Com. v. Heidnik

• Decision Date: 07 March 1991
• Docket Number: No. 43,43
• Citation: 587 A.2d 687,526 Pa. 458
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Gary Michael HEIDNIK, Appellant. E.D. Appeal 1989.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 687

587 A.2d 687

526 Pa. 458

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Gary Michael HEIDNIK, Appellant.

No. 43 E.D. Appeal 1989.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Dec. 3, 1990.

Decided March 7, 1991.

[526 Pa. 461] A. Charles Peruto, Jr., for appellant.

Gaele McLaughlin Barthold, Deputy Dist. Atty., Ronald Eisenberg, Chief, Appeals Div., Hugh J. Burns, Jr., Robert A. Graci, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen., for appellee.

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

OPINION OF THE COURT

LARSEN, Justice.

On July 1, 1988, a jury in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County convicted appellant, Gary M. Heidnik, of two counts of murder of the first degree, six counts of kidnapping, five counts of rape, four counts of aggravated assault and two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Following the verdict of guilty of two counts of murder of the first degree, a separate sentencing hearing was held pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9711, and the same jury sentenced appellant to death for each of the convictions of murder of the first degree. ¹ Post verdict motions were argued and denied, and the trial court imposed the sentences of death on March 2, 1989.

Following the imposition of sentence, appellant filed a direct appeal in this Court. ² Appellant has since expressed his desire to have his execution carried out as expeditiously as possible and has, consequently, instructed counsel not to pursue the aforesaid appeal. The purpose of an automatic direct appeal to this Court of a sentence of death is to ensure that the sentence comports with the Commonwealth's death penalty statute. Commonwealth v. Appel, 517 Pa. 529, 539 A.2d 780 (1989). In addition to our statutory obligation, this Court is required to review the sufficiency of the evidence for all death penalty convictions. Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer, 500 Pa. 16, 454 A.2d 937 (1982), cert denied, 461 U.S. 970, 103 S.Ct. 2444, 77 L.Ed.2d 1327 (1983).

When testing the sufficiency of the evidence, 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, 574 A.2d 590 (1990). In accordance with this standard, we find the evidence, as now set forth, sufficient beyond a reasonable doubt to sustain the jury's verdicts of murder of the first degree.

On March 24, 1987, the Philadelphia Police Department received a telephone call from a woman who stated that she had been held captive for the last four months. When police officers arrived at the pay phone from which the call was made, they observed a woman who was "visibly shaken" and who repeatedly stated to the officers, "You have to help me." (N.T. 6/21/88 at 274). After the officers were able to calm the woman, Josephina Rivera, she told them that she had been held captive in a basement by a man named Gary Heidnik (appellant) for the last four months and that three other women were still being held in the basement. Ms. Rivera explained that appellant was parked nearby, waiting for her to return from what appellant believed was a visit to her family.

Ms. Rivera also told the officers that appellant had killed two of the women he had held captive and that she feared for the lives of the three women remaining in the basement. Ms. Rivera provided the officers with a description of appellant and told them where he was parked. When the officers apprehended appellant, he asked, "What's this all about, Officer? Didn't I pay my child support?"

Proceeding upon the information Ms. Rivera had supplied, police officers entered appellant's home in North Philadelphia. In the basement of the home were two females lying on a mattress. The women were naked from the waist down, and their bodies were bruised. On the ankle of each woman was a heavy shackle with a long chain. In a corner of the basement the officers removed bags of dirt from a board covering a hole. In the hole lay a naked woman with her hands handcuffed behind her back and her ankle shackled. On returning to the first floor, the officers found in the kitchen six plastic bags containing human body parts.

Josephina Rivera and the women found by police in appellant's basement on March 24, 1987 had been brought there by appellant under similar circumstances over a period of four months. Each had agreed to accompany appellant to his home after being approached by him as he drove along the streets of North Philadelphia. Each had engaged in consensual sex with him before being choked until unconscious. While unconscious, each was carried to appellant's basement and chained to a sewer pipe. As many as three women at a time were confined in the hole appellant had dug in the basement floor. Each of the women was beaten by appellant, and with the exception of the last woman taken captive, each was raped by appellant repeatedly. Although Josephina Rivera and the three women rescued on March 24, 1987 survived the brutalities inflicted on them by appellant, two other captives, Sandra Lindsay and Debra Dudley, did not.

