Com. v. Solano

• Decision Date: 27 September 2006
• Citation: 906 A.2d 1180
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Raymond SOLANO, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

906 A.2d 1180

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Raymond SOLANO, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued December 5, 2005.

Decided September 27, 2006.

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Richard Anthony Webster, Esq., for Raymond Solano.

Terence Patrick Houck, Esq., Robert Douglas Rosner, Esq., James Bernard Martin, Esq., Amy Zapp, Esq., Doylestown, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

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

OPINION

Chief Justice CAPPY.

This is a direct appeal from the judgment of sentence of death imposed upon Appellant, Raymond Solano, following his conviction for first-degree murder.¹ For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment of sentence.

On May 28, 2003, a jury convicted Appellant of first-degree murder for the shooting death of Armondo Rodriguez.² Following the penalty hearing, the jury returned a sentence of death, finding one aggravating factor, causing a grave risk of death to persons in addition to the victim,³ which outweighed the one mitigating factor listed by the jury as "childhood, environment and lack of parental nurturing".⁴ The trial court formally imposed a death sentence on May 30, 2003. Following the denial of post-sentence motions, Appellant filed the instant direct appeal.

Although Appellant raises no challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, where as here a defendant has been sentenced to death, this Court independently reviews the record to determine whether the evidence is, indeed, sufficient to support the verdict of first-degree. Commonwealth v. Bomar, 573 Pa. 426, 826 A.2d 831, 840 (2003); Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer, 500 Pa. 16, 454 A.2d 937, 942 n. 3 (1982). In performing that review, we must determine whether the evidence admitted at trial, and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as the verdict winner, are sufficient to establish the elements of first-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt. Commonwealth v. Bridges, 563 Pa. 1, 757 A.2d 859 (2000). Evidence is sufficient to sustain a conviction of first-degree murder when the Commonwealth establishes that (1) a person was unlawfully killed; (2) the person accused did the killing; and (3) the accused acted with specific intent to kill. Commonwealth v. Spotz, 563 Pa. 269, 759 A.2d 1280, 1283 (2000). An intentional killing is one committed by means of poison, lying in wait, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate and premeditated actions. Commonwealth v. Taylor, 583 Pa. 170, 876 A.2d 916 (2005). And, the use of a deadly weapon on a vital part of the body is sufficient to establish the requisite specific intent to kill. See Commonwealth v. Walker, 540 Pa. 80, 656 A.2d 90 (1995). Viewed in accordance with these standards, we find the evidence sufficient to support Appellant's conviction.

The evidence presented at trial established that at approximately 3:00 p.m. on June 3, 2001, a short, stockily built man wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt with the hood drawn over his head, walked onto a basketball court in Valenia Park in the city of Allentown, Pennsylvania and shot the victim, Armondo Rodriguez, several times at close range. After the victim fell to the ground, the assailant stood over him and shot him several more times. The assailant then ran towards a parking lot, turned around, and shot back towards the crowded park where the victim lay. At the time the first officer arrived, there were approximately twenty to thirty people in the immediate vicinity. There were several shell casings lying in the area where the victim lay and several more casings were found in or about the adjacent streets. The victim was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. The autopsy revealed a total of six gunshot wounds, all but one of which were fatal wounds.

Jose Aquino, a friend of the victim's, who was also playing basketball at the time, identified Appellant as the assailant at trial. Mr. Jose Aquino testified that he saw Appellant standing near the court just prior to the shooting, talking on his cell phone and looking in the direction of the victim. He was able to see Appellant's face before and at the time Appellant came charging onto the court. He testified that he had seen Appellant a few days prior to the shooting, wearing the same hooded sweatshirt, but not with the hood over his head.

Another eyewitness, Israel Aquino, testified that he saw the shooter run towards the victim, shoot him several times, stand over him and shoot again. Mr. Israel Aquino testified that he started towards the victim, but when the assailant pointed a gun in his direction, he turned and ran in the opposite direction.

