Com. v. Howard

• Decision Date: 06 June 1988
• Citation: 375 Pa.Super. 43,543 A.2d 1169
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Ford HOWARD, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 1169

543 A.2d 1169

375 Pa.Super. 43

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Ford HOWARD, Appellant.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Dec. 9, 1987.

Filed June 6, 1988.

Bruce A. Franzel, Philadelphia, for appellant.

Donna G. Zucker, Asst. Dist. Atty., Philadelphia, for Com.

Before WIEAND, KELLY and HESTER, JJ.

HESTER, Judge:

Following a jury trial held December 6-28, 1985, Ford Howard, appellant, was convicted of first degree murder, criminal conspiracy and possession of an instrument of crime. At the penalty hearing held December 31, 1985, the jury imposed a life sentence on the murder conviction. At the formal sentencing on September 3, 1986, the trial court denied post-trial motions and imposed the judgment of sentence of life imprisonment for murder, ten to twenty years imprisonment for conspiracy and two and one-half to five years imprisonment for possession, all sentences to be served consecutively. On reconsideration, the sentencing court reduced the conspiracy sentence to five to ten years and suspended the possession sentence. This appeal followed. Appellant raises seven allegations of trial error, all of which we reject. We affirm.

Five men conspired in the murder of James "Muscles" Reynolds, who died in the early morning hours of September 1, 1983, of seven gunshot wounds, three to the head and four to the body. The five men involved in the murder include: Craig Murphy (who was separately tried and convicted of first degree murder), appellant, Rodney Wells, Esau Burroughs and Morris Willis. The latter four were tried together subsequent to Murphy's trial. The murder was motivated by the victim's drug dealings with Murphy, who was characterized as the principal in the shooting. Murphy, appellant and Wells actually shot the victim, and Burroughs was involved in planning the murder, as was Willis, who arranged to have the victim meet his executioners in a deserted playground in the early morning of September 1, 1983.

Commonwealth witness Keith Johnson testified that at approximately 10:30 p.m. on August 31, 1983, he overheard Murphy talking with appellant, Burroughs and Wells in the Motorcycle Club in Philadelphia. The four were plotting the manner in which they were going to murder a man referred to as Muscles. Murphy and appellant displayed their guns to Wells and Burroughs. Johnson heard appellant say "I'm going to kill the [expletive]" and "[I'm] not going to be playing." N.T., 12/11/85 vol. 2, at 6-8. Murphy, appellant and Wells then departed, and when Johnson asked Burroughs if the three actually intended to shoot someone, the latter answered affirmatively. Murphy, appellant and Wells returned to the club at 2:00 a.m., displaying their guns. Johnson overheard appellant say to Burroughs that he had shot the victim in the head. All four left after learning that police were investigating the crime.

Commonwealth witness Bernard Williams testified that he had gone to the Motorcycle Club with Murphy early in the evening of the murder and had left that club to go to a different club across the street. Williams was leaving the second club just as Murphy, appellant and Wells were leaving the Motorcycle Club. Murphy told Williams to accompany the three men, and Williams complied. During the car ride, Williams heard Murphy discussing drug matters which he had "to take care of" with Muscles and appellant. N.T., 12/16/85, at 223-225. The four men went to the vicinity of the playground where the shooting occurred. Wells and appellant exited the car, which Murphy then parked. Murphy left Williams in the car, and Williams heard gunshots several minutes later. Soon afterward, Murphy returned to the car, informing Williams that he had "taken care of business." N.T., 12/17/85 vol. 1, at 44, 46. Williams testified that he was never informed of the murder plot.

The victim's wife, Sonia Mackie, testified that at around midnight on August 31, 1983, she received a call from co-defendant Willis, who informed her that she and Muscles were to meet him in the playground where the shooting later occurred in order to pick up drug money. Mackie decided to stay home while Muscles left for his rendezvous with death. Willis subsequently telephoned Mackie with the news of Muscle's death. Sometime later, appellant admitted to Mackie that he was present at the murder, showing her the gun that he had used and admitting that Murphy had ordered him to kill her.

