Com. v. Jones

• Decision Date: 28 March 2007
• Docket Number: No. 8 EAP 2006.,8 EAP 2006.
• Citation: 929 A.2d 205
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Jeffrey JONES, Appellee.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

929 A.2d 205

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Jeffrey JONES, Appellee.

No. 8 EAP 2006.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted August 28, 2006.

Decided March 28, 2007.

Lorie Karin Dakessian, Esq., Arnold H. Gordon, Esq., Lynne M. Abraham, Esq., Ronald Eisenberg, Esq., Hugh J. Burns, Jr, Esq., Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, Philadelphia, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Albert John Raman, Esq., Philadelphia, for Jeffrey Jones.

BEFORE: CAPPY, C.J., and CASTILLE, SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER and BALDWIN, JJ.

OPINION

Justice BAER.

In this case, we consider whether a trial court had subject matter jurisdiction to accept a defendant's guilty plea on a charge included in a bill of information, despite the prior dismissal of the charge for failure to establish a prima facie case at a preliminary hearing. The Superior Court concluded that the trial court did not have jurisdiction despite the guilty plea, and vacated the judgment of sentence. We hold that the flaw in the bill of information did not deprive the trial court of subject matter jurisdiction. Accordingly, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

In September 2002, Philadelphia narcotics officers observed Appellee Jeffrey Jones "exchange a small item with another person for United States currency." Tr. Ct. Op. at 1. That individual was later stopped and found to possess marijuana. Subsequently, the officers apprehended Jones and a co-defendant and confiscated from Jones over ten grams of crack-cocaine, as well as additional amounts of cocaine and marijuana and packaging materials for the controlled substances.

In October 2002, the Commonwealth filed a criminal complaint against Jones averring three charges: possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, knowingly and intentionally possessing a controlled substance, and criminal conspiracy.¹ At a preliminary hearing in January 2003, the magistrate held Jones for court on the two Controlled Substance Act charges but dismissed the criminal conspiracy charge, finding that the Commonwealth failed to establish a prima facie case as required by Pa.R.Crim.P. 543.² The Commonwealth, however, prepared an improper criminal information, charging Jones with all three original charges,³ without formally seeking to reinstitute the conspiracy charge by filing a second complaint, which is permissible under Pa. R.Crim.P. 544(A).⁴ The informations indicate that Jones was arraigned on all three charges in March 2003.

Despite the dismissal of the conspiracy charge at the preliminary hearing, Jones pleaded guilty on December 9, 2003, to criminal conspiracy in addition to possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. The Commonwealth agreed to enter an order of nolle prosequi to the knowing and intentional possession charge. The court sentenced Jones to one and one-half to five years of incarceration on the charge of possession with intent to deliver and a consecutive term of four years of probation for criminal conspiracy. Jones did not file a post-sentence motion.

In January 2004, Jones filed a timely notice of appeal, followed in February by a timely statement of matters complained of on appeal pursuant to Pa.R.A.P.1925(b). Jones claimed that the court lacked jurisdiction over the criminal conspiracy charge after the charge was dismissed at the preliminary hearing. In rejecting this claim in its Pa.R.A.P.1925(a) opinion, the trial court reasoned, "Although the charge was dismissed at the preliminary hearing, it is within the District Attorney's discretion to re-indict the defendant with the previously dismissed charge. Therefore, the Court had jurisdiction in this matter." Tr. Ct. Op. at 2.⁵ The court failed to address directly the effect of the Commonwealth's failure to follow the rules for reinstitution of charges.

Before the Superior Court, Jones claimed, inter alia, that the trial court did not have subject matter jurisdiction over the conspiracy charge and requested that the Superior Court allow him to file a motion to withdraw his guilty plea nunc pro tunc and to vacate the sentence as it related to the conspiracy charge. The court initially addressed the Commonwealth's claim that Jones waived the issue by failing to object to the inclusion of the charge in the bill of information and by pleading guilty. Acknowledging that a defendant waives any claim to quash a criminal information by failing to include the argument in a pre-trial motion, the court concluded that Jones could not have waived his claim because it sounded in subject matter jurisdiction, an issue not susceptible to waiver. See Commonwealth v. Little, 455 Pa. 163, 314 A.2d 270, 272 (1974) ("An objection to lack of subject-matter jurisdiction can never be waived; it may be raised at any stage in the proceedings by the parties or by a court in its own motion."). The Superior Court observed that subject matter jurisdiction exists when the court is competent to hear the case and the defendant has been provided with a formal and specific notice of the crimes charged. The court noted that a court's competency hinges upon a demonstration that a criminal act occurred within the territorial jurisdiction of the court.

