Com. v. Evans
| Decision Date | 10 July 1986 |
| Citation | 511 Pa. 214,512 A.2d 626 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Dauntel EVANS, Appellant. COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Christopher NOLEN, Appellant. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Katherene E. Holtzinger-Conner, William A. Behe, Harrisburg, for appellee, Com. of Pa.
George F. Shultz, Asst. Public Defender, Lawrence A. Kalikow, Harrisburg, for appellant Nolen.
Before NIX, C.J., and LARSEN, FLAHERTY, McDERMOTT, HUTCHINSON, ZAPPALA and PAPADAKOS, JJ.
Between November 13 and November 25, 1981 one David Crater and the appellants in this case, Dauntel Evans and Christopher Nolen, allegedly committed approximately nine house burglaries in the Middletown, Pennsylvania area. On November 21, 1981, according to the testimony of Crater, the three also committed a robbery of Ritchie's Bar, also in Middletown. According to Crater, the robbery of the bar commenced when Nolen and Evans waited in the car while Crater "cased" it. When Crater returned to the car, he reported that Ritchie's probably was not a very lucrative target, but Nolen and Evans decided to go through with the robbery anyway. Armed with handguns, their faces masked, Nolen and Evans then went into the bar while Crater waited outside in the getaway car. Shortly after they went inside, Crater heard three shots and Nolen and Evans came running out. As the three sped off, Nolen said that he had shot someone. The person shot was Mr. Ritchie, the proprietor of the bar. He died from an abdominal wound inflicted by a .38 caliber handgun.
On November 24, 1981, three days later, Crater was arrested on an unrelated matter. During transportation to his arraignment, after Miranda warnings were given, he answered questions put to him by police officers concerning the Ritchie homicide. In his statement, Crater implicated Nolen As a result of information provided by Crater, Nolen and Evans were charged with and brought to trial for criminal homicide, criminal conspiracy and robbery. A jury, sitting in the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County, Criminal Division, found both guilty of second degree murder and otherwise as charged. Post trial motions were filed and denied, and sentence was imposed. Superior Court affirmed. 479 A.2d 595 and 481 A.2d 625. This Court granted allocatur primarily to address the question of whether the defendants' cross-examination of Crater, the Commonwealth's main witness, was improperly restricted. For the reasons that follow, we hold that it was.
and Evans as the other participants in the Ritchie murder. He also told police how the three planned to rob the bar, how he retrieved what was to become the murder weapon from safe-keeping for use in the robbery, and how after the robbery, he disposed of the gun by throwing it in a creek.
At the time of trial, Crater was charged, also in Dauphin County, with ten to fifteen burglaries and conspiracies separate and apart from the charges which were brought against him because of his participation in the Ritchie murder. Appellants were permitted to question Crater about whether he was promised leniency with respect to his involvement in the crimes at issue in this case, but were denied permission to cross-examine Crater on whether he had been promised lenient treatment with respect to other criminal charges which were also pending against him in the same county. 1
In response to questions put on direct and cross examination, Crater testified that he was not promised anything in exchange for his cooperation in this case and that he agreed to testify to clear his conscience. On direct examination, Crater stated:
Q. David, at the time you gave your statement to Trooper Lotwick out at the state police, were you promised anything in exchange for your statement?
A. No.
* * *
* * *
Q. You have discussed this case with me, have you not?
A. Yes.
Q. At any time have I or any other member of the district attorney's office given you any promise whatsoever in this case?
A. None.
Q. Has any police officer given you any promise?
A. None. I just like told it. It was on my mind at that time. I started drinking Q. let me stop you. Why did you tell these two detectives?
a little heavy and I just, the day we got down to--
A. It was kind of on my mind. I wanted to get it off my mind and that because I knew about what happened.
Q. Had it affected you in some way?
A. I started drinking a little heavy then a couple days.
Q. What is your reason for coming in here and testifying today?
A. I guess just to testify.
N.T. 203-05. On cross-examination, Crater testified as follows:
Q. And your testimony when Mr. Kleinfelter was asking you questions was that the reason you talked to the police was because this was on your mind?
