Com. v. Keaton

• Decision Date: 12 April 1999
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Alexander G. KEATON, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

556 Pa. 442

729 A.2d 529

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Alexander G. KEATON, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued October 20, 1998.

Decided April 12, 1999.

Reargument Denied June 15, 1999.

Bernard Siegel, Philadelphia, for A. Keaton.

Catherine Marshall, William G. Young, Philadelphia, Robert A. Graci, Harrisburg, for Com.

Before FLAHERTY, C.J., and ZAPPALA, CAPPY, CASTILLE, NIGRO, NEWMAN and SAYLOR, JJ.

OPINION

SAYLOR, Justice.

Between June and December of 1992, Appellant, Alexander Keaton, perpetrated a series of brutal sexual assaults on women in his neighborhood who were fellow crack cocaine addicts. In one of those assaults, Keaton caused the strangulation death of his victim, Sherrill Ann Hall. As a consequence of this killing, a jury found Keaton guilty of first degree murder. A sentence of death was imposed and this direct appeal followed. We affirm.

The trial evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as verdict winner, reveals that on the night of June 1, 1992, Keaton was standing on a street corner in North Philadelphia when he saw Michelle B., whom he recognized as having been a classmate in junior high school more than fifteen years earlier. Keaton approached Michelle B., who was on her way to her aunt's house, and asked why they had never "gotten together" in school. When Michelle B. responded that she did not know, Keaton said, "Well, we're going to get together now." At this point, Keaton produced a gun, pressed it into Michelle B.'s side, and forced her to proceed with him to an abandoned house several blocks away on Redner Street. Once inside the house, which was full of trash and debris, Keaton forced Michelle B. into a room with an old mattress, where he ordered her to disrobe and then raped her.

After the rape, Keaton gave his victim back her pants and shirt, but retained her bra and panties, which he placed in his jacket. He did not, however, allow her to leave. Seeing that she was still in Keaton's power, Michelle B. suggested that they visit a nearby establishment known as the Motorcycle Club, where they would be more comfortable, and where, unbeknownst to Keaton, Michelle B.'s godfather was a member. Keaton at first agreed, but as they approached the club, he became suspicious that Michelle B. was "playing games" with him. Keaton then slapped and punched Michelle B., and then picked her up and carried her through an empty lot to another abandoned house, this one on West Oxford Street, two blocks from the first house. Once inside this second house, which was also full of debris, Keaton again forced his victim to undress, and then tied her wrists and ankles together, and raped her anally. Keaton inserted a tree branch into Michelle B.'s vagina several times, and repeated this act with a wine bottle. After this, Keaton urinated into his victim's mouth, and then severely beat her on her back and buttocks with a weightlifter's belt. He then removed all the money from her pocketbook, gave her back her pants and shirt, and released her, leaving her bra and panties in the house.

After wandering the streets for several hours, Michelle B. saw Officer Pat Repholz of the Philadelphia Police Department, whom she had known from the neighborhood for many years. When she recounted to Officer Repholz what had happened, the patrolman accompanied her back to the West Oxford Street house and collected evidence, including the bottle, the tree branch, the bra and the panties.

After Michelle B. was transported to the hospital, specimens were removed from her vaginal, vulva, cervical and anal areas. The vaginal, vulva and cervical swabs were all bloody and all tested positive for both spermatazoa and prostatic acid phosphatase, a substance in semen. Additionally, the anal swab tested positive for spermatazoa, but was inconclusive as to the presence of acid phosphatase. Subsequent testing by the Philadelphia Police Department's criminalistics laboratory indicated that the wine bottle tested positive for both blood and spermatazoa; the tree branch tested negative for blood, but positive for spermatazoa; the panties and bra recovered from the West Oxford Street house were stained with blood, but tests for seminal stains were negative; and Michelle B.'s pants and shirt tested positive for both blood and spermatazoa.

