Com. v. Cornelius

• Decision Date: 06 July 2004
• Citation: 856 A.2d 62
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Joseph CORNELIUS, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

856 A.2d 62

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Joseph CORNELIUS, Appellant.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued March 17, 2004.

Filed July 6, 2004.

Reargument Denied September 15, 2004.

John L. Elash, Pittsburgh, for appellant.

Michael W. Steily, Deputy Dist. Atty., and Kevin McCarthy, Asst. Dist. Atty., Pittsburgh, for the Com., appellee.

Before: KLEIN, BENDER and JOHNSON, JJ.

BENDER, J.:

¶ 1 Joseph Cornelius (Appellant) appeals from the February 20, 2002 judgment of sentence of, in the aggregate, life imprisonment entered against him following his convictions of second degree murder, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, and two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse (IDSI).¹ We affirm.

I. Factual History

¶ 2 The trial court set forth the following factual background in this case:

On September 24, 2000, the victim, [S.D.], an 11 year old boy, left his grandmother's home to go outside and ride his bike down East Ohio Street [on the "North Side" of Pittsburgh]. While on this bike ride, the victim encountered [Appellant], who got the boy to accompany him into a field along the 800 block of East Ohio Street. Once there, [Appellant] proceeded to perform oral sex on the victim. After this sexual encounter, the victim reached for [Appellant's] [Walkman] cassette player. Upon determining that the victim was attempting to steal his Walkman, [Appellant] grabbed the boy, placed him on his back, climbed on top of his stomach and chest and choked him to death. [Appellant then left the crime scene and went to a nearby tavern. After having some beers at the tavern, he returned to the crime scene and proceeded [to] use a broken beer bottle to remove the victim's genitals, make an incision down the abdominal area of the victim and pull some of the intestines from the abdominal cavity. The victim's genitals were subsequently thrown from the 9th Street Bridge. The victim's body was found on September 25, 2000 at approximately 9:44 p.m.

Trial Court Opinion (T.C.O.), 11/8/02, at 2; Appellant's brief at 8-9. During the course of the ensuing criminal investigation, tow truck operator Robert Amend told investigators that he had been sitting on East Ohio Street on Sunday, September 24, 2000, and he saw Appellant emerge from the area of the field where the victim's body was later found. N.T. Trial (Vol. 1), 9/25-27/01, at 423-24. He recognized Appellant as a street person to whom he would occasionally give money. Id. at 423. Based on this information, investigators sought to interview Appellant.

¶ 3 Appellant was known to local police as the West End panhandler. Id. at 542. On Tuesday, September 26, 2000, the day after the victim's body was found, City of Pittsburgh Police Sergeant Patricia Kelly located Appellant. Id. at 546. Appellant agreed to accompany her to the homicide office to speak with detectives. Id. Detective Regis Kelly interviewed Appellant beginning at approximately 3:15 p.m. Id. at 582. Appellant was alert, coherent, and cooperative during the interview. Id. Appellant accounted for his whereabouts on Sunday, September 24, 2000, by stating that he arrived on the North Side at seven or eight o'clock that morning and went to the area in question (where the victim's body was later found) which is a wooded area off East Ohio Street by the Interstate 279 ramp. Id. at 584. He took several beers with him to that area and drank them as he waited for a nearby bar to open. Id. He claimed to have proceeded to the bar at about 11:00 a.m. to drink and watch a Steelers' football game. Id. Appellant stated that, following the game at about 5:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., he left the North Side by crossing the Ninth Street Bridge and catching public transportation to West Liberty Avenue (an area south of downtown Pittsburgh) where he arrived at about 7:00 p.m. on the porch of an abandoned house where he was staying. Id. at 585. Appellant stated that he did not see a young boy on a bicycle on the day in question. Id. at 586-87. Following the interview with Detective Kelly, which lasted approximately two hours, police transported Appellant from the homicide office to a location of his choosing. Id. at 589, 655. At this point, Appellant was not considered a suspect, but was considered to be a potential witness, even though the timeline of events describing his whereabouts conflicted somewhat with Mr. Amend's account of when he had seen Appellant on the day in question. Id. at 589-590. Specifically, Mr. Amend indicated that he saw Appellant come out of the woods near East Ohio Street at some point after the Steelers' game, carrying a green backpack. Id. at 609.

