Com. v. Corradino
| Decision Date | 26 March 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 00827,00827 |
| Citation | 403 Pa.Super. 251,588 A.2d 936 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. David CORRADINO, Appellant. Phila. 1990. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
Gerald P. Deady, Wilkes-Barre, for appellant.
Karen Tomaine, Asst. Dist. Atty., Clarks Summit, for Com., appellee.
Before MONTEMURO, TAMILIA and HOFFMAN, JJ.
This appeal is from the judgment of sentence for violating § 6115 of the Uniform Firearms Act, see 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 6101-6124. Appellant contends that the trial court erred in (1) admitting into evidence computer printouts; and (2) denying his demurrer. 1 We affirm.
The facts giving rise to the prosecution below were aptly summarized by the trial court as follows:
This matter had its origination in an occurrence which took place on May 26, 1986 when the body of a [D]own [V]alley police officer was found shot to death. Nearby was found the body of one David Williams, also shot to death, and, in his hand, his thumb on the trigger, a .44 caliber Ruger Red Hawk pistol. State Troopers Eugene McDonald and Carl M. Allen investigated the scene. It was determined from the serial number on the revolver that the weapon was owned by David Corradino, the Defendant herein. On May 27, 1986, the Defendant was interviewed at his home by State Trooper Stanley J. Jazewski, Detective Michael Dessoye of Luzerne County and Capt. William Thomas of the Avoca Police Department. He made a statement, at that time, that he had loaned the pistol to Williams on May 25, 1986. The Defendant was ultimately arrested on June 3, 1986.
Trial Court Opinion at 1. Appellant was charged with violating 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 6115, which provides that:
No person shall make any loan secured by mortgage, pledge or deposit of a firearm; nor shall any person lend or give a firearm to another or otherwise deliver a firearm contrary to the provisions of this subchapter.
Id. The case proceeded to trial on February 19, 1987, but a mistrial was declared after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Appellant was retried before a jury on June 8-9, 1987. At the close of the Commonwealth's case, appellant demurred. The demurrer was denied, and the defense rested without presenting evidence. Appellant then was found guilty. Post-trial motions were filed and denied, and, on February 16, 1990, appellant was sentenced to a one-year term of probation. This timely appeal followed.
Appellant first contends that the trial court erred in allowing the Commonwealth to introduce into evidence two computer printouts. The first printout was a request made to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), asking whether the Ruger Red Hawk that was found in David Williams's hand had been reported stolen. The second printout was the reply from NCIC, which indicated that there was no report that the gun had been stolen. The printouts were relevant, of course, because if the gun had not been stolen, it was more likely that appellant had violated § 6115. Appellant claims, however, that these reports were inadmissible hearsay. He argues that the printouts were "official records," and thus the Commonwealth was required to authenticate them pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 6103 and § 5328. This claim may be rejected summarily.
Section 6103, "Proof of Official Records," provides, in relevant part:
(a) General Rule.--An official record kept within this Commonwealth by any court, district justice or other government unit, or an entry therein, when admissible for any purpose, may be evidenced by an official publication thereof or by a copy attested by the officer having the legal custody of the record, or by his deputy, and accompanied by a certificate that the officer has the custody. The certificate may be made by any public officer having a seal of office and having official duties with respect to the government unit in which the record is kept, authenticated by the seal of this office, or if there is no such officer, by:
(1) The Department of State, in the case of any Commonwealth agency.
(2) The clerk of the court of common pleas of the judicial district embracing any county in which the government unit has jurisdiction, in the case of any government unit other than a Commonwealth agency.
Id. § 6103(a). Section 5328(a) contains similar language and governs, inter alia, official records kept within the United States. It has been noted that "[t]he effect of these statutes is to provide a means for satisfying the authentication requirement, and, in effect, to dispense with the need for the custodian of the records to appear in court as required under the business records statute." L. Packel & A. Poulin, Pennsylvania Evidence § 803.8, at 593 (1987 & Supp.1990).
