Com. v. Miller

• Decision Date: 20 January 1999
• Citation: 555 Pa. 354,724 A.2d 895
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Dennis MILLER, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

724 A.2d 895

555 Pa. 354

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Dennis MILLER, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued November 18, 1998.

Decided January 20, 1999.

Robert Kerry Kalmbach, Kennett, SQ, for D. Miller.

Robert Louis Miller, West Chester, Robert A. Graci, Harrisburg, Nicholas J. Casenta, Jr., for Commonwealth.

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

OPINION

SAYLOR, Justice.

Appellant, Dennis L. Miller ("Miller"), appeals from the sentence of death imposed following his convictions for murder in the first degree, rape, indecent assault, recklessly endangering another person, possession of instruments of crime, and flight to avoid apprehension. The convictions stemmed from the killing of Miller's wife. We affirm.

Miller resided with his wife, Sherry, and their two children, Barbara and Dennis, who at the time were twelve and four, at 301 Church Alley, Londongrove Township, Chester County. Miller's marital relationship was, however, strained as a consequence of drug use, as well as jealousy and physical abuse directed toward his wife. Notably, in July of 1994, Miller pled guilty to harassment and disorderly conduct arising from an altercation with Sherry, and, in April of 1995, he pled guilty to aggravated assault in connection with an incident in which he held a gun to Sherry's head. As a result of the latter conviction, Miller was imprisoned for a term of nine to twenty-three months.

While in prison, Miller professed a desire to kill Sherry, and on the day of his release in September of 1995, he told his cellmate, "I'll be back for killing my wife." Following his release from prison, Miller resumed living with his wife and children.

On November 18, 1995, Miller made arrangements with his mother, Agnes Miller, to supervise his children while he and Sherry visited a local tavern, Trib's Waystation. At the bar, Miller and his wife drank beer and, at one point, ingested methamphetamine. Although Miller did not appear to be intoxicated, during the course of the evening he became angry whenever his wife either spoke to another man or used the telephone.¹ At approximately 12:30 a.m. Miller and his wife left the bar.

On Sunday, November 19, Agnes Miller was surprised when Miller and his wife did not arrive during the breakfast hour as planned to retrieve their children. As the day progressed, she became increasingly concerned. Miller's daughter, Barbara, repeatedly telephoned the family residence, but no one answered. In addition, Agnes Miller drove to Miller's home on two or more occasions. On each occasion, she observed that the house was locked, no one answered the door, and Sherry's vehicle was missing. Initially, Agnes Miller was concerned because Barbara was asthmatic and her medicine was located in Miller's home. Indeed, later that day, Barbara was taken to the hospital for treatment of an asthmatic attack. Ultimately, on Monday, November 20, Agnes Miller contacted Sherry's mother, Mary Folk, to determine whether she had heard from her daughter. As Ms. Folk had not, she filed a missing persons report with the Pennsylvania State Police.

In response to this report, the investigating trooper contacted the employers for Miller and his wife, checked with the local prisons and hospitals, and interviewed family members. Both Agnes Miller and Ms. Folk related to the police that Miller and his wife had used illicit drugs and speculated that they might have traveled to Philadelphia to purchase drugs. The police also went to the Miller home, knocked on the door, and after receiving no response, checked the doors, finding them locked. When these efforts failed, the troopers asked Agnes Miller to meet them at the residence. Once there, Agnes Miller again expressed concern that something may have happened to her son and daughter-in-law because of their history of drug abuse. The troopers who met Agnes Miller were familiar with Miller's drug problem and were aware of Miller's history of spousal abuse. At Agnes Miller's request, and after receiving an assurance from her that she would be responsible for the property, the troopers agreed to forcibly enter the residence.

The troopers gained access through a basement window, checked the basement area, climbed a set of stairs to the kitchen, and briefly surveyed the kitchen. Upon hearing a fan on the second story, the troopers announced themselves and proceeded upstairs. In the master bedroom, the troopers observed the contents of a purse strewn about the floor, an open suitcase, and the naked, blood-spattered body of Sherry Miller lying on a bed with her legs spread, knees bent, and with a bloody pillow over her face. After confirming that Miller was not also in the bedroom, the troopers left, secured the house, and waited until investigators arrived with a search warrant.