Appellant first alleges that he was improperly denied access to written reports made by two police witnesses as well as to grand jury testimony of several other witnesses. Two police witnesses, along with several others, testified solely to establish a relationship among the victim and the five men involved in the murder. Appellant conceded that the police witnesses' written reports to which he was denied access related to the events surrounding the arrest of Murphy and Wells on September 5, 1983, for a different murder. See N.T., 12/11/85 vol. 1, at 52-57; N.T., 12/13/85, at 25-31. Thus, it is clear that the reports did not contain information either relevant to this murder that would be beneficial to appellant or upon which he could have based cross-examination. Furthermore, the two officers' testimony was cumulative to that of several other witnesses as well as tangential to the evidence upon which appellant's conviction rests. Accordingly, if error occurred, we find that such error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986); cf. Commonwealth v. Hamm, 474 Pa. 487, 378 A.2d 1219 (1977).

Appellant also complains that the trial court erred in giving him edited portions of testimony of several of the Commonwealth witnesses who testified before an investigating grand jury. The trial court reviewed the grand jury testimony of those witnesses, omitted the portions relating to other investigations and gave appellant the portions relating to this murder. Although appellant speculates that the omitted portions of testimony relating to other investigations may have been helpful in his cross-examination of the witnesses, no trial error occurred. Pa.R.Crim.P. 263(b)(2); Commonwealth v. Kelly, 245 Pa.Super. 351, 369 A.2d 438 (1976), aff'd, 484 Pa. 527, 399 A.2d 1061, appeal dismissed, Kelly v. Pennsylvania, 444 U.S. 947, 100 S.Ct. 417, 62 L.Ed.2d 317 (1979).

Appellant's next allegation is that the trial court incorrectly failed to give an accomplice charge with respect to both Keith Johnson and Bernard Williams. He argues that Williams and Johnson were accomplices in the murder and testified to avoid criminal liability. An accomplice charge with respect to a witness is warranted when the evidence at trial either requires or permits the inference that the witness may have been a participant in the crime. Commonwealth v. Smith, 343 Pa.Super. 435, 495 A.2d 543 (1985). In this case, there simply was no evidence to link Williams and Johnson to the crimes. Both unequivocally denied any involvement in planning or perpetrating the murder, and no other witnesses tied them to the crime. Presence at a crime scene and association with criminals are insufficient bases upon which criminal culpability may be predicated. Presence and association are the only pieces of evidence presented by appellant in support of his position that they were accomplices. We conclude that the trial court correctly determined that Williams and Johnson were not accomplices to the murder, and accordingly, the trial court did not commit error in refusing to so charge the jury. Commonwealth v. Smith, id.; Commonwealth v. Hines, 341 Pa.Super. 456, 491 A.2d 907 (1985); Commonwealth v. Richey, 249 Pa.Super. 365, 378 A.2d 338 (1977).

Appellant's third argument is that he was denied his constitutional right to confront witnesses when the trial court failed to delete certain hearsay statements contained in a statement made by co-defendant Willis to the police. Detective Joseph Brignola testified that the day after the shooting, Willis described what he had observed the evening of the murder. Willis stated as follows. Willis called Muscles and asked to meet him at Willis' house, which is near the playground where Muscles was murdered. Willis met the victim at the designated rendezvous point; the two men injected heroin together and walked toward the playground. Muscles went into the playground alone after Willis was called back home. Once Willis arrived home, he heard shots and left the house again, yelling for a woman named Francine, who was with a woman named Toby. Willis inquired concerning the shots, and Toby answered that she had seen "three guys in the park" and that "Muscles didn't come out." N.T., 12/10/25, at 113.

Appellant objects to the quoted language as inadmissible hearsay and requests a new trial on grounds that he was denied the opportunity to confront the hearsay declarant. We find that the declarations were admissible under the present sense impression exception to the hearsay rule and that no trial error occurred. Commonwealth v. Blackwell, 343 Pa.Super. 201, 494 A.2d 426 (1985).

Appellant's fourth allegation of trial error, that he was restricted in his cross-examination of the victim's wife, is clearly meritless. Appellant tried to establish that Mackie testified solely to gain leniency in a pending drug proceeding that had been instituted against her. He cross-examined her on this issue extensively. N.T., 12/16/85, at 17-23, 44, 75. She denied that her testimony about her husband's murder was motivated by promises or threats from the district attorney's office about her drug case. Furthermore, her attorney's testimony establishes that the district attorney's office made no promises or arrangements. N.T., 12/19/85, at 61-67, 72-74, 80-87. That testimony also reveals that any expectations in that regard were not based on statements by any district attorney, but were based on Mackie's attorney's hopes that the...