Com. v. Santiago

• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court
• Writing for the Court: WIEAND
• Citation: Com. v. Santiago, 654 A.2d 1062, 439 Pa.Super. 447 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1995)
• Decision Date: 02 February 1995
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Wilfredo SANTIAGO, Appellee.

Page 1062

654 A.2d 1062

439 Pa.Super. 447

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Wilfredo SANTIAGO, Appellee.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Jan. 19, 1994.

Filed Dec. 7, 1994.

Reargument Denied Feb. 2, 1995.

Ronald Eisenberg, Deputy Dist. Atty., Philadelphia, for Com., appellant.

David Rudovsky, Philadelphia, for appellee.

Before WIEAND, HUDOCK and SAYLOR, JJ.

WIEAND, Judge.

This is an appeal by the Commonwealth from an order of the trial court which barred a retrial of Wilfredo Santiago and dismissed charges of murder against him because of the prosecution's failure to make timely disclosure to the defense of certain information alleged to be material and exculpatory. The Commonwealth argues that the information not disclosed was neither material to the defense nor exculpatory and that, in any event, dismissal of the charges was not required by due process or by the double jeopardy clauses of the federal or state constitutions. After careful and tedious review, we agree that the trial court was in error when it barred a retrial and dismissed the charges. Therefore, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I. Factual and Procedural History of the Case

On May 28, 1985, at or about 3:00 a.m., the body of Police Officer Thomas Trench was found in his patrol car at the corner of 17th and Spring Garden Streets in Philadelphia. He had been shot in the face and in the left side of the neck at close range. An intensive investigation was begun by the Philadelphia Police Department to apprehend his murderer. During the early hours of this investigation, it was learned that Wilfredo Santiago had participated in a neighborhood altercation on the evening prior to the murder, during which he had been observed by civilian and police witnesses to be in possession of a handgun. When police had attempted to intervene in the dispute, Santiago had fled and had been pursued by police to the home of his aunt, Carmen Geigel, where he was residing at the time. An altercation had ensued between police and members of Santiago's family in which Santiago's aunt and his cousin, Manuel Roldan, had attempted to prevent police from arresting Santiago. Both Santiago and Roldan had been taken into police custody, but Santiago had been released after giving police an alias which had prevented their learning that he had been on parole at the time. Upon being released from police custody, Santiago had made threats against Police Officer Ismael Cruz, whom Santiago believed had used excessive force against him and his family. Officer Cruz had been assigned to the same patrol car, number 912, in which Officer Trench was later found murdered.

On the afternoon following the murder of Officer Trench, Santiago was re-arrested and charged in connection with the altercation in which he had been involved on the prior evening. Pursuant to a request by the District Attorney's Office, bail was set at $75,000. Unable to make bail, Santiago remained incarcerated, and, on several occasions, was questioned by police regarding possible involvement in the murder of Officer Trench. During each interrogation, Santiago gave an exculpatory statement in which he denied any involvement in the killing. However, on June 27, 1985, while being questioned by police, Santiago admitted to having had a .38 caliber revolver, the same type of gun which had been used in the shooting of Officer Trench. Santiago claimed, however, that he had sold the gun two weeks before the Trench shooting. On July 23, 1985, Santiago was charged in connection with the murder of Officer Trench.

On August 1, 1985, the Commonwealth sought and obtained a protective order which prevented the defense from examining the affidavit of probable cause for the warrant to arrest Santiago for murder. The court also ordered that the affidavit be sealed until further court order. This order remained in effect until April 21, 1986, when the trial court lifted the protective order and directed the Commonwealth to make appropriate discovery information available to the defense. Thereafter, a suppression hearing was held from April 23, 1986 until June 6, 1986, following which the trial court refused to suppress statements made by Santiago to police and to prison inmates. Also not suppressed were physical evidence seized by police and certain intercepted wire communications. The trial court, however, did order that intercepted communications between Santiago's aunt and her husband be suppressed.

