Com. v. Markman

• Decision Date: 21 February 2007
• Citation: 916 A.2d 586
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Beth Ann MARKMAN, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

916 A.2d 586

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Beth Ann MARKMAN, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued May 11, 2004.

Re-Submitted November 21, 2006.

Decided February 21, 2007.

William Grant Braught, Esq., Carlisle, for Beth Ann Markman.

Jill Michelle Spector, Esq., National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, for National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women.

Jaime M. Keating, Esq., Amy Zapp, Esq., Harrisburg, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

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

OPINION

Justice SAYLOR.¹

This is a direct appeal from a sentence of death imposed by the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas, following Appellant Beth Ann Markman's conviction of the first-degree murder of Leslie White and related charges. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

I. Background

During the summer of 2000, shortly after graduating from high school, Leslie White, the victim in this case, began working in the photo shop of a Wal-Mart store in Silver Springs Township, Cumberland County. Throughout the course of the events leading to her death, White lived at home with her parents and drove her new black Jeep Cherokee to work, as well as to her classes at Harrisburg Area Community College ("HACC"), where she was a freshman. White had a particular interest in art and photography, and was pursuing studies in these subjects. The prior year, her parents gave her a camera costing approximately $600, which she continued to use.

During her first day of employment at Wal-Mart on August 2, 2000, White met Appellant's co-defendant, William Housman, who also started working at the store that day. White and Housman struck up a friendship, which eventually became romantic in nature. Unbeknownst to White, however, Housman had been involved with Appellant for some time, and was living with her in a trailer park in Newville, Cumberland County. In fact, Appellant and Housman had cohabited for nearly two years, including a period of time in which they previously had resided in Virginia. Some time in August of 2000, Appellant discovered that Housman was dating White, which led to a series of escalating arguments between Appellant and Housman. Around this time, Appellant's friends and co-workers noticed that Appellant began showing dark bruising around her eyes, neck, and arms, which Appellant attributed to fights between herself and Housman.² Several individuals testified that Appellant also became increasingly temperamental, and expressed her anger toward White by referring to her as a "f____ing bitch" and stating that she would "kick her ass" or "kill her" if she ever got hold of her. At one point, Appellant called White at work, and White appeared frightened immediately afterward.

By the end of August, when Appellant realized that Housman had not terminated his relationship with White, she evicted him from the trailer and changed the lease to reflect her name only. She also called the domestic violence hotline to obtain a protection-from-abuse order due to her fear that Housman might retaliate, and mentioned an incident in which he had previously broken into the trailer. No order was issued, however, because Appellant failed to attend the requisite in-person interview. Moreover, approximately two weeks later, in mid-September of 2000, Appellant and Housman reconciled and she permitted him to move back in. Still, Appellant did not place Housman's name back on the lease, and she told her probation officer that Housman would have to earn back her trust. Appellant's probation officer testified that Appellant wanted White to come to the trailer so that Housman could finally terminate his affair with White in Appellant's presence.

Within a week after reconciling, Appellant and Housman made plans to move back to Virginia where, it was thought, their relationship would improve. On September 21, 2000, they traveled to an area of southern Virginia where Housman used to work, and told friends that they anticipated relocating to that region. However, shortly after returning to Pennsylvania after this brief visit to Virginia, Appellant suspected that Housman was trying to resume relations with White. Whether or not this was true, it is fairly certain that Housman and White were no longer dating each other at this time. Indeed, White had become involved in with a fellow student at HACC. Nevertheless, there was evidence that Housman had not fully accepted this state of affairs, and Appellant caught Housman in several apparent lies concerning his whereabouts and his dealings with White. Appellant thus concluded that Housman was not being forthright concerning his intentions, which led to another series of altercations culminating on October 2, 2000, when Appellant again required Housman to move out of the trailer. That evening, Housman disabled Appellant's car by removing wires from the engine; after the police were called to the scene, Housman replaced the wires.