At the time of the attack, Michelle B., an African American, was in her late twenties and was a recovering crack cocaine addict. Later that year, on the night of November 19, 1992, Keaton was frequenting the same part of town, when he saw Nadine S., with whom he was acquainted from the neighborhood. Nadine S. was walking from a friend's house to the Motorcycle Club where Michelle B. had attempted to go after being raped. On seeing Nadine S., Keaton approached her and forcibly turned her around so her back was to him, placed his arm firmly around her neck, stated that he had a gun, and placed a bullet in her hand, telling her that the bullet was for her. He then forced her into a nearby abandoned house and blocked the door from the inside with a large stick. Keaton then retrieved a flashlight and forced his victim up a flight of stairs and into a room where there was a cot. After this, Keaton ordered her to undress. After Nadine S. complied, Keaton placed a rope that had been fashioned into a noose tightly around her neck and told her that the noose's purpose was to "motivate" her. He then forced her to perform oral sex on him, following which he raped her anally. Ultimately, Keaton coerced his victim to perform additional oral sex, until she spit the semen onto the floor.

Nadine S. then began to cry, and Keaton told her to "shut up," and that if he killed her nobody would ever know. Keaton then explained that he was exacting revenge for a prior incident in which he had approached Nadine S. in a bar, and she had rebuffed him. Every time Nadine S. tried to say something, Keaton would pull the noose tighter and tell her he did not want to hear her talk. After this, Keaton raped Nadine S. vaginally, and then told her to put her clothes on and leave with him, because the house was about to explode due to a bomb he had planted. When they left the house, Keaton continued to terrorize Nadine S. by following her and telling her to keep running every time she looked back.

Nadine S. eventually reached a police garage, and the police were summoned. Officers Paula Robinson and Jose Perez met Nadine S. at the garage and returned with her to the scene of the crime to gather evidence. The officers noticed that Nadine S. was very upset, her clothes were dirty, and her hair disheveled. According to Patrolman Perez, when they arrived at the house, Nadine S. was trembling and frightened, and initially would not enter. Eventually, the officers persuaded her to show them where the attack had taken place. When they reached the room where the assault had occurred, Officer Perez noticed that a rope was tied to a part of the cot, and that there was what appeared to be a semen stain on the floor.

Nadine S. was then transported to the hospital, where specimens were removed from her vaginal, vulva, cervical and anal areas. The vaginal and cervical smears tested positive for both spermatazoa and prostatic acid phosphatase. The anal and vulva smears tested positive for spermatazoa, but were inconclusive as to the presence of acid phosphatase. Additionally, subsequent testing by the Philadelphia Police Department's criminalistics laboratory indicated that the underpants Nadine S. was wearing the night of the attack, which she put back on after the rape, were stained with blood and had seminal stains containing spermatazoa.

At the time of the attack, Nadine S., an African American, was in her late thirties and was a crack cocaine addict.

One month later, on December 19, 1992, Nadine S. was driving her car in the same part of town, when she saw Keaton on the street. She immediately notified a nearby police officer, who arrested him. Keaton was subsequently charged with rape, 18 Pa.C.S. § 3121, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, 18 Pa.C.S. § 3123, kidnapping, 18 Pa.C.S. § 2901, false imprisonment, 18 Pa.C.S. § 2903, unlawful restraint, 18 Pa. C.S. § 2902, aggravated assault, 18 Pa.C.S. § 2702, and recklessly endangering another person, 18 Pa.C.S. § 2705, all stemming from the attack on Nadine S.¹

Several weeks after Keaton's arrest on the above charges, on January 7, 1993, the partially decomposed body of Sherrill Ann Hall, a former girlfriend of Keaton's, was found in the trash-strewn basement of an abandoned house two doors from where Keaton had accosted Nadine S., and two blocks from where he had raped Michelle B. Ms. Hall had been missing since November 1, 1992, and the results of an autopsy were consistent with a date of death of November 1 or 2, 1992. The house in which Ms. Hall's body was found had no electricity, and the officer who investigated at the scene of the crime testified that, even at noon, it was pitch black in the basement where the body was found.

When Ms. Hall's body was found, the right legging of a pair of tights was tied tightly around her neck as a ligature, with the knot pressing into her throat, and the other legging of the tights was pulled up above her left knee, such that any movement by that leg would cause the ligature to tighten further. The knot pressing into Ms. Hall's throat was tied so tightly that the medical examiner was unable to untie it, but had to cut it with a razor blade. Additionally, she had a tan jacket on her arms, which were positioned high above her head, with the remainder of the jacket twisted around behind her, and then tied around her neck.

The autopsy revealed that the cause of death was ligature strangulation, and showed that at the time of her death, Ms. Hall had recently used alcohol and cocaine. When her body was found, Ms. Hall's shirt and bra were pushed up exposing her breasts, and she was...