¶ 4 Following the initial interview with Appellant on Tuesday, September 26, 2000, homicide detectives received additional information. Forrest Hodges, a police officer, and James Harney, a nurse employed at a North Side hospital, both stated that they saw a homeless man and a young boy with a bicycle talking together just off East Ohio Street under a bridge shortly after 7:00 p.m. on Sunday. Id. at 590-91. Officer Hodges identified the homeless man he saw as Appellant and identified the boy on the bicycle as the victim, S.D. Id. at 319-320. Given this information, detectives located Appellant and brought him to the homicide office on Tuesday night, September 26, 2000, for further questioning. Id. at 592-94. Additionally, Mr. Harney and the tow truck driver, Mr. Amend, were able to immediately identify Appellant from a photo array as the person they saw in the crime scene area on Sunday evening, at a time shortly before the murder. Id. at 597-99.

¶ 5 Dennis Logan, a detective with the City of Pittsburgh homicide squad, interviewed Appellant on the second occasion he was brought to the homicide office, i.e., Tuesday night. N.T. Trial (Vol. 2), 9/28-29/00, at 710-711. Detective Logan and his colleague, Detective McDonald, entered the interview room and told Appellant that they wanted to talk about the death of a boy on the North Side. Id. at 716. Detective Logan told Appellant that prior to discussing this, he would read him his Miranda² rights, even though Appellant was not yet under arrest. Id. Detective Logan read the rights form to Appellant, and Appellant indicated that he understood his rights and he signed the form. Id. at 717-719. Appellant then agreed to speak with the detectives. Id. at 719.

¶ 6 The detectives questioned Appellant regarding his whereabouts on Sunday, September 24, 2000. Id. This time, Appellant stated that he awoke at approximately 6:00 a.m. and traveled to the North Side. Id. at 720. Once there, he drank a couple of beers and waited for a bar to open. Id. He went to the bar and watched the Steelers' game, and after the Steelers' game, he left the bar and went directly back to the abandoned house on West Liberty Avenue. Id. at 720-721, 723. Appellant again indicated that he did not talk to any boys of the victim's age. Id. at 721. This interview with Detective Logan lasted approximately an hour and, at that point, Appellant was still not under arrest. Id. at 723. However, during the course of the interview, Detective Logan was informed that Appellant had an outstanding warrant on a different crime and that he would be transported to the Allegheny County Jail following the interview. Id. Appellant agreed to talk to Detective Logan the following day. Id. at 724.

¶ 7 The following day, Wednesday, September 27, 2000, Detective Logan transported Appellant from the county jail back to the homicide office to continue the interview. Id. at 726. Appellant was "still pretty jovial, talking" and indicated his willingness to continue the interview. Id. Detective Logan again read Appellant his rights. Id. at 729. Appellant again indicated his understanding of each right and signed a rights form, but he was still not under arrest or charged at this point. Id. at 729-732. During this interview, Appellant admitted, contrary to his prior statements, that he did not leave the North Side immediately after the football game but had, rather, stayed on the North Side to panhandle for a while and then proceeded home to West Liberty Avenue. Id. at 737. Appellant then admitted that he did not actually take public transportation home and, according to Detective Logan's testimony, Appellant admitted that "he was with the kid and then he went on further to say that he, indeed, had killed the kid, but it was an accident." Id. at 738. At that point, Detective Logan stopped the interview and informed Appellant "that he was under arrest and charged with criminal homicide, he was no longer free to go pertaining to that charge." Id. at 739. Appellant indicated his understanding. Id.

¶ 8 Appellant then recounted the events surrounding the murder of the victim. Id. Essentially, Appellant admitted that he was panhandling after the Steelers' game when he encountered the victim on his bicycle. Id. at 741. He said the victim asked him many questions as he was panhandling. Id. at 741-742. Appellant went back to his secluded spot off East Ohio Street to drink more beer. Id. at 742. The victim followed. Id. At this point, Appellant admitted that he gave the victim five dollars to perform a sex act. Id. During the course of the sex act, the victim stopped and told Appellant that he did not like doing it. Id. at 743. At that point, Appellant stated that the victim's attention was drawn to Appellant's radio. Id. Appellant said that as the victim mentioned the radio and reached for it, Appellant got mad, grabbed the victim, threw the victim to the ground, straddled and sat on the victim's chest and stomach, and strangled the victim to death. Id. Appellant admitted that he knew the victim was dead at this point. Id. at 744. Appellant indicated that he knew that he had to do something with the victim's body, but "needed time to think." Id. He went to a nearby bar for awhile. Id. He stated that he recalled a "case from Oklahoma"...