Com. v. Lewis

• Citation: 911 A.2d 558
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Trevor LEWIS, Appellant.
• Decision Date: 08 November 2006
• Court: Superior Court of Pennsylvania

911 A.2d 558

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Trevor LEWIS, Appellant.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted August 14, 2006.

Filed November 8, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Charles F. Smith, Jr., Allentown, for appellant.

James B. Martin, Asst. Dist. Atty., Allentown, for Com., appellee.

BEFORE: ORIE MELVIN, BOWES and TAMILIA, JJ.

OPINION BY ORIE MELVIN, J.:

¶ 1 Appellant, Trevor Lewis, appeals from the judgment of sentence¹ imposed following his convictions in a jury trial for aggravated assault and simple assault.² On appeal, he challenges the sufficiency and weight of the evidence as well as the discretionary aspects of sentencing. After review, we affirm.

¶ 2 The relevant facts were accurately summarized by the trial court as follows.

[Appellant] and the victim, [Stephanie] Jones, had an approximately two year relationship. In July of 2003, Ms. Jones weighed about 180 pounds and was 5'6" tall; [Appellant] was about 230 pounds and 6' tall. They co-habited with the victim's cousin, the cousin's boyfriend and victim's children in New Jersey, until the incident of July 22, 2003. The couple fought numerous times throughout their relationship. The fights consisted of loud, raised voices and were never physical except when [Appellant] restrained Ms. Jones. Further, as of July, 2003 their relationship was deteriorating. Ms. Jones believed they needed some time to relax and talk.

On July 22, 2003 [Appellant] and [Ms.] Jones, along with her two children[,] were guests at the KOA Campgrounds in New Tripoli, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, on a vacation. They arrived Sunday, July 20 and were enjoying their vacation. On the morning of July 22, 2003, Ms. Jones and her children woke up and noticed [Appellant] was not in the cabin. Upon returning from the bathhouse, [Appellant] was still not present at the cabin. While Ms. Jones and her children were leaving for a walk she noticed [Appellant] walking towards the cabin. As the [Appellant] approached, it "looked like something was wrong with him." Ms. Jones sent her children to the playground so she and [Appellant] could talk.

[Appellant] and Ms. Jones talked about their relationship. [Appellant] brought up another man, "Nate". [Appellant] claimed Nate called and told him Ms. Jones and he had been having sexual relations. [Appellant] insisted upon having the conversation about Nate, and their discussion became escalated, and they moved the argument inside [] the cabin.

Once inside the cabin, the argument continued. [Appellant] stood closer to the door, with his back towards it, while Ms. Jones stood facing the door. [Appellant] continued to ask Ms. Jones if she loved him and if she was cheating on him. "I was saying, no, no. And I remember saying something like you know why are you asking me these questions are—do you have something to tell me? You know, is there something you need to tell me? Are you cheating on me? You know, and he didn't answer that question, he just wanted to know if I was cheating on him and I just kept yelling no. And the next thing I knew he was punching me in the eye." [Appellant] punched Ms. Jones with a closed fist in her left eye, and continued to yell. At this point the victim was dazed, dizzy and could not see. [Appellant] hit the victim in the stomach and she sat down on the double bed in the cabin. [Appellant] punched the victim in the face with a closed fist again, this time on the right side of her face, on her mouth. The victim was bleeding and in pain. [Appellant] gave the victim a towel, and [Appellant] left in the victim's car. When Ms. Jones got up from the bed she opened the door and her children were there, on the porch. The children were visibly upset by the sight of their mother. Ms. Jones has no further memory until she woke up in the hospital.

Two campers reported a domestic dispute to the office of the KOA. Ms. Tapper, co-owner of the KOA campground, was in the office working at the time. [Ms.] Tapper immediately ran outside and heard yelling and heard "hitting" noises, as well as Ms. Jones begging for him to stop. [Ms.] Tapper yelled that the cops were on the way, [Appellant] immediately exited the cabin. [Appellant] told [Ms.] Tapper the victim stabbed him, and he needed to go to the hospital, and immediately left in the car. Ms. Tapper entered the cabin to tend to the victim until the ambulance arrived. There was blood everywhere, the victim's face was extremely swollen, she had a split lip and a lump on her forehead. The victim was removed from the cabin by a stretcher and into the ambulance by the paramedics.

En route to the hospital the EMT paramedics classified the injury as life threatening because of the possibility of her airway closing up and not being able to breathe and because of the possibility of broken facial bones. The victim was given oxygen, and advanced life support was requested and administered in the ambulance.