After reviewing these sections, we agree with the trial court's observation that "[i]t is readily apparent, from the titles and texts, that these two statutes apply to official records of governmental units which computer prin[t]outs from the National Crime Information Center are not." Trial Court Opinion at 8. Moreover, we agree with the trial court that the admissibility of the printouts should be determined under the business records exception to the hearsay rule. As is noted in McCormick on Evidence:
With the explosive development of electronic data processing, most business and business-type records are generated by so-called computers. Courts have agreed that their admissibility in evidence is governed by the hearsay exception for regularly kept records, whether at common law or in the form of a statute or rule.
E. Cleary, McCormick on Evidence § 314, at 885 (3d ed. 1984 & Supp.1987).
In Pennsylvania, the admissibility of business records is governed by 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 6108, which provides in relevant part:
(b) General Rule.--A record of an act, condition or event shall, insofar as relevant, be competent evidence if the custodian or other qualified witness testifies to its identity and the mode of its preparation, and if it was made in the regular course of business at or near the time of the act, condition or event, and if, in the opinion of the tribunal, the sources of information, method and time of preparation were such as to justify its admission.
(c) Definition.--As used in this section "business" includes every kind of business, profession, occupation, calling, or operation of institutions whether carried on for profit or not.
Id. Our Supreme Court has noted that the purpose of this legislation is to:
merely require that the basic integrity of the record keeping is established. Where it can be shown that the entries were made with sufficient contemporaneousness to assure accuracy and that they were made pursuant to the business practices and not influenced by the litigation in which they are being introduced, a sufficient indicia of reliability is provided to overcome their hearsay nature.
In re Estate of Indyk, 488 Pa. 567, 572, 413 A.2d 371, 373 (1979) (footnote omitted). See Williams v. McClain, 513 Pa. 300, 305, 520 A.2d 1374, 1376 (1987) () (citations omitted); see also L. Packel & A. Poulin, supra, § 803.6, at 582. "Whether a document should be admitted under the 'business record' exception is within the discretionary power of the trial court provided such is exercised within the bounds of [§ 6108]." Thomas v. Allegheny & Eastern Coal Co., 309 Pa.Super. 333, 340, 455 A.2d 637, 640 (1982).
Here, it is apparent that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the printouts under the business records exception. State Trooper Carl M. Allen testified in detail concerning the identity of the printouts, when they were made, how they were obtained, and their mode of preparation. See N.T. June 8, 1987, at 106-08, 128-31. This testimony provided a sufficient indication of the reliability of the printouts to warrant their admission. 2 Accordingly, appellant is not entitled to relief on this ground.
Appellant next contends that the court erred in denying his demurrer. 3 Our Supreme Court has noted that:
The test to be applied in ruling on a demurrer is whether, accepting as true all of the prosecution's evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom, it is sufficient to support a finding by the fact-finder that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Commonwealth v. Turner, 491 Pa. 620, 622, 421 A.2d 1057, 1058 (1980); see also Commonwealth v. David, 345 Pa.Super. 578, 580, 498 A.2d 975, 976 (1985).
In the present case, appellant was accused of violating § 6115 of the Uniform Firearms Act, which provides, in pertinent part: "nor shall any person lend or give a firearm to another or otherwise deliver a firearm contrary to the provisions of this subchapter." The trial court instructed the jury that it could find appellant guilty under § 6115 if it determined that his lending of the firearm was contrary to § 6111 of the Act, which governs the sale and registration of firearms. N.T. June 9, 1987 at 318-19. Thus, the court apparently reasoned that loans of firearms were subject to the registration requirements of the Act.
Appellant notes that § 6111, by its terms, governs only the sale of firearms, and that there is nothing in that section, or any other section of the Act, to suggest that the registration procedures outlined in § 6111 apply to the lending of a firearm. Because there is no section other than § 6115 which addresses the lending of a firearm, appellant argues, the Commonwealth failed to show that his lending of the firearm was contrary to any other provision of the Uniform Firearms Act, and thus his demurrer should have been granted.
A court must construe the words of a statute according to their plain meaning. E.g., Commonwealth v. Stanley, 498 Pa. 326, 335, 446 A.2d 583, 587 (1982); see also ...
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