Com. v. Cooper

• Decision Date: 28 December 2007
• Docket Number: No. 462 CAP.,No. 455 CAP.,No. 454 CAP.,454 CAP.,455 CAP.,462 CAP.
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Willie COOPER, Appellant. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Appellant v. Willie Cooper.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

941 A.2d 655

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Willie COOPER, Appellant.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Appellant v. Willie Cooper.

No. 454 CAP.

No. 455 CAP.

No. 462 CAP.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued April 17, 2007.

Decided December 28, 2007.

Mitchell S. Strutin, Philadelphia, for Willie Cooper, appellant.

Amy Zapp, Harrisburg; Hugh J. Burns, William Young, Philadelphia Dist. Attorney's Office, for the Com. of PA, appellee.

BEFORE: CAPPY, C.J., CASTILLE, SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, BALDWIN and FITZGERALD, JJ.

OPINION

Justice FITZGERALD.

Appellant Willie Cooper was arrested on May 1, 2002, and charged with murder and related offenses in connection with the killing of Sherita House in Philadelphia.¹ The victim lived with her boyfriend, William Cooper, who is appellant's brother. The murder took place in the couple's apartment.

The Honorable Jane Cutler Greenspan, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, presided over appellant's jury trial. On October 1, 2003, the jury found, appellant guilty of First Degree Murder (18 Pa.C.S. § 2502(a)), Robbery (18 Pa.C.S. § 3701(a)), and Burglary (18 Pa.C.S. § 3502(a)). On October 3, 2003, following a penalty phase hearing, the jury returned a sentence of death, finding one aggravating circumstance (a killing committed while in the perpetration of a felony, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(6)), and no mitigating circumstances. The trial court imposed additional, consecutive prison terms of nine to twenty years for robbery and five to twenty years for burglary.

New counsel filed post-sentence motions on a variety of grounds, including ineffective assistance of trial and mitigation counsel. The trial court held two days of hearings on the motions in April 2004, after which it denied appellant's requests for an arrest of judgment or new trial, but granted appellant's motion for a new penalty hearing. The court concluded that mitigation counsel had rendered ineffective assistance during his closing argument.²

The Commonwealth appealed the trial court's order granting a new penalty phase hearing and appellant likewise filed an appeal in which he challenged the trial court's denial of relief on all other claims set forth in his post-sentence motions. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the trial court's orders granting a new penalty hearing and denying all other claims.

In all instances in which the death penalty is imposed, this Court begins its review with an inquiry into the sufficiency of the evidence to support first-degree murder. Commonwealth v. Davido, 582 Pa. 52, 868 A.2d 431, 435 (2005). This case presents a slightly different procedural posture. Although the jury imposed a death sentence in this case, the trial court vacated that penalty and the Commonwealth has appealed the court's decision. Thus, we have before us a case in which the death penalty was imposed and then vacated, with the Commonwealth requesting that we re-impose the death sentence.

In prior cases that involved collateral review, we have characterized matters in which a lower court vacated the death sentence as ones "in which the death penalty has been imposed," thus triggering our review of all issues properly preserved on appeal. Commonwealth v. Bryant, 566 Pa. 307, 780 A.2d 646, 648 (2001) (citation omitted) (holding death sentence need not be pending in order for this Court to engage in review of issues on appeal). See also Commonwealth v. Collins, 585 Pa. 45, 888 A.2d 564, 568 (2005) (holding guilt phase issues shall be resolved by this Court even if death sentence has been vacated by trial court on collateral review).

This case is before us on direct appeal following the jury's imposition of the death penalty and the trial court's examination and resolution of multiple guilt phase and penalty phase issues. We have the benefit of a complete record. Accordingly, we begin with a factual summary to facilitate our sufficiency review and thereafter address all relevant and preserved claims of the parties on appeal.

SUMMARY OF FACTS

The evidence at trial revealed the following facts. On February 3, 2002, at 1:27 a.m., police officers responded to a report of burglary in progress at the Emperian Towers apartment building in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. Upon arrival they met William Cooper, appellant's brother, who took the officers to his apartment. When first entering the apartment, the officers found the entryway closet open and its contents disturbed. Inside, the officers discovered Ms. House lying face-down in the hallway. There were no apparent signs of forced entry and no indications of a struggle. Nothing of value appeared to be missing and only a sofa cushion had been disturbed. The victim's pocketbook was on a couch and a diamond ring and credit card were lying on the floor. The victim had not been sexually assaulted.