The court also explained the process by which a defendant is brought to trial under the rules of criminal procedure. In order for the case to advance past mere presentment to the magistrate, the Commonwealth must present a prima facie case. See Liciaga v. Court of Common Pleas, 523 Pa. 258, 566 A.2d 246, 248 (1989) (Opinion Announcing the Judgment of the Court). In this case, the conspiracy charge did not survive the preliminary hearing stage but was dismissed by the magistrate. The Superior Court recognized that, despite the dismissal, the Commonwealth could have reinstituted the charges by refiling the complaint with the magistrate pursuant to Pa.R.Crim.P. 544(A), but noted that, in this case, it did not do so. The court found that the dismissal of the conspiracy charge and the failure to reinstitute it prevented the Commonwealth from prosecuting further. The court then equated the absence of a formal reinstitution of the charge with a divestiture of subject matter jurisdiction. Accordingly, the Superior Court concluded the trial court did not have subject matter jurisdiction to accept Jones's plea to criminal conspiracy absent a formal reinstitution of the charge.⁶

The court then vacated both sentences to allow Jones to withdraw his pleas on both charges, despite the fact that the flaw related only to the conspiracy conviction. It remanded for trial on the possession and possession with intent to deliver charges only, unless the Commonwealth properly reinstituted the criminal conspiracy charge. Because the Superior Court vacated the sentences, it did not reach the ineffectiveness of counsel claims or Jones's challenges to the validity of the plea or the legality of the sentence.

In dissent, President Judge Emeritus McEwen opined that subject matter jurisdiction did exist in the trial court over the dismissed conspiracy charge, focusing on language in our decision in Little describing subject matter jurisdiction as "the competency of the court to hear and determine controversies of the general class to which the case presented for consideration belongs." Super. Ct. Slip Diss. Op. at 1 (quoting Little, 314 A.2d at 272). The dissent concluded that the criminal conspiracy charge was within the "general class" of cases within the jurisdiction of the court of common pleas. Characterizing the inclusion of the dismissed charge as a procedural defect, the dissent concluded, "the failure to comply with a Rule of Criminal Procedure, while perhaps giving rise to a claim for some relief on the part of the defendant, does not affect the subject matter jurisdiction of the court of common pleas." Id. at 2.

The dissent also observed that deficiencies in presentation at the preliminary hearing stage are rendered immaterial following a jury's conviction of a defendant at trial. Id. at 3 (citing, inter alia, Commonwealth v. Jacobs, 433 Pa.Super. 411, 640 A.2d 1326, 1330 (1994)). The dissent analogized the defendant's plea to a jury verdict, noting that the plea was based on Jones's full knowledge of the charges included in the information, regardless of the lack of compliance with the rules of procedure for the reinstitution of a dismissed charge. Thus, according to the dissent, any challenges to the contents of the document had been "waived." Id. at 2.

After the Superior Court denied reargument, this Court granted the Commonwealth's Petition for Allowance of Appeal and its request for submission on the briefs.

Before this Court, the Commonwealth again contends that Jones waived his claims by failing to object to the inclusion of the criminal conspiracy charge in the bill of information. The Commonwealth contrasts the failure to object to the inclusion of the conspiracy charge with Jones's actions regarding the other charges, noting that his counsel successfully obtained a favorable sentence in exchange for his plea and a concession from the Commonwealth, which entered an order nolle prosequi on the charge of knowingly and intentionally possessing a controlled substance. It additionally emphasizes that questions of sufficiency or regularity of proceedings "may not be considered for the first time after the defendant has performed the grave and solemn act of admitting in open court that he committed the acts charged in the indictment, and that plea has been accepted in accordance with the rules and decisions regarding guilty pleas." Brief for Commonwealth at 15 (quoting Little, 314 A.2d at 273 (internal quotation marks omitted)). It argues that by pleading guilty to the charges Jones waived any challenge to the defect in the bill of information. The Commonwealth also emphasizes that Jones failed to file a motion to withdraw his plea within ten days or to request sentence reconsideration, instead waiting to...