Com. v. Sherwood, No. 561 CAP

• Decision Date: 06 November 2009
• Docket Number: No. 561 CAP
• Citation: 982 A.2d 483
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Brentt Michael SHERWOOD, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

982 A.2d 483

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Brentt Michael SHERWOOD, Appellant.

No. 561 CAP

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued May 13, 2009.

Decided November 6, 2009.

Michael David Suders, Esq., Mifflinburg, for Brentt Michael Sherwood.

Anthony J. Rosini, Esq., Shamokin; Amy Zapp, Esq., Harrisburg, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

BEFORE: CASTILLE, C.J., and SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, TODD, McCAFFERY and GREENSPAN, JJ.

OPINION

Justice GREENSPAN.

Appellant Brentt Michael Sherwood filed this direct appeal from the judgment of sentence of death and a lesser sentence entered by the Court of Common Pleas of Northumberland County following Appellant's conviction by a jury of first-degree murder,¹ aggravated assault,² and endangering the welfare of children.³ We affirm the judgment of sentence.

The instant matter arose out of the beating death of Appellant's four year old step-daughter, Marlee Reed, on December 7, 2004. At about 1:00 p.m. that day, Appellant, who was home baby-sitting Marlee, called 911 and reported that she had passed out. When EMTs arrived, they observed that the child's skin showed cyanosis, and that she had significant bruising on her abdomen, chest, arms, legs, neck, and face, she did not have a discernible heartbeat, and was not breathing. The EMTs asked Appellant what had happened to the child and he told them that he had just awakened and found her in that condition. He then added that she had fallen. The EMTs tried, unsuccessfully, to revive the child for thirty minutes and then took her to Sunbury Community Hospital where additional efforts were made to revive her. Although doctors were able to restore some vital functions, Marlee did not regain consciousness. Marlee was then flown by helicopter to Geisinger Medical Center where she died the next morning having never regained consciousness.⁴

In addition to calling 911, Appellant had also telephoned his wife Heather Goodeliunas,⁵ Marlee's mother, and told her that she had to come home immediately because Marlee was not breathing. Ms. Goodeliunas hurried home and as she entered the residence, Appellant began apologizing to her, saying repeatedly, "I'm so sorry baby." In addition, Ms. Goodeliunas received a telephone call from Appellant after he had been taken to police headquarters during which he stated, "Do you think I would put myself at risk for going to jail for the rest of my life for manslaughter?"

Although Appellant never spoke to Ms. Goodeliunas again, he did send her letters. In a letter dated December 10, 2004, he wrote, "I am so sorry about what happened. I know that a million sorries wouldn't make up for what happened." Appellant added, "Right now I feel like the lowest piece of [expletive deleted] that I could ever think of, and rightfully so. I feel like I let you down." Appellant ended the letter by writing, "I hope I hear from you soon so I can explain myself."

Appellant told one of the first police officers to arrive at the scene on December 7, 2004, that he did not know what had happened to Marlee and remarked that an eight year old child had fallen on her a few days before.⁶ Appellant then prepared a handwritten statement (the "handwritten statement") at the scene where he wrote that a ten-year old child had been carrying Marlee and had dropped her during a recent dinner party at Marlee's grandparents' residence. Appellant also wrote that Marlee had fallen off a small play table earlier that morning and had complained that she felt dizzy and had pains in her stomach. Appellant added that he entered the living room and panicked when he found Marlee unconscious. Appellant stated he immediately splashed some water on her and then placed her in the bathtub but when that failed to resuscitate her, he called 911.

After Appellant prepared this handwritten statement, police asked him if he would agree to go to the police station with them. Appellant agreed but asked during the ride to the station if he was under arrest. Police told him that he was not in custody. Appellant was not restrained during the ride to the police station.

Police headquarters was located inside the borough hall and Appellant was placed in the borough hall meeting room, a large room having four doors located adjacent to police headquarters. When a tape recorder was brought into the room and Appellant was asked if he minded if the interview was tape recorded, Appellant affirmatively stated: "I feel like I should have an attorney." The interview ended immediately.

