Com. v. Edmiston

• Decision Date: 10 November 1993
• Citation: 535 Pa. 210,634 A.2d 1078
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Stephen Rex EDMISTON, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 1078

634 A.2d 1078

535 Pa. 210

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Stephen Rex EDMISTON, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued March 8, 1993.

Decided Nov. 10, 1993.

Arthur T. McQuillan, Robert Davis Gleason, Gleason, DiFrancesco, Shahade, Barbin & Markovitz, Johnstown, John Elash, Pittsburgh, for appellant.

David J. Tulowitzki, Dist. Atty., J. Dennis Previte, Christian A. Fisanick, Asst. Dist. Attys., for appellee.

Before NIX, C.J., LARSEN, FLAHERTY, ZAPPALA, CAPPY, and MONTEMURO, JJ.

OPINION OF THE COURT

FLAHERTY, Justice.

Following a non-jury trial in the Court of Common Pleas of Cambria County, the appellant, Stephen Rex Edmiston, was convicted of murder of the first degree, rape, statutory rape, and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a two-year-old female child. A sentencing jury concluded that a sentence of death was appropriate. The Court of Common Pleas of Cambria County imposed the death sentence in addition to a consecutive sentence of 10 to 20 years for rape, a consecutive sentence of 10 to 20 years for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and a concurrent sentence of 5 to 10 years for statutory rape. The present direct appeal ensued. We affirm.

Appellant first argues that the evidence was insufficient to support a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder because there was insufficient evidence to support a finding of an intentional killing. This court is required in capital cases to review the sufficiency of the evidence. Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer, 500 Pa. 16, 26 n. 3, 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 applicable standard of review is whether, viewing all the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as verdict winner, a jury could find every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Commonwealth v. Bryant, 524 Pa. 564, 567, 574 A.2d 590, 592 (1990).

An "intentional killing" for the purposes of first-degree murder is defined as a "willful, deliberate and premeditated killing." 18 Pa.C.S. § 2502(d). The element of specific intent to kill is one that may be proven by the circumstances surrounding the event, such as the seriousness and type of the injuries. Commonwealth v. Paquette, 451 Pa. 250, 301 A.2d 837 (1973). If a deadly force is knowingly applied by the actor to another, the intent to take life is as evident as if the actor stated the intent to kill at the time the force was applied. Commonwealth v. Meredith, 490 Pa. 303, 416 A.2d 481 (1980).

The record reflects that appellant committed the heinous acts designed to produce death and intended to commit those acts. Here, a two-year-old girl, weighing thirty-four pounds and standing thirty-six inches tall, suffered the following serious injuries: scalping, blunt force to her torso, obliteration of her genital area, burning of her body and a skull fracture. She was scalped by being cut with a sharp knife-like instrument from the ear up across the front hair line of her forehead and down to the other ear. Her scalp was then peeled back to the nape of her head exposing the entire skull. Blunt force trauma to her chest and stomach was so forceful that it caused the tearing of her liver and lungs. This force was also one of two possible causes of two feet of the infant's intestines to protrude from her genital area. (The other possible cause was pulling the intestines out of the genital area). The genital area of the two-year-old child was completely obliterated and ripped to such an extent that there was only one large and bloody cavity where there originally were the anal and vaginal orifices. There were also areas of burning of the infant's body, many other lacerations and abrasions and a skull fracture.

All of these separate and gruesome injuries occurred while the child was living. Expert medical testimony by Dr. Jasnosz stated the cause of death was a combination of the scalping, blunt force injuries to the torso causing internal injuries, and the trauma to the genital area. The separate inflictions of these injuries demonstrate a methodical step-by-step process of killing, i.e., a willful, premeditated, deliberate, and intentional killing by a fully developed adult man of a helpless two-year-old infant girl. Any reasonable human being would realize these injuries will cause death to such an infant. The fact that appellant took this infant to an isolated area of a state forest in Cambria County and hid the body further demonstrated his intent to kill. The evidence is more than sufficient to demonstrate that appellant had, at the time of the killing, a specific intent to kill the infant and to support the conclusion that appellant committed an intentional killing.

