Com. v. Singley

• Decision Date: 24 February 2005
• Citation: 868 A.2d 403,582 Pa. 5
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Michael B. SINGLEY, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

868 A.2d 403

582 Pa. 5

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Michael B. SINGLEY, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued May 12, 2004.

Decided February 24, 2005.

Clinton T. Barkdoll, James M. Stein, Waynesboro, for Michael B. Singley, appellant.

John F. Nelson, Johnstown, Amy Zapp, Harrisburg, for the Com. of PA, appellee.

Before: CAPPY, C.J., and CASTILLE, NIGRO, NEWMAN, SAYLOR, EAKIN and BAER, JJ.

OPINION

Chief Justice CAPPY.

This is a direct appeal from the judgment of sentence of death¹ following the conviction of Appellant Michael B. Singley ("Appellant") for two counts of first-degree murder,² two counts of criminal attempt to commit murder,³ one count of rape,⁴ one count of criminal trespass⁵ and one count of theft.⁶ For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of sentence.

The record reveals that on November 3, 1998, Appellant Michael B. Singley purchased three rolls of duct tape, ammunition for a .44 Magnum handgun, a folding lock-blade hunting knife and camouflage hunting gloves at retail stores in or around Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. He then drove to the neighborhood where his cousin, Travis Rohrer, lived with his wife, Christine Rohrer. Appellant loitered in the neighborhood, waiting for Christine's arrival home from work. At approximately 5:45 p.m. that evening, Appellant saw Christine Rohrer's Jeep in the driveway of the duplex where she and her husband resided. Appellant parked his vehicle a block away and proceeded on foot to the Rohrer residence carrying two rolls of duct tape, the gloves, hunting knife, and the ammunition for the handgun he knew that his cousin Travis Rohrer owned. Appellant gained entry into the Rohrer residence by feigning car trouble to Christine and asked to use the telephone to obtain assistance. Appellant indicated to Christine that the car trouble may have been the result of a malfunctioning car battery. Mrs. Rohrer then indicated that she could assist Appellant but first needed to change clothes. Once Mrs. Rohrer was upstairs, Appellant went to her room and began binding Christine Rohrer's arms and mouth with the duct tape. Appellant went downstairs to retrieve something, and on his return upstairs, Appellant broke through the door which Christine Rohrer managed to lock in his absence. Appellant wrestled with Christine Rohrer for a time and then bound her arms to the bed frame, covered her eyes and mouth with the duct tape, leaving her nostrils exposed and bound her legs with the tape. He unbound her legs and raped Christine Rohrer. Appellant left the bedroom, smoked a cigarette in another room and then re-entered the bedroom where he repeatedly stabbed Christine Rohrer in the chest, neck and torso. She died as a result of the injuries inflicted.

Travis Rohrer returned home at about 8 p.m. that evening and found Appellant on the second floor brandishing both the handgun and the knife. Appellant forced Travis Rohrer into the bedroom, where Christine Rohrer's body was covered with the bedclothes. Appellant pistol-whipped Travis Rohrer before ordering him to the ground. Appellant then stabbed Travis Rohrer several times in the back. A scuffle ensued, during which both Appellant and Travis Rohrer struggled for control of the handgun. Appellant wrested the gun free and shot Travis Rohrer once in the arm and once in the ribcage before going downstairs. Travis Rohrer survived the assault.

With the keys to Christine Rohrer's Jeep in hand, Appellant exited the Rohrer residence only to come upon Deborah Hock and her fiancee, James Gilliam, who lived in the other half of the duplex where Christine and Travis Rohrer lived. Appellant raised the handgun and fatally shot Gilliam in the chest. Appellant turned the weapon on the prone Deborah Hock and fired at her. The shot missed Hock, but the muzzle blast left her with powder burns on her hand and wrist. Appellant left the scene in Christine Rohrer's Jeep and drove through the countryside for a few hours before returning to Chambersburg. Appellant then called his girlfriend from a pay phone. Afterwards, he surreptitiously entered his parents' home, the place where he had been residing. Chambersburg police eventually tracked Appellant to his parent's house and, on November 4, 1998, took Appellant into custody.

