Com. v. Rios

• Decision Date: 23 November 1998
• Citation: 721 A.2d 1049,554 Pa. 419
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Miguel RIOS, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

721 A.2d 1049

554 Pa. 419

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Miguel RIOS, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued April 28, 1998.

Decided November 23, 1998.

Earl G. Kauffman, Philadelphia, for Miguel Rios.

Catherine Marshall, William Spade, Jr., Philadelphia, Robert A. Graci, Office of Atty. Gen., for the Com.

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

OPINION OF THE COURT

CASTILLE, Justice.

This is a direct appeal from a sentence of death imposed by the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County.¹ Following a jury trial, appellant was convicted of first degree murder,² burglary,³ conspiracy,⁴ robbery,⁵ possession of an instrument of crime⁶ and unlawful restraint.⁷ The jury found three aggravating circumstances and no mitigating circumstances and returned a sentence of death.⁸ The trial court later imposed concurrent terms of imprisonment of thirty-six to seventy-two months for the burglary conviction, forty-eight to ninety-six months for one of the robbery convictions, eight to sixty months for the weapons offense, and eighty to one hundred sixty months for the conspiracy conviction.⁹

Appellant first alleges that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a conviction for murder in the first degree.¹⁰ In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, this court must determine whether the evidence admitted at trial and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, when viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as verdict winner, is sufficient to support all the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Commonwealth v. Bronshtein, 547 Pa. 460, 469, 691 A.2d 907, 911 (1997), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ____, 118 S.Ct. 346, 139 L.Ed.2d 269 (1997).

Testimony at trial established that, on September 19, 1992, at 6:30 p.m., Iris Basilio was sitting on the front porch of her house on Marshall Street in Philadelphia with her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Basilio, who was four months pregnant. Iris' four children, two girls ages 11 and 4, and two boys ages 9 and 10, were in the house watching television. Iris' husband, Miguel Basilio, was not home. Iris and Elizabeth observed appellant walk by the house twice. One hour later, appellant and his co-conspirator, who has never been identified, crossed the lawn and approached the house. When they reached the porch, appellant drew a gun and ordered Iris and Elizabeth into the house. Appellant and his co-conspirator proceeded to terrorize the women and children for two and a half hours. Appellant threw Iris and Elizabeth onto the floor and demanded that the children lie on the floor next to them. The co-conspirator stood to the side with an Uzi machine pistol pointed at the victims. Iris asked appellant not to force Elizabeth to lie on the floor because she was pregnant. Appellant told her to shut up.

As the children cried and screamed, appellant grabbed Iris by the hair, told her that he knew that she was Miguel's wife and stated that she must know where Miguel's money was kept. While pointing his gun at Iris' head, appellant ripped the jewelry from her wrists and neck. He dragged her upstairs, slapped her and demanded to know where the money was kept. After Iris informed him that there was no money, appellant began ripping clothes out of drawers, finding $400 in cash and a bracelet. Appellant continued to hit Iris in the face while demanding more money.

He then dragged Iris back downstairs to the living room where the co-conspirator still held the Uzi on Elizabeth and the children. The ten-year-old boy screamed and the co-conspirator put the barrel of the Uzi into the boy's mouth. Elizabeth screamed for the co-conspirator not to kill the boy and appellant put the barrel of his gun into her mouth.

Appellant ordered Iris to the basement, where he repeatedly beat her about the face and kicked her in the back while still demanding to know where the money was. Iris again stated that there was no more money. Appellant pointed his gun at her temple and told her to kneel down because he was going to kill her.

Eventually, appellant pulled Iris back upstairs, where he ransacked the kitchen and the living room searching for money. The four-year-old girl was screaming, and Iris begged appellant to let the child have some milk to calm her down. Instead, appellant threatened to kidnap the child and sell her at "a certain place" for $20,000.

Appellant took Iris upstairs again and ransacked the children's rooms looking for money. He ordered Iris to disrobe. After she removed her shirt and pulled her pants down to her ankles, appellant hit her on the back of the head with the gun and told her to put her clothes back on, claiming: "That's not what I came for."

