Com. v. Hughes

• Decision Date: 25 March 1994
• Citation: 536 Pa. 355,639 A.2d 763
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Robert T. HUGHES, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 763

639 A.2d 763

536 Pa. 355

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Robert T. HUGHES, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Dec. 4, 1991.

Decided March 25, 1994.

[536 Pa. 359] Jenny L. Steinen, West Chester, for appellant.

James P. MacElree, II, Dist. Atty., Nicholas J. Casenta, Jr., Asst. Dist. Atty., Robert A. Graci, Chief, Deputy Atty. Gen., for appellee.

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

OPINION OF THE COURT

CAPPY, Justice.

This is an automatic direct appeal ¹ from two sentences of death imposed upon appellant by the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County following his conviction of two counts of first degree murder and one count each of robbery, possession of instruments of crime, and violation of the Uniform Firearms Act. The charges arose as a result of the shooting deaths of two employees of a McDonald's restaurant located in Chester County, Pennsylvania, on the morning of January 8, 1989. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the convictions and the judgment of sentence.

Shortly after the murders occurred, appellant was arrested in Delaware which is but a short distance from the scene of the murders. Following his arrest, appellant was extradited to Pennsylvania and incarcerated at Chester County Prison. On petition of defense counsel, a hearing was held on February 10, 1989, to determine appellant's competency to stand trial. Following the hearing, the court entered an order committing appellant to Norristown State Hospital for evaluation and testing and staying the proceedings pending completion of said evaluation. Ultimately, appellant was found by the court to be competent to stand trial.

On September 28, 1989, a hearing was held on appellant's motion to suppress certain physical evidence and statements following which the court denied the motion in its entirety. After three days of jury selection, appellant elected to forego a jury trial and instead, entered a nolo contendere plea of "guilty but mentally ill." The court then gave a lengthy colloquy, informing appellant of all of those rights which he would be relinquishing as well as the elements of the offenses with which he was charged. The court then accepted the plea as tendered.

However, later that same day, both counsel and the court agreed that the proper procedural posture in which appellant could present a defense of "guilty but mentally ill" was a non-jury trial and not a nolo contendere plea. The court again informed appellant of his right to a jury trial whereupon appellant signed the waiver form. The case then proceeded as a bench trial with stipulated facts.

Following the bench trial, appellant was found guilty of the above listed crimes. A separate penalty hearing was held after which the court found, as to each murder, two aggravating circumstances which it determined outweighed the four mitigating circumstances. ² As in all cases in which the death penalty has been imposed, this Court is required to conduct an independent review of the sufficiency of the evidence even where, as here, the defendant has not specifically challenged the conviction on that ground. 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), reh'g denied, 463 U.S. 1236, 104 S.Ct. 31, 77 L.Ed.2d 1452 (1983). In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we must determine whether the evidence, and all reasonable inferences deducible therefrom, viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as verdict-winner, are sufficient to establish all the elements of the offense(s) beyond a reasonable doubt. Commonwealth v. Rhodes, 510 Pa. 537, 510 A.2d 1217 (1986). As stipulated, the evidence establishes the following:

² Thereafter, the trial court heard and denied appellant's post-trial motions. On July 31, 1990, a formal sentencing hearing was held following which the court imposed two consecutive death sentences as well as a sentence [536 Pa. 361] of ten (10) to twenty (20) years on the robbery conviction. This automatic direct appeal followed.

On January 8, 1989, two employees of the McDonald's restaurant located in the Parkway Shopping Center in West Goshen Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, were found murdered, each by a single gunshot wound to the head. On that date, at approximately 5:15 a.m., James Jenkins was delivering newspapers at the shopping center when he noticed a blue and white automobile in the parking lot of the McDonald's restaurant. Upon being shown a photograph of appellant's car, Mr. Jenkins was of the opinion that the car depicted in the photograph was identical to the one he saw in the parking lot on the day of the murders.

At approximately 5:30 a.m. that same morning, an employee of the McDonald's, Brian Burnette, arrived for work. As he was about to enter the building, he noticed a man standing inside the restaurant waving a gun in the direction of the manager, Jean Reider, who was carrying cash drawers from the safe and placing them on the counter.

