Commonwealth v. Boczkowski

• Decision Date: 23 March 2004
• Citation: 577 Pa. 421,846 A.2d 75
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Timothy BOCZKOWSKI, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

846 A.2d 75

577 Pa. 421

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Timothy BOCZKOWSKI, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued March 4, 2002.

Decided March 23, 2004.

James M. Herb, Pittsburgh, for Timothy Boczkowski, Appellant.

Karen T. Edwards, Edward Borkowski, Pittsburgh, Amy Zapp, Harrisburg, for the Com., Appellee.

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

OPINION OF THE COURT

Justice CASTILLE.

On May 5, 1999, a jury sitting before the Honorable David S. Cercone of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County convicted appellant of first-degree murder for the strangulation death of his wife, Maryann Boczkowski.¹ At the penalty hearing, the jury found one aggravating circumstance—that appellant had been convicted of another murder committed before or at the time of the offense at issue²—and one mitigating circumstance— evidence of mitigation concerning appellant's character.³ The jury found that the aggravating circumstance outweighed the mitigating circumstance and therefore returned a sentence of death.⁴ On May 6, 1999, the trial court formally imposed the death sentence. In this direct appeal from the sentence of death, appellant specifies twenty claims of error. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the verdict of guilt, but vacate the sentence of death and remand for imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment.

I. Sufficiency of the Evidence⁵

In all direct capital appeals, this Court performs a self-imposed duty to review the sufficiency of the evidence in support of the first-degree murder verdict. E.g. Commonwealth v. Bomar, 573 Pa. 426, 826 A.2d 831, 840 (2003)

. In addition, appellant specifically challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, arguing that the Commonwealth failed to prove that Maryann Boczkowski's death was a homicide, rather than an accident. In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, the Court must determine whether the evidence admitted at trial and all reasonable inferences derived therefrom, when viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as the verdict winner, supports the jury's finding of all elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Commonwealth v. Spotz, 563 Pa. 269, 759 A.2d 1280 (2000) (citing Commonwealth v. Rhodes, 510 Pa. 537, 510 A.2d 1217 (1986)). "Evidence is sufficient to sustain a conviction of first-degree murder where the Commonwealth establishes that the defendant acted with the specific intent to kill, that a human being was unlawfully killed, that the person accused did the killing and that the killing was done with premeditation or deliberation." Spotz, 759 A.2d at 1283 (citing 18 Pa.C.S. § 2502(d) and Commonwealth v. Mitchell, 528 Pa. 546, 599 A.2d 624 (1991)).

Our independent review of the evidence reveals that, on November 7, 1994, appellant summoned paramedics and police to his home in Ross Township, Pennsylvania. The first police officer to arrive at the scene found appellant attempting to revive his thirty-six-year-old wife, Maryann Boczkowski, who was unconscious in the couple's hot tub. Appellant, police officers and paramedics removed Maryann from the hot tub and attempted to revive her, but they were unsuccessful. Maryann was transported to Allegheny General Hospital at appellant's request, rather than to the closest hospital. There, she was pronounced dead. An autopsy revealed that Maryann's death was caused by asphyxiation, resulting from blunt force trauma to her neck. The autopsy also showed numerous points of trauma of recent origin on Maryann's body and head, including hemorrhages on her neck and bruises on the interior of her scalp, which were inconsistent with the treatment she received in the attempts to revive her. Maryann's blood alcohol level at the time of her death was .22 percent.

Meanwhile, a physical examination of appellant revealed fresh scratch marks on his arms, sides and hands. In addition, before Maryann was taken to Allegheny General Hospital, appellant spontaneously told police: "I hope they don't try to put this on me." Later, after voluntarily accompanying police to the Ross Township Police Department, appellant nodded in the affirmative when officers asserted that he had been involved in his wife's death.

Trial testimony also established that in the months preceding Maryann's death, appellant had attempted to portray her to friends as an alcoholic. Maryann's longtime friends, however, testified that they rarely saw Maryann intoxicated. In addition, appellant stipulated that he was the beneficiary of a $100,000 life insurance policy on Maryann's life. Appellant also made incriminating statements to fellow inmates at the Allegheny County Jail, admitting his culpability for the deaths of both Maryann and his previous wife, Elaine, and responding to an inmate query regarding why he had killed both wives in the same manner with, "I don't know. That was stupid, wasn't it."