Following jury selection, trial commenced on July 14, 1986. The Commonwealth presented evidence of Santiago's involvement in the earlier neighborhood altercation and his threats to police on the evening prior to Officer Trench's murder. Evidence was also introduced that Santiago had been seen riding a bicycle near the scene of the shooting within an hour of the crime. One witness, Jose Rosario, testified that Santiago, while riding his bicycle prior to the shooting, had dropped a handgun which he had been carrying concealed in a newspaper and had to stop to retrieve it. Santiago also had been observed, approximately ten minutes after the shooting, riding north on 17th Street, away from the murder scene. Evidence was also presented that Santiago had been observed with a .38 caliber handgun during the weeks preceding the murder of Officer Trench. Finally, there was evidence that Santiago had made statements to two inmates in which he had admitted killing Officer Trench, and that he had told a third inmate that he was not worried about the police finding the gun.

Much of the Commonwealth's evidence at trial, however, was presented in the form of prior inconsistent statements by its witnesses. These statements were introduced as substantive evidence pursuant to Commonwealth v. Brady, 510 Pa. 123, 507 A.2d 66 (1986). ¹ This was necessary because several key Commonwealth witnesses, prior to trial, recanted or denied having made statements to police which identified Santiago as having been near the scene of the crime shortly before and after the shooting of Officer Trench. The defense argued in summation that the witnesses' prior statements to police had resulted from coercive tactics employed in the investigation of Officer Trench's murder. ² The defense also impeached the testimony of other Commonwealth witnesses by introducing prior inconsistent statements which the witnesses had made. The defense further emphasized to the jury, during summation, that, on each occasion on which he had been questioned by police, Santiago consistently had asserted that he was at home at the time of the murder. On August 5, 1986, after hearing all of the evidence, the jury found Santiago guilty of first degree murder and possession of an instrument of crime. On the following day, the penalty phase of the trial commenced, and the jury fixed Santiago's sentence for first degree murder at life imprisonment.

On August 7, 1986, Santiago filed post-trial motions for new trial and/or in arrest of judgment. Supplemental and amended post-trial motions were also filed on Santiago's behalf. An en banc panel of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas was convened on October 19, 1987 to hear argument on Santiago's post-trial motions, but, on June 23, 1988, post-trial relief was denied. Santiago was then formally sentenced to life imprisonment for first degree murder and to serve a concurrent term of imprisonment for not less than two and one-half (2 1/2) years nor more than five (5) years for possession of an instrument of crime. An appeal was thereafter filed in the Superior Court, and that Court, following argument before a court en banc, reversed the judgment of sentence and granted a new trial on grounds that: (1) police had violated Santiago's Fifth Amendment right to counsel by continuing to question him after he had requested counsel, even though counsel had been appointed to represent him; and (2) the trial court had violated Santiago's due process rights by failing to disclose to the defense exculpatory evidence which the court had obtained during an in camera interview with a key Commonwealth witness prior to trial, which interview had been held without the presence of defense counsel or the prosecutor. See: Commonwealth v. Santiago, 405 Pa.Super. 56, 591 A.2d 1095 (1991) (en banc). A petition for allocatur was denied by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on December 17, 1991. See: Commonwealth v. Santiago, 529 Pa. 633, 600 A.2d 953 (1991).

Upon remand to the trial court, Santiago, on March 17, 1992, filed a motion for pre-trial discovery in which, inter alia, he requested "[a]ny evidence favorable to the Defendant which is material to the issue of guilt or punishment, or which bears upon or could reasonably weaken or affect the credibility of any evidence proposed to be introduced against the Defendant by the Commonwealth, or which bears in any material degree on the charges against the Defendant." In its reply, the Commonwealth responded that such information had "already [been] exhaustively provided." Thereafter, several hearings were held upon Santiago's discovery requests, during which the Commonwealth was ordered to disclose the daily police activity reports pertaining to the investigation of Officer Trench's murder. Ultimately, the Commonwealth was ordered also to disclose to the defense all statements of persons interviewed by police in connection with the murder of Officer Trench. On July 13, 1992, after receiving statements from the Commonwealth which had not been disclosed prior to his initial trial, Santiago filed a motion to dismiss all charges on grounds that his constitutional right to due process and principles of double jeopardy had been violated by the Commonwealth's intentional and deliberate withholding of material, exculpatory evidence. Specifically, Santiago alleged that the Commonwealth had withheld nineteen items of evidence which would have been admissible to: (1) demonstrate that there...