Approximately five minutes later, and after the chief of police was advised that Appellant had appeared to request the assistance of an attorney, an agent with the county's probation department asked to speak to Appellant, who was under county supervision for a previous drug conviction. Upon the arrival of a probation officer and two United States Marshals, Appellant was told that he was being detained because he had violated the rules of his supervision. Appellant then spoke to the probation officer.⁷ Appellant told him that Marlee had fallen off a table. Appellant also said that the bruises observed on the child were not caused by him but were the result of her having been dropped by an older child at her grandparents' home a few days earlier. Appellant was then transported to county prison. At no time was Appellant given Miranda⁸ warnings prior to being incarcerated.

On December 9, 2004, Corporal Richard Bramhall of the Pennsylvania State Police went to county prison to speak to Appellant. After the Corporal told Appellant that he considered Appellant's remark two days earlier about feeling as though he needed an attorney to be ambiguous and not a clear invocation of the right to counsel, the corporal administered Miranda warnings to Appellant. Appellant waived his Miranda rights and provided a statement wherein he admitted that he had beaten the child to death (the "December 9 Statement"). In the December 9 Statement, Appellant said that he was home watching Marlee and became angry because she said that she did not want to be there with Appellant.⁹ As a result, he slapped the child in the face.

In the December 9 Statement, Appellant said that a couple of hours after he slapped Marlee, they watched a movie. Afterwards Marlee said to Appellant that she felt sorry for him. When he asked why, she said, "Because you're mean." Upon hearing Marlee's response, Appellant said he "snapped" and punched Marlee in the stomach with a closed fist and kicked her in her stomach or back, which caused her to fall to the floor. He then kicked her several times more in her stomach and back and also punched her as she lay on the floor. Marlee asked him to stop and tried to stand. She was unable to get to her feet and fell back to the floor where she was struck some more by Appellant. According to the December 9 Statement, Marlee eventually got up and ran into a bedroom where Appellant punched her again and caused her to fall; he continued to kick and punch her. The beating, Appellant stated, continued even though Marlee pleaded for him to stop.

According to Appellant, the beating lasted ten minutes in total and he stopped hitting Marlee a couple of times before again resuming his assault. Appellant had no explanation as to why he resumed the assault after twice stopping and indicated that when he finally ended the assault, he knew that he had "done something bad."

According to Appellant's December 9 Statement, Marlee stood up after the beating and Appellant picked her up and placed her on the living room couch. At various times she told him that she felt dizzy and that her stomach hurt. After 15-20 minutes, he noticed that she was no longer moving or breathing so he placed her lifeless body in a tub of cold water in an attempt to resuscitate her. When this failed to revive Marlee, Appellant took her from the tub, called 911, and began to perform CPR on her. Appellant admitted that he had used drugs the previous evening, but stated that he was not "high" when the beating occurred.

In addition to Appellant's various statements, there was additional evidence presented by the Commonwealth. Police obtained three search warrants for Appellant's residence. Those searches yielded various pieces of evidence containing blood spatter that was later tied to the victim.

Also, Ms. Goodeliunas testified at trial. She stated that she had left for work about 8:45 a.m. on December 7, 2004 and left Marlee in Appellant's care. At that time Marlee appeared to be fine. She admitted that she and Appellant had used illegal drugs the previous evening but that when she awakened Appellant that morning to tell him that he had to babysit Marlee, he did not appear to be under the influence of the drugs.

Following hearings on various motions, including a motion to suppress the statements Appellant gave to authorities and the physical evidence seized from Appellant's residence, which was granted in part and denied in part,¹⁰ Appellant was tried before the Honorable Harvey Wiest of Northumberland County and a jury.

At trial, the Commonwealth introduced evidence showing that no one who had come in contact with Appellant on the day of the murder observed anything indicating that Appellant was under the influence of an intoxicating substance or that he was not in complete control of his faculties. Several people did observe bruises and other injuries to Appellant's hands.

An autopsy revealed that Marlee died from significant blunt force trauma that could have resulted from kicks and punches to her torso which caused extensive splenic lacerations, contusions of and bruises to her pancreas, kidney, small intestine, and liver and a laceration of the colonic mesentery with accompanying marked intra-abdominal hemorrhage. Other injuries included multiple abrasions and contusions to her face and extremities and fractures of several ribs and a compression fracture of her seventh thoracic vertebral body. The injuries were...