Com. v. Spotz
| Decision Date | 02 May 2006 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Mark Newton SPOTZ, Appellant. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Robert Brett Dunham, Esq., Philadelphia, for Mark Newton Spotz.
Andrew J. Serina, Esq., Frank Robert Cori, Esq., and Amy Zapp, Esq., Orwigsburg, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
BEFORE: CAPPY, C.J., and CASTILLE, NEWMAN, SAYLOR, BAER, and BALDWIN, JJ.
Mark Newton Spotz (Spotz) appeals from an Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Schuylkill County (PCRA court) denying his Petition for Post Conviction Relief pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA).1 For the reasons set forth herein, we affirm the Order of the PCRA court.
On the evening of January 31, 1995, Spotz and his brother, Dustin, became involved in a heated family argument. A verbal exchange began in the living room of the Clearfield County home of their mother and stepfather and escalated into a physical altercation in the kitchen. Spotz has maintained that Dustin stabbed him in the back with a butter knife, prompting him to leave the kitchen and go upstairs to retrieve a .9-mm handgun. Spotz returned to the kitchen with the weapon and the argument continued. Spotz fired at least seven shots at Dustin, two of which were fatal, striking him in the chest. Spotz then put the gun in his pants and fled his parents' house with his then-girlfriend, Christina Noland (Noland), in a vehicle driven by Spotz's stepfather.
After Spotz's stepfather dropped Spotz and Noland off at a friend's house, they were driven to Pine Grove, Schuylkill County, and made their way to the main street of town at approximately 3:00 a.m. on February 1, 1995. Spotz and Noland had no money or any mode of transportation, so they unsuccessfully attempted to locate a vehicle to steal. At approximately 5:30 a.m., Spotz and Noland approached the Harris Mini-Mart as June Ohlinger (Ohlinger) arrived in her car to open the store. Spotz moved toward Ohlinger with the .9-mm handgun drawn and ordered her to the passenger side of her car. Noland got into the back of Ohlinger's car and Spotz drove the three to a secluded area. Spotz handed the gun to Noland and proceeded to remove Ohlinger's jewelry and money from her person. Noland returned the weapon to Spotz, who ordered Ohlinger out of the car and made her stand on the side of a bridge. Spotz shot Ohlinger in the back of the head and kicked her body into the creek over which the bridge spanned.
After taking Ohlinger's car to a Schuylkill County car wash, Spotz and Noland traveled to Maryland, where Noland cut and dyed her hair. They then returned to Pennsylvania, this time stopping in York County. Spotz and Noland separated; Noland kept Ohlinger's car. The police arrested Spotz at a Carlisle, Pennsylvania, motel on February 3, 1995. In the meantime, Noland disposed of Ohlinger's car and took a bus to Altoona, where she eventually surrendered to the police. At the time of her arrest, she was in possession of Ohlinger's jewelry.
Trial first proceeded against Spotz in the Court of Common Pleas of Clearfield County (Clearfield County trial court) for the death of Dustin. On September 26, 1995, a jury convicted Spotz of voluntary manslaughter,3 aggravated assault,4 recklessly endangering another person,5 carrying a firearm without a license,6 and violating the provision forbidding a former convict from owning a firearm;7 the jury acquitted Spotz of first-degree8 and third-degree murder.9 On October 17, 1995, the court sentenced Spotz to an aggregate term of imprisonment of seventeen-and-one-half to thirty-five years. Spotz did not file a direct appeal from the Clearfield County trial court's Judgment of Sentence.
Trial next proceeded against Spotz in the Court of Common Pleas of Schuylkill County (Schuylkill County trial court) for the death of Ohlinger. At trial, Noland testified that Spotz had shot Ohlinger in the back of the head; State Trooper Joseph Kalis testified that the police recovered a .9-mm handgun from the Carlisle motel where they arrested Spotz. Forensic analysis revealed the existence of Spotz's fingerprints on certain items recovered from Ohlinger's vehicle, which the police recovered in York County. The Commonwealth also presented the testimony of the fiancée of Dustin and her son concerning the events leading up to the death of Dustin to establish Spotz's motive for fleeing Clearfield County and the chain of events leading up to the murder of Ohlinger.