A. I wanted to get it off my mind.
* * *
* * *
A. It was on my mind and I just wanted to get it off because it started to make me drink heavy and that is about it.
N.T. 215-16. Thus, although appellants were permitted to question Crater about his motive in testifying in the present case, they were not permitted to question Crater about whether he had been promised or expected leniency with respect to other criminal charges pending against him in Dauphin County. This was error, they assert, because in the absence of such questioning, the jury was not in a position to consider whether Crater's testimony may have been biased and self-interested on account of the number and seriousness of pending cases against him.
Nolen and Evans argue further that the error was particularly egregious in that the Commonwealth's case was based almost completely on Crater's testimony. Superior Court stated:
Crater's testimony gave the prosecution its case against Evans and Nolen. Crater alone could place the boys at Ritchie's Bar that night. The patrons present during the robbery failed to identify either Nolen or Evans, and could not even state with certainty the robbers' race or sex. Appellants presented an alibi defense. Evans took the stand and denied any connection with the Ritchie incident. Without Crater's testimony, the prosecution had little evidence to link the boys to the crime. Thus, the Commonwealth's case rose and fell on Crater's testimony.
Having conceded the importance of Crater's testimony, however, Superior Court held that it was not error to deny cross-examination on whether Crater might be biased in his testimony because of the possibility of lenient treatment on other crimes because "[t]he 'general rule' bars admission of a witness' unconvicted bad acts." Superior Court also noted, however, that proof of a witness's unconvicted bad acts may be admitted into evidence to show the witness's interest in the immediate matter, citing Commonwealth v. Ross, 434 Pa. 167, 170, 252 A.2d 661, 663 (1969); Commonwealth v. Coades, 454 Pa. 448, 311 A.2d 896 (1973), and that "the jury should be allowed to evaluate whether the witness testified for the prosecution to gain favorable treatment in his own case." Id. 454 Pa. at 452, 311 A.2d at 898.
Superior Court interpreted the above-stated Coades rule of impeachment, however, as limited by two requirements: (1) the existence of an indictment against the witness and (2) evidence that the prosecutor could promise leniency, citing Commonwealth v. Joines, 264 Pa.Super 281, 399 A.2d 776 (1979). Relying on the trial court's view that the second requirement had not been met because it had not been established that the prosecutor had actually promised Crater anything in exchange for his testimony, Superior Court held that Crater could not be cross-examined about promises of leniency or his expectation of leniency with respect to the other pending charges against him.
In short, Superior Court interpreted Crater's denial of any promises to include promises with respect to pending charges as well as the charges in this case; and it Finally, acknowledging that there is a Sixth Amendment dimension to the claim presented by Nolen and Evans, Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974), Superior Court held that in this case, even if there was a Sixth Amendment violation, the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, Commonwealth v. Story, 476 Pa. 391, 383 A.2d 155 (1978), because the trial court carefully warned the jury that Crater's testimony should be viewed with caution.
rejected as too speculative the notion that Crater might testify for the Commonwealth with the expectation of leniency on the other crimes. As Superior Court stated, even though "the pendency of any indictment against a witness indicates indirectly a ... possibility of his currying favor by testifying for the state," 3A Wigmore, Evidence § 967 (Chadbourn rev. 1970) (Emphasis in original), no Pennsylvania case has allowed cross-examination concerning a witness's "unconvicted bad acts" to establish that a witness might hope for leniency.
Appellants, on the other hand, argue that denial of cross-examination on whether Crater had been promised leniency or had the expectation of leniency with respect to the other pending criminal charges not a part of this trial was a denial of their Sixth Amendment right under the United States Constitution and their right under Art. I. Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution to confront the witnesses against them. 2 Further, they argue that the denial of these rights was not harmless error because the Commonwealth's case, as Superior Court itself observed, hinged on the testimony of Crater. Finally, the defendants argue that the court's instruction to the jury that Crater's testimony should be viewed with caution did not render the improper restriction of cross-examination harmless because the jury may have found Crater's testimony incredible had they known not only that Crater was a co-actor, but also that Crater was accused of other crimes as well,...
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