In addition to beating and raping the captive women, appellant had devised a separate system of punishment for any of the women who screamed for help or attempted to escape. One method of punishment consisted of forcing the disobedient woman to stand suspended by her handcuffed wrist from a hook which appellant had installed in the basement rafters. Such punishment was administered to Sandra Lindsay for a period of three or four days in the first week of February, 1987. During that time, and for the preceding week, Ms. Lindsay was fed only bread and water. Also during that time, appellant forced one of the other captives to beat Ms. Lindsay because Ms. Lindsay was taking too long to eat the bread she was given. ³ On the third or fourth day of her punishment, Ms. Lindsay collapsed after telling the other women that she felt sick. Appellant removed the handcuff from Ms. Lindsay's wrist and kicked her body into the hole in the basement floor. When appellant was unable to find Ms. Lindsay's pulse, he announced to the other women that Ms. Lindsay was dead and carried her body to the kitchen. He then decapitated and dismembered the body. Ms. Lindsay's head was placed in a large pot on the stove and boiled. Other of her body parts were shredded in a food processor and mixed with dog food, which appellant then fed to the other women. Still other parts of Ms. Lindsay's body were put into plastic bags and placed in his freezer.

In mid-March, appellant showed Ms. Lindsay's head, still in the pot on his stove, to another of the captives, Debra Johnson Dudley. Appellant told Ms. Dudley that unless she changed her attitude she would end up the same way Ms. Lindsay did. Appellant had previously stated to Ms. Rivera that he considered Ms. Dudley to be "a pain in the ass" and that he "wanted to get rid of her." (N.T. 6/20/88, p. 231, p. 154). On March 17, 1987, appellant administered an electrical shock to Ms. Dudley and two of the other captives as they lay trapped in the basement hole which appellant had filled with water. Appellant attached an electrical wire to Ms. Dudley's metal chain causing her to scream out in prolonged pain. When Ms. Dudley's screaming stopped abruptly, appellant lifted the board covering the hole and removed Ms. Dudley's body. Appellant then placed the body in a freezer in his basement; he later disposed of the body in a state forest in New Jersey. After Ms. Dudley's death, appellant ordered Josephina Rivera to write the following note: "Gary Heidnik and Josephina Rivera electrocuted Debra Dudley on March 17th in the basement of 3520 North Marshall Street by electrocution." (N.T. 6/20/88 at 161). Appellant then told Ms. Rivera that she would no longer need to be handcuffed because the incriminating note would prevent her from going to the police. Appellant also told Ms. Rivera that, even if he were arrested, he would simply go into court and "act crazy" by saluting the judge, among other things. Appellant explained to Ms. Rivera that somewhere in the law it states that if a person acts crazy for a certain amount of years, his case is eventually thrown out. (N.T. 6/20/88, p. 168).

Appellant's mental condition at the time Sandra Lindsay and Debra Dudley died was an issue at trial. Appellant called three expert witnesses to establish that he was legally insane at the time of the deaths. The test for legal sanity and criminal responsibility in this Commonwealth is to be determined under the M'Naughten rule. Commonwealth v. Banks, 513 Pa. 318, 521 A.2d 1 (1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 873, 108 S.Ct. 211, 98 L.Ed.2d 162 (1987). Under M'Naughten, a defendant is legally insane and absolved of criminal responsibility if, at the time of committing the act, due to a defect of reason or disease of mind, the accused either did not know the nature and quality of the act or did not know that the act was wrong. Commonwealth v. Tempest, 496 Pa. 436, 437 A.2d 952 (1981). In order for insanity to constitute a defense, a defendant must prove insanity by a preponderance of the evidence. 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 315(a).

Dr. Clancy McKenzie, the first of two psychiatrists called by appellant, testified that appellant suffered from schizophrenia and that during the period in question appellant did not know right from wrong and was unable to understand the nature and quality of his acts. Dr. McKenzie stated that appellant's conduct during this time period was controlled by an "infant brain" with the chronological age of seventeen months. Dr. McKenzie reached this conclusion based on the fact that appellant's mother gave birth to another child when appellant was seventeen months old. When appellant's estranged wife notified appellant in October, 1986 that she had had a baby, Dr. McKenzie concluded that, "This took him back to the first time when...