An autopsy of Sherry Miller revealed that she died as a result of more than thirty stab wounds to her head, neck, chest, arms, and hands. The murder weapon, a knife, was found in a trash can; the tip had been broken off and was recovered from the shoulder of Sherry Miller. In addition to determining the cause of death, the forensic pathologist conducting the autopsy concluded that Sherry Miller had been subjected to forcible intercourse at the time of her death. This finding was premised, in part, upon the position in which her body was found, the defensive wounds on her hands and arms, the seminal material recovered from her vaginal vault, the absence of such material outside her vagina, and the absence of blood spatter in the area just above her vagina and between her legs.

From the crime scene, the police recovered Miller's bloody handprints on the pillow that was used to cover Sherry Miller's face. Furthermore, the police discovered a bloody footprint of Miller and a bandage with Miller's bloody fingerprint in the bathroom area. In addition, the police obtained a partial thumbprint from the murder weapon.² The police noted that the box spring from the bed where Sherry Miller was found was broken, and the bed frame was bent. On the kitchen table, the police found a partially empty cup of coffee next to a vengeful note in Miller's handwriting.³

The police continued to search for Miller, contacting his friends and family members in an effort to locate him. Although their efforts were unsuccessful, the police were able to trace Miller's flight from the crime scene to Maryland from his use of his wife's automatic teller machine card, and the police found Sherry's vehicle in Maryland; the vehicle contained a baseball cap belonging to Miller and a number of ATM receipts. Miller was ultimately apprehended six months later in Florida, after a tip following a description of the unsolved crime on the America's Most Wanted television program.

Prior to trial, Miller sought to suppress the evidence seized from his residence, alleging that the initial entry of the police was illegal as it was not authorized by a warrant or supported by probable cause. The trial court denied the suppression motion, finding that the actions of the police were justified in response to the concerns, expressed by Agnes Miller and Ms. Folk, that either Miller or his wife may have been in need of immediate aid.

After an extensive colloquy, Miller elected to proceed with a non-jury trial. At trial, the Commonwealth presented testimony from a forensic pathologist, Richard Callery, M.D., regarding the cause of and circumstances surrounding Sherry Miller's death. Dr. Callery opined that she died from massive internal bleeding resulting from multiple stab wounds, and that she had been subjected to forcible intercourse during the homicide. The Commonwealth also presented testimony from Agnes Miller, as well as a number of witnesses who had seen Miller and his wife at Trib's Waystation on the evening of November 18. In addition, Miller's cellmate during his incarceration for aggravated assault testified to incriminating statements made by Miller. Finally, both sides stipulated to a number of forensic findings, namely, fingerprints, footprints, blood tests, and the results of DNA testing, which linked Miller to the murder.

The defense presented one witness, who testified that Miller's cellmate fabricated the statements he had attributed to Miller. The trial court found Miller guilty of all offenses.

In the penalty phase, the Commonwealth alleged as aggravating circumstances that Miller committed the murder during the perpetration of a felony, rape, 42 Pa.C.S. § 711(d)(6), and that the murder was committed by means of torture, 42 Pa.C.S. § 711(d)(8). After the Commonwealth incorporated the record from the guilt phase, the defense sought to establish mitigating circumstances by presenting psychological testimony regarding Miller's background, upbringing, and psychological profile, as well as testimony from his family members. The trial court found one aggravating circumstance, the Section 9711(d)(6) aggravator, and one mitigating circumstance, that Miller lacked the capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or conform his conduct to the requirements of the law, see 42 Pa.C.S. § 711(e)(3). However, the trial court concluded that the aggravating circumstance outweighed the mitigating circumstance. On October 27, 1997, the trial court formally imposed the death sentence with a consecutive term of incarceration of ten to twenty years related to the rape conviction.

Although Miller has not raised a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence underlying his first degree murder conviction, in all cases in which the death penalty has been imposed, we are required to review the sufficiency of such evidence. Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer, 500 Pa. 16, 26 n. 3, 454 A.2d 937, 942 n. 3 (1982), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 970, 103 S.Ct. 2444, 77 L.Ed.2d 1327 (1983). To establish murder in the first degree, the Commonwealth must prove that the defendant specifically...