An autopsy indicated that Ms. House had been strangled to death. The medical examiner testified that there were no signs of a defensive struggle. A mark on her forehead was consistent with a fall to a carpeted surface. The medical examiner likened his findings in this case to other post mortems where large men were quickly subdued by a strangulation attack from behind.

William Cooper and Sherita House had been dating for over a year and Ms. House was three and one-half months pregnant with William's child at the time of her death. According to William, appellant had stayed at the couple's apartment for two nights prior to the killing. Appellant was a temporary guest, who did not possess a key to the apartment, or a security card to the building. However, appellant was aware of a side exit-door which typically was propped open by those using it to leave and then reenter the building. On the afternoon of the murder, Ms. House was getting ready for her 4:00 p.m. shift at Boscov's department store. William and appellant left the apartment at about 2:30 p.m., as Ms. House was preparing for work. The brothers intended to take a train into Center City Philadelphia. They used the side exit-door when leaving the apartment complex on their way to the train station.

When the train arrived, William began to board the train, but appellant did not. Appellant explained to William that he had changed his mind, and had decided to catch a bus to his former girlfriend's house in order to visit his child. William got on the train and appellant walked away from the station. William's cellular phone records for the afternoon and evening substantiated his account of his activities that day.

Following the discovery of the victim and as the criminal investigation progressed, police sought to interview appellant. Detectives went to the home where appellant had been living with his girlfriend, but before they could speak to him, he jumped out a back window and fled. For the next twelve days, police attempted to locate appellant, without success, and appellant made no attempt to contact detectives. On February 18, 2002, armed with a search warrant, detectives went back to the same house, found appellant, and transported him to police headquarters for an interview.

Once in custody, appellant told police that after William boarded the train, he went to a doughnut shop several blocks and several bus stops away from the train station. He then took a bus to his former girlfriend's house, arriving there at about 4:30 or 4:45 p.m. A detective retraced appellant's purported route at the same time and day of the week, finding that it took 45 minutes to arrive at the girlfriend's house, leaving a period of at least an hour when appellant's whereabouts were unknown. Ms. Danine Cox, appellant's former girlfriend and the mother of his child, testified that appellant arrived at her home at about 4:00 p.m. that Saturday afternoon. Earlier, she told police that appellant could have arrived after 4:00 p.m.

On February 26, 2002, William Cooper began to cooperate more fully with police. He admitted that he had been selling marijuana, and had purchased a pound of marijuana the evening prior to Ms. House's death. William explained that appellant was with him when he bought the drugs. Appellant saw. William place the marijuana in a "City Blue" bag, hide the bag in the closet by the front door, and place appellant's red and black gym bag on top of the drugs in the closet. William also hid his gun, a .380 semi-automatic, beneath the sofa cushion, while appellant was present that night.

Upon receiving this information from William, police went to the home where appellant lived and interviewed Christina Shaird, the mother of appellant's girlfriend. Ms. Shaird told police that in the days following the murder she had seen appellant with a "City Blue" bag containing marijuana and also had observed a black and red gym bag with a "lot of weed" in it, beneath Willie's bed. Ms. Shaird's son, Antwan, who also lived at the residence; sold marijuana for appellant and had been arrested for drug sales shortly after Ms. House's murder. During this same time period, Ms. Shaird's other son, Dwaine, observed Antwan return marijuana to appellant and saw that appellant possessed a gray, dark colored gun with a clip. Antwan also saw appellant with a gun at that time; he described the weapon as a green and brown automatic, with a nine round clip. Ms. Shaird consented to a search of her home, where police retrieved a black gym bag with red trim from a closet. No drugs were found in the bag, but a canine sniff test resulted in a positive indication for illegal drugs.

At trial, appellant defended the matter by placing blame for the murder on his brother William. Several defense witnesses testified that William and Ms. House had been in a violent relationship, that .Ms. House had shown them burn marks and bruises on her body some months earlier, and that she had said she intended to leave William. Appellant also suggested that perhaps the murder had been committed by William's rivals in the drug trade. The jury rejected both defense ...