Two days later, on October 4, 2000, at approximately 5:30 p.m., Appellant was seen driving her car, with Housman in the front passenger's seat, to a local Sheetz gas station/convenience store. They parked, proceeded to the pay phone, and called White at Wal-Mart to lure her to the trailer (at this time Appellant's trailer did not have telephone service). Housman placed the call and stated, falsely, that his father had died; he asked White to come to the trailer to console him. According to Appellant, Housman told White that Appellant had gone out of town, and hence, only he (Housman) would be at the trailer when White arrived. This ploy was effective, as White became concerned that Housman might be suicidal over the supposed loss of his father. Thus, she left her shift early at 6:16 p.m. and drove her jeep to the trailer to comfort him.

When White arrived, Housman admitted her into the living room, and the two began to talk. Appellant remained in the bedroom with the door closed, and White initially did not know she was there. Subsequently, while White and Housman were sitting on the couch conversing, Appellant came out of the bedroom and stood by the front door. Appellant testified that she did this because she was having trouble breathing due to her asthma, and needed fresh air.³ She also stated that, just before coming out of the bedroom, she heard White cry out because Housman had hit her on the hand with a hammer, and her hand appeared swollen. In any event, shortly after coming out of the bedroom and standing by the door, Appellant acted together with Housman to subdue White, binding her hands and feet with speaker wire, and placing a large piece of cloth in her mouth, as well as a tight gag over her mouth and around the back of her neck to secure the cloth. With White bound and gagged, Housman and Appellant stepped outside to smoke a cigarette and discuss the situation. Upon returning to the trailer, Appellant held the victim down, while Housman strangled her with speaker wire and the crook of his arm, killing her. During the struggle, White reached up and scratched Appellant on the neck, leaving dark red marks. According to the medical examiner, White died of asphyxiation caused by Housman's strangulating actions together with the blockage of air due to the cloth stuffed in her mouth. See N.T. 555-56.

After the killing, Appellant retrieved a canvas tent from a shed near the trailer while Housman waited inside. She and Housman wrapped the body in the tent and placed it in the back of White's jeep. They then drove in two cars — with Housman driving White's jeep, followed by Appellant in her own Buick sedan — to Housman's father's home in Franklin County, Virginia. They ultimately disposed of White's body by placing it in the trunk of an abandoned car in a remote area of neighboring Floyd County, on land owned by Housman's mother; they also discarded White's personal effects, except for her camera, which they sold to a pawn shop.

Housman and Appellant remained in southern Virginia for several days, staying alternately with friends of Housman and with Housman's father, and continuing to drive White's black jeep, which Housman held out as his own. After White's parents filed a missing persons report, however, authorities tracked the jeep to Housman's father's house. Franklin County Police Officer Brian Vaughn went to the house to investigate, and interviewed Housman and Appellant separately in his patrol car concerning the jeep. At this time, nobody except Housman and Appellant knew that White was dead. While in the officer's vehicle, Housman indicated that the jeep was borrowed from a friend; he then went back inside his father's house, and Appellant came out and sat in the police vehicle to answer questions. She did not contradict Housman's claim that he had borrowed the jeep from a friend; in response to the officer's questions, she also denied that Housman had ever been abusive toward her.

Following this incident, Housman and Appellant concluded that the jeep was a liability and disposed of it on the same piece of property where they had hidden White's body. Notwithstanding these efforts to conceal the evidence, the police soon discovered the jeep, as well as White's partially-decomposed body in the abandoned car, still bound and gagged. They arrested Appellant and Housman at a friend's house the evening of October 11, 2000, exactly one week after the murder. The police also retrieved White's camera from the pawn shop and developed the film inside of it. The film contained several photographs, taken after the murder, that were described for the jury; in one of these photos, Appellant appears to be laughing while Housman pretends to choke her. See N.T. 477.

After receiving warnings pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 479, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1630, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), both defendants waived their rights and agreed to provide statements to the Virginia police. Each...