On March 4, 1996, the jury found Spotz guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping,10 robbery of a motor vehicle,11 robbery,12 theft by unlawful taking,13 and criminal conspiracy.14 At the penalty hearing, the jury found three aggravating circumstances: (1) that the killing was committed in the perpetration of a felony;15 (2) that Spotz has a significant history of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence to the person;16 and (3) that Spotz had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter committed either before or at the time of the present offense.17 The jury found one mitigating circumstance: any other evidence of mitigation concerning the character and record of Spotz and the circumstances of his offense (the catchall provision),18 specifically, that he had a dysfunctional home. The jury determined that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstance and, accordingly, sentenced Spotz to death. The court sentenced Spotz to an additional term of imprisonment of fourteen-and-one-half to twenty-nine years, to run consecutively to the sentence imposed by the Clearfield County trial court for the death of Dustin. On July 28, 1998, this Court affirmed Spotz's convictions and death sentence. Spotz I, supra.19
On November 17, 1998, Spotz filed a pro se Petition for Post Conviction Relief, pursuant to the PCRA, challenging his Schuylkill County conviction. The Defender Association of Philadelphia entered its appearance on behalf of Spotz and subsequently filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court. The PCRA court dismissed the pro se PCRA Petition filed by Spotz pending resolution of his Petition for Writ of Certiorari. The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari on July 27, 1999. Spotz v. Pennsylvania, 526 U.S. 1070, 119 S.Ct. 1466, 143 L.Ed.2d 551 (1999). Spotz filed an Amended PCRA Petition on the same day. The PCRA court conducted a hearing on the PCRA Petition from September 28, 2000, through October 3, 2000. By Opinion and Order dated April 5, 2001, the PCRA court denied Spotz's PCRA Petition, concluding that Spotz had not met the burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that his constitutional rights were violated or that trial counsel was ineffective at his Schuylkill County trial.
During the pendency of his direct appeal and PCRA court proceedings stemming from the Schuylkill County convictions, Spotz attempted to obtain review of his Clearfield County voluntary manslaughter conviction.20 On October 4, 2001, approximately six months after the PCRA court denied Spotz collateral relief from his Schuylkill County convictions, the Superior Court reversed Spotz's Clearfield County voluntary manslaughter conviction and remanded for a new trial. The Superior Court held that Spotz's counsel for his Clearfield County voluntary manslaughter trial "was ineffective for not objecting when the prosecutor asked questions and made comments concerning [Spotz's] post-arrest right to remain silent." Commonwealth v. Spotz, No. 2164 Pittsburgh 1998, slip op. at 11, 790 A.2d 343 (Pa.Super. filed Oct. 4, 2001). Thereafter, the Commonwealth sought allowance of appeal, which this Court granted on December 12, 2002.21
The decision of the Superior Court reversing Spotz's Clearfield County voluntary manslaughter conviction cast doubt on the continuing validity of Spotz's Schuylkill County death sentence because that death sentence was based, at least in part, on the Clearfield County manslaughter conviction. Nevertheless, in a unanimous decision filed March 29, 2005, this Court reversed the Order of the Superior Court and reinstated Spotz's Clearfield County voluntary manslaughter conviction. Commonwealth v. Spotz, 582 Pa. 207, 870 A.2d 822 (2005) (Spotz IV). In doing so, we recognized that the claim of Spotz that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the prosecutor's references to his post-arrest silence possessed arguable merit. Id. at 832; see Commonwealth v. Turner, 499 Pa. 579, 454 A.2d 537, 540 (1982) (). However, we also emphasized that there was no evidentiary hearing on this ineffectiveness claim and that the trial court did not address the claim or make factual determinations. The Court explained that, absent a full and complete evidentiary record, we could not adequately determine whether trial counsel had a reasonable basis for failing to object to the prosecutor's comments or whether Spotz had been prejudiced by trial counsel's failure to object. Therefore, pursuant to our mandate in Commonwealth v. Grant, 572 Pa. 48, 813 A.2d 726 (2002),22 the Court dismissed Spotz's undeveloped ineffectiveness claim without prejudice so that he could pursue this claim on collateral review pursuant to the PCRA.23 In light of our decision in Spotz IV, which effectively validated Spotz's Clearfield County voluntary manslaughter conviction, the instant collateral appeal is now ripe for disposition.
On appeal, Spotz presents fifteen issues for...
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