Independent trial evidence established that appellant's former wife, Elaine Boczkowski, had been found dead in her bathtub in Greensboro, North Carolina, on November 4, 1990. The factual circumstances of that death bore a marked similarity to the circumstances surrounding Maryann's death: Elaine died in her bathtub, Maryann in a hot tub. Both women were in their thirties and in good health. Appellant reported to the North Carolina police that Elaine had been drinking alcoholic beverages before entering the bathtub; he told Ross Township police that Maryann had been drinking prior to entering the hot tub. Appellant told police in both jurisdictions that he and his wife had a minor argument on the evening before the death. In each case, police noticed that appellant had fresh scratch marks on his arms, hands and torso shortly after his wife's death. The autopsies of both women revealed that they had died from asphyxiation, not drowning.

The foregoing evidence adequately supports the jury's finding that Maryann Boczkowski was unlawfully killed, that appellant, who was found with her, killed her, that he acted with the specific intent to kill when he applied blunt force to Maryann's neck, and that the killing was done with premeditation and deliberation.

Turning to appellant's specific sufficiency claim, he argues that the evidence was insufficient to prove that Maryann Boczkowski's death resulted from a homicide rather than an accident. In support of this claim, appellant points to the testimony of both the Commonwealth's pathologist, who performed the autopsy on Maryann, and the defense pathologist. Their findings, appellant argues, are more consistent with accidental drowning than manual strangulation. Appellant suggests that the Commonwealth's pathologist vacillated in his testimony regarding the cause of Maryann's death. The record does not support his argument. The Commonwealth's pathologist testified consistently that the cause of death was manual strangulation. Although appellant's own pathologist testified that the cause of death was drowning, this is of no avail on a sufficiency claim: appellant's argument is fatally flawed because it rests only on the evidence submitted by the defense, evidence which the jury was not obligated to accept. Commonwealth v. Tharp, 574 Pa. 202, 830 A.2d 519, 527 (2003).

II. Claims of Pre Trial Error

Appellant raises eight claims of pre-trial error: one claim that his rights under former Pa.R.Crim.P. 1100 were violated; four claims involving his motion in limine seeking to limit the introduction of evidence regarding the murder of his former wife in North Carolina; and three claims of error on the part of the suppression court.

Appellant first claims that the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss the charges against him under former Rule 1100.⁶ In reviewing the Rule 1100 determination of the trial court, we "must view the facts in the light most favorable to the prevailing party" and we will not disturb the decision below absent an abuse of discretion. Commonwealth v. Hill, 558 Pa. 238, 736 A.2d 578, 581 (1999). Pursuant to the Rule and this Court's holding in Hill, a capital defendant must be brought to trial within 365 non-excludable days of the filing of a complaint against him. Id. at 584. See also Commonwealth v. Cook, 544 Pa. 361, 676 A.2d 639, 645 n. 11 (1996)

; Commonwealth v. Spence, 534 Pa. 233, 627 A.2d 1176, 1181 n. 4 (1993). "The term excludable time derives from Rule 1100(c) and refers to any period of time which is excludable from the calculation of determining whether a Rule 1100 violation has occurred." Hill, 736 A.2d at 584. Rule 1100(c) mandated as follows:

(c) In determining the period for commencement of trial, there shall be excluded therefrom:

(1) the period of time between the filing of the written complaint and the defendant's arrest, provided that the defendant could not be apprehended because his or her whereabouts were unknown and could not be determined by due diligence;

(2) any period of time for which the defendant expressly waives Rule 1100;

(3) such period of delay at any stage of the proceedings as results from:

(i) the unavailability of the defendant or the defendant's attorney;

(ii) any continuance granted at the request of the defendant or the defendant's attorney.

We find no abuse of discretion in the trial court's ruling.

The complaint charging appellant with his wife's murder was filed on November 14, 1994, and his jury trial commenced on April 5, 1999, 1,603 days later. From that time period, appellant concedes that it is appropriate to exclude: (1) the 966 days from October 5, 1995 through May 27, 1999, during which the Commonwealth's pre-trial appeal of the trial court's ruling on appellant's motion in limine was litigated (this 966 days includes the period during which appellant's petition for allowance of appeal was pending in this Court following the Superior Court's ruling in the Commonwealth's favor);⁷ and (2) the 63 days between February 1, 1999 and the date trial...