Another employee, Brian Titus, also arrived at approximately 5:30 a.m. As he entered a door to the restaurant, he noticed a person lying on the floor in front of a desk that was located next to the safe who was signaling for Titus to leave the restaurant. Titus also observed a person, approximately six feet tall, standing inside the restaurant with arms extended as though holding something in his hand. Both Titus and Burnette then went to a nearby store to call the police.

When the police arrived at the scene, they discovered the bodies of Charles Hegarty and Jean Reider. The body of Charles Hegarty was found in the exact location where Brian Titus had seen someone lying earlier. Jean Reider's body was found in the corner of a room. The blood stains on the wall indicated that she had been shot while sitting with her legs crossed and curled up. The safe was open and the cash drawers had been taken out and left on the floor. No money was left in the cash drawers except for some rolls of coins. Six crumpled one dollar bills were found next to a dumpster outside the McDonald's.

At approximately 6:30 a.m. that same morning, Steven Quigley, proprietor of a local towing business, received a telephone call from a man who asked to be picked up at the Abbey Green Motel which is located approximately six tenths of a mile south of the McDonald's restaurant. The man requested that Quigley tow the man's blue Plymouth to Jack Wolf's Sunoco so that it could be repaired. When Quigley asked the man why When Quigley arrived at the Abbey Green Motel at approximately 6:50 a.m., appellant appeared from between the buildings. As he walked to Quigley's truck, appellant was holding his side with his arm as though he was either hiding something or hurt. When Quigley asked appellant where his car was parked, appellant responded that the Birmingham Township police had towed it. Quigley suspected that was not true as he, himself, performed all towing work for the Birmingham Township police. Moreover, Quigley knew that the Abbey Green Motel was not located in Birmingham Township. Nevertheless, Quigley agreed to drive appellant to the Tally Ho Motel in New Castle County, Delaware. Upon their arrival there, appellant paid Quigley the sum of $25.00 in crumpled five dollar bills. Quigley last saw appellant speaking with the desk clerk at the Tally Ho.

he did not use Wolf's tow trucks, the man responded that all of Jack Wolf's tow trucks were out and unavailable. However, when Quigley drove past Wolf's Sunoco he observed that all of Wolf's tow trucks were in, not out as the caller had indicated.

After requesting the desk clerk to call a cab for him, appellant then went to an adjacent Wawa Market to purchase a soda. Appellant left the Wawa Market after purchasing the soda, but returned shortly thereafter requesting a paper bag. Appellant then took a cab to the Clemente bus station located in Wilmington, Delaware.

At approximately 8:30 a.m. that same morning, Officers Cottingham and Boyd of the Wilmington Police Department, while on routine patrol, received a radio broadcast dispatching them to the area of the Clemente Bus station to look for a possible fugitive from Pennsylvania who was wanted for an outstanding warrant. The officers arrived at the bus station and after noticing no one in the waiting room area of the station matching the description broadcast over the radio, one of the officers entered the men's restroom. Once in the restroom, the officer noticed someone matching the description. The officer then exited the restroom and informed his partner that he believed the suspect was in the restroom. They then radioed for backup assistance. As appellant exited the restroom, Officer Boyd asked him his name and after appellant responded in a hostile manner, Officer Boyd explained to appellant that they were looking for a fugitive from Pennsylvania. Appellant remained hostile, refusing to comply with any of the officers' requests. A struggle ensued during which a .38 revolver fell from appellant's pocket. As all three struggled to retrieve the gun, Officer Boyd struck appellant with his blackjack. Appellant was eventually transported to a hospital as a result of injuries he incurred during the struggle. Upon his arrest, appellant had in his possession a Wawa bag and a Colt 6 shot revolver.

Upon examination of the Colt revolver, Officer Cannon of the Wilmington Police Department observed two spent cartridges as well as four live rounds of .38 caliber ammunition. The Wawa bag seized from appellant contained a blue American Bank bag in which was found various papers subsequently determined to have been taken from the McDonald's restaurant, as well as a sum of money. The Wawa bag contained a second bank bag inside of which was found another sum of money. Six live .38 caliber special ammunition were seized from the right pocket of the jacket appe...