Appellant took Iris back downstairs to the living room, where he continued to beat her. Elizabeth pleaded with appellant to stop hitting Iris, and the co-conspirator hit Elizabeth in the thigh with the Uzi. Appellant pulled out a razor blade and pressed it against Iris' face in front of her children. Appellant told her that he would cut her face, cut off one of her ears and one of her breasts unless she told him where the money was hidden. He also threatened to "cut [Elizabeth's] belly open and take the baby out." He then put his gun to the eleven-year-old girl's temple and dragged her into the kitchen to get milk for the screaming four-year-old.

Appellant and his co-conspirator then forced Elizabeth and the children down to the basement, lined them up against the wall and ordered them to pray because appellant was going to kill them. Iris begged appellant to have mercy for the children. He took Iris into a corner and continued to beat her. Appellant then tied Iris and Elizabeth up with masking tape and stuffed rags in their mouths. After the women were bound, appellant and his co-conspirator took turns waiting upstairs for Miguel to arrive.

Eventually, appellant returned to the basement holding Miguel at gunpoint. Appellant forced him to go from room to room looking for money. When the search proved fruitless, appellant returned to the basement with Miguel and threatened to rape the eleven-year-old girl. Miguel lunged at appellant and the co-conspirator restrained him. The two men kicked Miguel's face and stomach and beat him until Miguel begged them to kill him and get it over with.

Miguel gave appellant a beeper number of someone who could deliver money. Appellant called the number, but did not receive a return call. Miguel continued to plead with appellant to kill him, but to spare his wife, sister and children. The co-conspirator and appellant had a short conversation in English, ¹¹ and immediately thereafter, the co-conspirator shot Miguel in the stomach. Appellant stood over the injured Miguel and declared that he "deserved it." Appellant and the co-conspirator then fled the house.

Miguel lay bleeding on the basement floor and told his wife that he was wounded, but Iris could not render assistance because she was tied up. Eventually, two of the children managed to untie Iris and Elizabeth. Iris attempted to help her husband while Elizabeth ran screaming into the street to summon help. Miguel subsequently died from the gunshot wound.

Elizabeth later identified appellant from a photo array.¹² A warrant was issued for appellant's arrest. Police arrested appellant five weeks later after finding him hiding beneath a pile of clothes in his girlfriend's bedroom closet.

Appellant asserts that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient because it failed to prove that he shared the requisite state of mind with his co-conspirator who shot and killed Miguel. It is well established that an accomplice is equally criminally liable for the acts of another if he acts with the intent of promoting or facilitating the commission of an offense and agrees, aids, or attempts to aid such other person in either planning or committing that offense. Commonwealth v. Spotz, 552 Pa. 499, 716 A.2d 580 (Pa. 1998). In order to sustain a conviction for first degree murder via accomplice liability, the Commonwealth's evidence must be sufficient to establish that appellant possessed specific intent to kill. Id. Whether an accomplice possessed the same intent to kill as his co-conspirator may be inferred from words, conduct, the attendant circumstances including the actions taken after the killing and all reasonable inferences that follow from them. Id.; Commonwealth v. Bachert, 499 Pa. 398, 406, 453 A.2d 931, 935 (1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1043, 103 S.Ct. 1440, 75 L.Ed.2d 797 (1983).

Here, the evidence clearly establishes that appellant possessed the specific intent to kill Miguel Basilio. Appellant and his co-conspirator worked as a team throughout the entire criminal episode which culminated in Miguel's murder. They staked out the house together and the co-conspirator held the women and children at gunpoint in the living room while appellant dragged Iris throughout the house looking for money. They worked together to tie up their victims and they took turns watching the upstairs of the house for Miguel to arrive. In addition to the violence appellant inflicted upon the victim's family, he repeatedly smashed Miguel's head against the concrete basement floor, held him at gunpoint, allowed the co-conspirator to hold him at gunpoint, and conferred with the co-conspirator immediately before the fatal shot was fired.¹³ After stating that Miguel deserved to be shot, appellant fled with the co-conspirator, leaving Miguel to die while his family stood by with their hands tied, unable to render assistance. These facts fully support the jury's determination that appellant intended to facilitate Miguel's death and, therefore, that he was guilty of first-degree murder. Thus, we conclude that appellant's challenge that the evidence was insufficient to establish the requisite specific intent is without merit. Further, based upon our independent review of the record, we are...