Following his arrest, Appellant underwent multiple rounds of medical and psychological testing. On August 16, 2000, following written and oral on-the-record colloquies, the trial court accepted Appellant's guilty pleas to: first-degree murder of Christine Rohrer; murder generally in the death of James Gilliam; two counts of criminal attempt to commit homicide; criminal trespass; rape; and theft. The trial court conducted a degree of guilt hearing on September 19, 2000, at which the court found Appellant guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of James Gilliam.

A jury was impaneled for the penalty phase proceedings.⁷ Following six days of testimony, evidence and argument, the jury concluded that with respect to Christine Rohrer's murder, Appellant had proved the existence of four mitigating circumstances, namely that he had no significant history of prior criminal convictions, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(1); second, that he was operating under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(2); third, Appellant's age at the time of the crime, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(4); and fourth, any other evidence of mitigation concerning the character and record of Appellant and the circumstances of his offense. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(8). The penalty phase jury also concluded with respect to the Christine Rohrer murder that the Commonwealth had proved the existence of three aggravating circumstances, specifically: Christine Rohrer's murder was committed in the perpetration of a felony, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(6); the offense was committed by means of torture, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(8); and, Appellant had been convicted of another Federal or State offense, committed either before or at the time of the offense at issue, for which a sentence of life imprisonment or death was imposable or the defendant was undergoing a sentence of life imprisonment for any reason at the time of the commission of the offense, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(10). Concluding that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances, on January 31, 2001, the jury sentenced Appellant to death for the killing of Christine Rohrer.

That same day, the jury found, regarding James Gilliam's murder, that the defense had met its burden of proving five mitigating circumstances, namely Appellant had no significant history of prior criminal convictions, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(1); Appellant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(2); Appellant's capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or conform his conduct to the requirements of the law was substantially impaired, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(3); Appellant's age at the time of the crime, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(4); and, any other evidence of mitigation concerning the character and record of Appellant and the circumstances of his offense. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(8). The jury found that the Commonwealth proved the existence of three aggravating circumstances in the death of James Gilliam, specifically: killing in the perpetration of a felony, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(6); in committing the offense, Appellant created a grave risk of death to another person, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(7); and, Appellant had been convicted of another Federal or State offense, committed either before or at the time of the offense at issue, for which a sentence of life imprisonment or death was imposable or the defendant was undergoing a sentence of life imprisonment for any reason at the time of the commission of the offense, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(10). Finding that the evidence of the mitigating circumstances outweighed that of the aggravating circumstances, the jury sentenced Appellant to life imprisonment for the death of James Gilliam.

On June 4, 2001, the trial court imposed the above sentences in the first-degree murder charges. The court additionally imposed consecutive sentences of 20 to 40 years and 10 to 20 years of incarceration for the two counts of criminal attempt to commit homicide; 10 to 20 years of incarceration for the rape conviction; and 36 to 84 months of incarceration for the criminal trespass and theft convictions.

Appellant's trial counsel filed a petition to withdraw on June 11, 2001. Appellant's current appellate counsel was appointed that same day, and on June 29, 2001, Appellant filed Post-Sentence Motions raising, inter alia, ineffective assistance of counsel claims, a motion to withdraw the guilty pleas and a motion for a new trial based on the assertion that the jury's finding that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances in the killing of Christine Rohrer was against the weight of the evidence. On January 28, 2002, the trial court conducted a hearing on all the issues raised in Appellant's Post-Sentence Motions. On May 17, 2002, the trial court filed an Order and Opinion, denying all of Appellant's Post-Sentence Motions. Pursuant to the automatic direct appeal provisions found in 42 Pa.C.S. § 722(4) and § 9711(h)(1), the case progressed to this court for our review.

As with all cases where the death penalty has been imposed, we first must conduct an independent review of the sufficiency of the evidence. Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer, 500 Pa. 16, 454 A.2d 937, 942 n. 3 (1982), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 970, 103 S.Ct. 2444, 77 L.Ed.2d 1327 (1983), reh'g denied, 463 U.S. 1236, 104 S.Ct. 31, 77 L.Ed.2d 1452 (1983). In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we must determine whether the evidence admitted at trial, and all reasonable inferences drawn from that evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as the verdict winner, was sufficient to enable the fact finder to...