Soon after arriving at the Lehigh Valley Hospital Emergency Room, Dr. Geoffrey Gaddis Hallock, a plastic surgeon, examined the victim. Dr. Hallock testified that she was in guarded condition because she was on a ventilator for breathing, and she was not conscious. The victim had approximately nine lacerations on her face, outside her lip, inside the mouth and inside the lips. In addition to being ventilated, the victim also had an oral gastric tube, a phenol and morphine drip through an intravenous line, and the urine output was monitored by using a Foley catheter.

The same day, Dr. Hallock repaired the multiple cuts on the victim's face and mouth. Most of her lacerations went down to the facial muscles and bones, approximately "a half an inch or so." The victim remained in the hospital for five days. She was on the ventilator three days. She also had an infection after the surgery in the area of one of the lacerations on her cheek. The victim had a follow up appointment after she was discharged from the hospital to remove the sutures and attend to the infection.

When the victim was released from the hospital and returned home, she could not take care of herself. Her cousin cared for her for about one month, and her son stayed with relatives for a little while. Ms. Jones was finally able to return to work three months later. She still has scars from the incident. Her children remain emotionally and mentally scarred.

After the incident occurred, [Appellant] fled the scene in the victim's car. [Appellant] left the car at a rest stop and called a cab. [Appellant] eventually fled to Georgia. [Appellant] was using a different name while living and working in Georgia, Rashid Samad Powell. Upon [Appellant]'s fleeing the camp-ground and police arriving, Trooper Canepa called his supervisor for both a warrant for [Appellant] as well as to obtain authority to extradite. [Appellant] was entered into the NCIC database. [Trooper] Canepa unsuccessfully attempted to contact [Appellant] and notify him of the warrant. Every thirty to ninety days the [Appellant]'s name was run through the criminal investigation computers to find out if he had been arrested in another jurisdiction, the [trooper] would also contact the victim to find out if she had any contact with [Appellant]. Finally, after running out of directions and finding no leads, [Trooper] Kirk Vanim forwarded the information to the Fugitive Apprehension Unit, in February 2004. Ultimately, [Appellant] was picked up in Georgia by the Georgia Highway Patrol, and brought back to Pennsylvania approximately July 27, 2004.

Once [Appellant] arrived in Pennsylvania, he was taken to the Bethlehem State Police Barracks. He was interviewed by [Trooper] Canepa. [Appellant] provided a signed, written statement.

Trial Court Opinion, 9/26/05, at 3-8 (footnotes and citations to the record omitted).

¶ 3 On April 13, 2005, Appellant was convicted of the aforementioned charges and, on May 19, 2005, was sentenced to ten to twenty years' imprisonment. On May 27, 2005, Appellant filed a timely Post-Sentence Motion, which included a Motion for Reconsideration of Sentence and a Motion for New Trial. On September 26, 2005, the trial court denied the post-sentence motions. This timely appeal followed.³

¶ 4 Appellant challenges the sufficiency and weight of the evidence to sustain the conviction for aggravated assault and further seeks allowance of appeal from the discretionary aspects of his sentencing.

The standard we apply in reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence is whether viewing all the evidence admitted at trial in the light most favorable to the verdict winner, there is sufficient evidence to enable the fact-finder to find every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. In applying the above test, we may not weigh the evidence and substitute our judgment for the fact-finder. In addition, we note that the facts and circumstances established by the Commonwealth need not preclude every possibility of innocence. Any doubts regarding a [Appellant]'s guilt may be resolved by the fact-finder unless the evidence is so weak and inconclusive that as a matter of law no probability of fact may be drawn from the combined circumstances.

Commonwealth v. Kim, 888 A.2d 847, 851-52 (Pa.Super.2005), appeal denied, 587 Pa. 721, 899 A.2d 1122 (2006) (quoting Commonwealth v. Lehman, 820 A.2d 766, 772 (Pa.Super.2003) (citations omitted)). Furthermore, "[t]he Commonwealth may sustain its burden of proving every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt by means of wholly circumstantial evidence." Commonwealth v. Gooding, 818 A.2d 546, 549 (Pa.Super.2003), appeal denied, 575 Pa. 691, 835 A.2d 709 (2003).

¶ 5 "A person is guilty of aggravated assault if he . . . attempts to cause serious bodily injury intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life." 18 Pa.C.S.A § 2702(a)(1). The term "serious bodily injury" is defined by statute as "[b]odily injury which creates a...