. 90, 136 L.Ed.2d 46 (1996). An appellate court cannot substitute its judgment for that of the finder of fact. Commonwealth v. Pronkoskie, 498 Pa. 245, 251, 445 A.2d 1203, 1206 (1982). Thus, we may only reverse the lower court's verdict if it is so contrary to the evidence as to shock one's sense of justice. Commonwealth v. Hawkins, 549 Pa. 352, 368, 701 A.2d 492, 500 (1997), cert. denied, 523 U.S. 1083, 118 S.Ct. 1535, 140 L.Ed.2d 685 (1998).

Commonwealth v. Small, 559 Pa. 423, 741 A.2d 666, 672-73 (1999). Moreover, where the trial court has ruled on the weight claim below, an appellate court's role is not to consider the underlying question of whether the verdict is against the weight of the evidence. Rather, appellate review is limited to whether the trial court palpably abused its discretion in ruling on the weight claim. Commonwealth v. Tharp, 830 A.2d 519, 528 (Pa.2003) (citations omitted).

The jury was free to believe all, part or none of the evidence against appellant outlined above. The points appellant identifies as affecting the weight of the evidence were points he was free to argue at trial. Against these points were arrayed, however, appellant's admissions of guilt, the insufficiency of his alibi, the establishment of the murder for hire motive for the killing, and strong circumstantial evidence including flight. It was exclusively within the jury's province to weigh these matters. That the jury convicted appellant is not so contrary to the evidence as to shock one's sense of justice. Thus, this claim fails.

Appellant's next claim is that he is entitled to a new trial because the Commonwealth supposedly obtained his conviction with the testimony of an "unindicted co-conspirator," i.e. David Blickley, in circumstances where the Commonwealth allegedly knew that Blickley's testimony was perjured and failed to disclose the nature of arrangements made with Blickley in exchange for his testimony. Appellant petitioned this Court to reopen the trial court record on the ground that he had discovered new evidence confirming the existence of an undisclosed arrangement between Blickley and the Commonwealth related to his testimony at appellant's trial. On January 22, 2002, we remanded to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing on appellant's after-discovered evidence claim. The trial court held the evidentiary hearing on April 8, 2003. The parties then briefed the question in the trial court and the trial court has since filed a supplemental opinion addressing and rejecting the claim. The trial court found that the evidence appellant presented would not have compelled a different outcome if it had been produced at appellant's trial. Appellant has now submitted a supplemental brief to this Court, while the Commonwealth relies upon its trial court brief in opposition to the claim.

The background for appellant's claim that the Commonwealth knowingly introduced perjured testimony from Blickley is as follows. Blickley testified at appellant's trial that appellant had admitted to him that he committed the murder; Blickley also claimed that he did not solicit appellant to commit the murder. Appellant argues that the Commonwealth knew that this testimony was perjured because the Commonwealth's pre-trial evidence, including evidence presented at appellant's preliminary hearing, suggested that David Blickley had hired appellant to shoot the victim. Thus, Brian Blickley, David's brother, testified at the preliminary hearing that appellant had told him that David Blickley hired appellant to kill Roy Bensinger. Further, the affidavit of probable cause submitted in support of appellant's arrest warrant included statements from Brian Blickley, Michael Setlock and Leroy Long, all to the effect that appellant admitted that he committed the murder, while claiming that David Blickley had hired him to do so. Meanwhile, David Blickley, acting on the advice of counsel, asserted his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer any questions at the preliminary hearing.

As further proof of the Commonwealth's alleged subornation of perjury, appellant argues that Claude A. Lord Shields, Esquire, then-District Attorney of Schuylkill County, had stated in re-election campaign speeches that he believed that David Blickley had hired appellant to kill Roy Bensinger. These campaign statements, appellant alleges, further demonstrate the Commonwealth's knowledge that Blickley's trial testimony was false.

This evidence does not prove that David Blickley's trial testimony was perjured. During the investigation of this murder, Blickley gave a statement to investigators indicating that appellant had admitted...