Com. v. Mayo

• Decision Date: 02 August 1985
• Citation: 496 A.2d 824,344 Pa.Super. 336
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Derek Clarence MAYO, Appellant. 01298
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 824

496 A.2d 824

344 Pa.Super. 336

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Derek Clarence MAYO, Appellant.

01298

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted April 16, 1985.

Filed Aug. 2, 1985.

David F. Wedge, Lancaster, for appellant.

Joseph C. Madenspacher, Asst. Dist. Atty., Lancaster, for Commonwealth, appellee.

Before WICKERSHAM, BECK and CERCONE, JJ.

BECK, Judge:

Appellant was convicted of robbery ¹ and criminal conspiracy ² for the holdup of a gasoline station's convenience store. Post-verdict motions were denied, and appellant was sentenced to 33-72 months imprisonment for the robbery conviction, to be served concurrently with a 2-6 year sentence for the conspiracy count.

On appeal appellant claims (1) the trial court erred in failing to suppress evidence gathered while appellant was detained; (2) the trial court erred in granting the Commonwealth an extension under Pa.R.Crim.P. 1100; (3) the identification evidence was insufficient to find appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and (4) the sentence imposed was excessive. For the reasons stated below, we affirm the judgment of sentence.

The relevant facts are as follows. On December 8, 1982, at approximately 2:23 p.m., East Brandywine Township Police Chief John J. Harp received a radio report that three black males donning ski masks were observed outside a Little Washington bank. The three men were said to be driving a yellow-bottomed, black-topped 1978 or 1979 Chevrolet. Chief Harp had received a report earlier that day that three black males were seen putting on ski masks outside another local bank.

Using an unmarked car, Chief Harp drove towards the Little Washington bank. While driving on a rural road less than a mile from the bank, Chief Harp noticed three black males, one of them appellant, standing in the middle of the road next to a reddish brown and green 1971 Chevrolet. As soon as the men saw the police chief approach, they quickly got into the 1971 Chevrolet and sped away.

Chief Harp drove after them. He noted that the Chevrolet ran one stop sign and exceeded the speed limit by moving up to 65 miles per hour. In addition, the two passengers in the Chevrolet ducked down to keep hidden. During the chase, Chief Harp used his siren and flashing lights. Finally, the three men pulled over. Other police officers arrived immediately and kept the men in custody while the chief returned to the spot where he first noticed the men. He saw a log on the roadside which looked as if it had recently been moved. The log blocked a dirt lane running through a field. About 500 feet down the lane, Chief Harp saw a 1978 yellow-bottomed, black-topped Chevrolet. Chief Harp radioed for information and discovered that the car had been stolen that same day. He notified the state police and was soon joined by state troopers. On examining the Chevrolet, the chief noted that its engine was still warm and had been hot-wired.

The chief and the state troopers returned to where the three men were being detained, and the troopers placed the men under arrest. In total, appellant and his two companions were detained approximately one hour and ten minutes.

A search incident to arrest of one of the men uncovered a hunting knife. A search warrant was obtained for the reddish brown and green Chevrolet and a subsequent search of the car's trunk uncovered a ski mask and army jacket. These items were later identified by a convenience store cashier as the knife used and the clothing worn by the men who robbed the store three weeks earlier.

Appellant claims this evidence should have been suppressed since it was the result of an improper detention. The detention was not, as appellant claims, an arrest without probable cause but was in fact a lawful Terry stop for investigative purposes. Commonwealth v. Murray, 460 Pa. 53, 331 A.2d 414 (1975). In evaluating the reasonableness of an investigative stop, we must examine "whether the officer's action was justified at its inception, and whether it was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place." Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); see Commonwealth v. Moore, 300 Pa.Super. 488, 446 A.2d 960 (1982). Therefore, the first question is whether Chief Harp was justified in initially detaining appellant and the two other men.

To justify an investigative stop, a police officer must rely on "specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion." Terry, 392 U.S. at 21, 88 S.Ct. at 1880; Commonwealth v. Williams, 298 Pa.Super. 466, 468, 444 A.2d 1278, 1279 (1982).

Such an intrusion was indeed warranted in the instant case. Chief Harp saw three black males, less than a mile from the bank at which three black men were just spotted donning ski masks. Their car was stopped in the middle of a rural road. They took off immediately upon being approached by the chief, and ignored the siren and flashing lights beckoning them to pull over. They exceeded the speed limit and ran a stop sign in their flight from Chief Harp. The passengers ducked down to avoid being seen. Certainly, at this point, the police chief had seen enough to justify detaining appellant and his passengers. "Though flight alone will not justify a stop, ... a combination of circumstances, none of which taken alone would justify a stop, may be sufficient." Moore, 300 Pa.Super. at 492, 446 A.2d at 962.

Since we conclude that the stop was justifiable, we must now determine whether the length of the detention was warranted. The United States Supreme Court recently addressed this issue in United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 105 S.Ct. 1568, 84 L.Ed.2d 605 (1985). In Sharpe, the Court rejected the notion that a 20-minute Terry stop was unreasonable and stated that its "cases impose no rigid time limitation on Terry stops." Sharpe, 470 U.S. at ----, 105 S.Ct. at 1575, 84 L.Ed.2d at 615. The Court articulated a standard to use in evaluating the reasonableness of a detention.

In assessing whether a detention is too long in duration to be justified as an investigative stop, we consider it appropriate to examine whether the police diligently pursued a means of investigation that was likely to confirm...