Francisco Rosario, another friend of the victim's who was also present at the time, testified that he ran as the shooting began. He took cover behind a parked vehicle and pulled out his own gun in an attempt to shoot the assailant. His gun, however, failed to discharge. As the police arrived, Mr. Rosario placed the gun in the car. The police eventually recovered that gun and when Mr. Rosario admitted ownership thereof, he was charged with possession of a firearm. At the time of the instant trial, Mr. Rosario had completed his sentence for that charge. With respect to the identity of the shooter, Mr. Rosario testified that while he initially told police that he did not see the shooter because he was afraid, he, in fact, saw the shooter and identified Appellant as that shooter.

On June 19, 2001, police in Hartford, Connecticut received information that Appellant, wanted in connection with the instant murder, and Cantalino Morales, wanted for attempted murder of deputy sheriffs in Allentown, were staying together in Hartford. After being provided descriptions of the suspects, the police proceeded to a given location in the Westbrook Village section of Hartford. When they arrived, they observed two individuals, one of whom matched the description they had been given of Cantalino Morales, apparently trying to jump-start a vehicle. When the individuals were successful in starting the vehicle, the police, believing the subjects were about to leave, moved in on them, announcing their presence and ordering the two people to "get down." One of the individuals, later identified as Morales, pulled a gun and began shooting towards the officers. At about the same moment, a man, later identified as Appellant, and a female companion exited the rear of the building. Both Appellant and Morales fled on foot, with Morales shooting towards police as he fled. As he was running, Morales was observed dropping an object which police later recovered and identified as a 9mm Ruger. Both individuals were apprehended a few moments later, Appellant as he attempted to dive into a wooded area, and Morales who, after pointing another gun towards police, fell only a short distance away from Appellant when he was hit by police gunfire. The gun Morales was holding at the time he was shot was recovered from the scene and identified as a Standard Arms. At the time of his arrest, Appellant's person was searched and, among other things, a handcuff key and a magazine containing live bullets were discovered in his pocket.

The Commonwealth presented a ballistics expert, John Curtis, Jr., who testified that the casings and bullets recovered from the basketball court and properties adjacent to the park were all discharged from the same two firearms found at the time of Appellant's and Morales' arrest. Specifically, he found that fifteen shell casings recovered from the scene of the murder and two adjacent streets were discharged from the Ruger semiautomatic pistol, as were the bullets removed from the victim's body, one bullet found embedded in a wall in a nearby garage, and another bullet lodged in a wall in a second floor room of a nearby home. Four additional shell casings which were found behind a building a short distance further from the scene were fired from a Standard Arms semiautomatic pistol.

In his defense, Appellant presented the testimony of Detective Joseph Effting, of the Allentown Police Department. Detective Effting testified that he had interviewed two eyewitnesses, Jessica Brown and Julio Santiago, who indicated that persons other than the shooter possessed guns at the time and may have also been shooting. According to Detective Effting, at the time he interviewed Ms. Brown she told him that she had seen the shooter and thought that possibly as many as three other persons had guns in the park that day. Ms. Brown testified for the Commonwealth, however, that she observed no one but the assailant with a gun but had assumed that someone other than the fleeing assailant was shooting because the assailant was shooting back towards the crowd. As for Mr. Santiago, Detective Effting testified that when interviewed, Mr. Santiago told him that he thought an individual behind a Jeep may have also been shooting, and that he saw an unidentified individual chasing the shooter as he fled. However, when he testified for the Commonwealth at trial, Mr. Santiago denied having given Detective Effting any such information.

Appellant took the stand and testified that he was in Hartford, Connecticut the day of the shooting staying with his aunt. He testified that he did not even know the victim and did not know Mr. Morales before meeting him in Connecticut. Although he testified that he saw numerous people while in Hartford, the defense presented no witnesses to corroborate Appellant's testimony that he was there at the relevant time.

This evidence, when viewed in a light most favorable to the Commonwealth, is clearly sufficient to establish that the victim was intentionally killed and that Appellant was the person who shot the victim at point blank range.

In his brief to this Court, Appellant raises a challenge to the weight of the evidence yet seemingly concedes in his argument that the...