Appellant first claims that his statements and confession were too ambiguous to imply an intentional killing. Appellant admitted to the state police that he killed a little girl in an isolated area in state game lands. He stated to the troopers that "you will find a dead, raped little girl" and that "she was a brave little girl." He detailed some of his actions, e.g., "while in the pick-up truck, I hit her with my fist four or five times until she stopped moving." He drew a map with an X showing the exact location where the incident occurred, and where the body was located and explained how the body was covered with leaves and twigs and dirt. Appellant has failed to demonstrate any ambiguity in his confessions.

Appellant next claims that the testimony of Dr. Jasnosz was qualified and, therefore, insufficient to support a finding of an intentional killing. Appellant claims that because the witness used words such as "consistent with" and "appear to be," her testimony was qualified. A medical opinion is sufficient to support a finding when given with a reasonable degree of medical certainty. Commonwealth v. Stoltzfus, 462 Pa. 43, 337 A.2d 873 (1975).

Appellant has failed to demonstrate that Dr. Jasnosz's testimony was qualified in any respect. Dr. Jasnosz testified during the trial phase and by videotape for the sentencing phase. She was cautioned by defense counsel and the court to render her opinions within the requisite reasonable degree of medical certainty. During the course of her testimony, she prefaced her opinions with the standard of a reasonable degree of medical certainty. The trial court did not err when it found that Dr. Jasnosz's medical opinions proved that both the anus and vaginal tracts had been penetrated by a penis to prove rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and that the necessary medical testimony had been given within a reasonable degree of medical certainty.

Appellant next claims that the Commonwealth did not prove the requisite specific intent for murder of the first degree because of the evidence concerning his intoxication. Appellant claims as a defense that he was so intoxicated at the time of the killing that he did not possess the specific intent to kill as required for first-degree murder. 18 Pa.C.S. § 308 provides that voluntary intoxication can reduce a murder-one conviction to a murder-three conviction. Commonwealth v. Stoyko, 504 Pa. 455, 475 A.2d 714 (1984). The critical inquiry is whether the defendant was overwhelmed by an intoxicant to the point of losing his rationality, faculties, or sensibilities so as to negate or lower the specific intent to kill. Commonwealth v. Breakiron, 524 Pa. 282, 571 A.2d 1035 (1990). The trier of fact can believe all, part or none of the testimony of a witness. Commonwealth v. Hinchcliffe, 479 Pa. 551, 388 A.2d 1068 (1978).

The Commonwealth disproved the asserted defense beyond a reasonable doubt. The Pepper Tree Inn bartender testified that appellant was in control of his faculties when he exited the bar. Appellant himself conceded that he was under control at that time and was drinking in a conservative fashion at the bar. He also navigated a pickup truck approximately thirty to forty miles over narrow, twisting, mountainous roads at night and drove approximately two miles over game land roads that were less passable than logging roads as they consisted of very narrow terrain with rutted and gutter areas inclusive of low streams, watery areas, and severe hills. Appellant presented a series of witnesses on the issue of intoxication but, since most of those who testified to an alleged severe impairment of appellant were individuals who had definable motives and bias by way of established relationships to appellant, the court properly could disbelieve them. The court did not err in concluding that, despite appellant's ingestion of intoxicants on the evening in question, appellant was capable of forming, and did indeed form, the specific intent to kill by way of a willful, deliberate, and premeditated design.

Finally, appellant claims that the evidence demonstrated appellant's intent to commit rape with the victim's death being an unexpected result of the rape. The evidence detailed above demonstrates otherwise and the trial court did not err in concluding that the seriousness of the injuries inflicted which caused the death clearly demonstrated an intent to kill and substantially more than an intent to rape.

When the totality of the evidence is reviewed, and despite what appellant claims above, the evidence was clearly sufficient to support the finding of an intentional killing, as required for a conviction of murder of the first degree.

Appellant's second argument is that the trial court erred in denying appellant's motion to suppress evidence consisting primarily of tangible items from appellant's truck and residence, the confession and other inculpatory statements by appellant, and a map drawn by appellant depicting the scene of the crime and location of the victim's body. When reviewing the denial of a suppression motion, this court should consider only evidence of the prosecutor's witnesses and so much of the evidence for the defense as, fairly...