Commonwealth v. Bomar

• Decision Date: 21 November 2014
• Docket Number: No. 659 CAP,659 CAP
• Citation: 104 A.3d 1179
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Arthur BOMAR, Appellant.

104 A.3d 1179

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee

v.Arthur BOMAR, Appellant.

No. 659 CAP

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted April 29, 2013.

Decided Nov. 21, 2014.

Jennifer L. Chiccarino, Esq., Federal Community Defender Office, Eastern District of PA, Leor Veleanu, Esq., Defender Association of Philadelphia, for Arthur Bomar.

William R. Toal III, Esq., Delaware County District Attorney's Office, Amy Zapp, Esq., PA Office of Attorney General, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

CASTILLE, C.J., SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, TODD, STEVENS, JJ.

OPINION

Justice TODD.

In this capital case, Appellant Arthur Bomar appeals the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County denying his petition for relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9541 –9546. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the order of the PCRA court.

I. Background

The facts underlying Appellant's conviction and death sentence have been set forth at length by this Court in Appellant's direct capital appeal. Commonwealth v. Bomar, 573 Pa. 426, 826 A.2d 831 (2003) (“Bomar I ”). A brief recitation of the facts is necessary, however, to provide context for Appellant's collateral challenge to his conviction and sentence in the instant appeal.

The evidence adduced at trial, and summarized in Bomar I, established that, on the night of June 19, 1996, 22–year–old Aimee Willard (“the victim”) was socializing with several of her friends at a bar located on Lancaster Avenue in Wayne, Pennsylvania. The victim left the bar alone at approximately 1:25 a.m. the following morning, and her blue Honda Civic was discovered shortly thereafter on the southbound off-ramp of the Springfield–Lima exit of Interstate 476 in Delaware County at approximately 2:00 a.m. No one was found inside the vehicle, but the driver's side door was open, the engine was running, and the interior lights and headlights were still on. A pool of blood was discovered in front of the vehicle, along with a tire iron, the victim's sneakers, and a pair of womens' underwear lined with a sanitary pad

containing pubic hairs matching those of the victim.

Later that day, the victim's naked body was found face down in a vacant lot at 16th Street and Indiana Avenue in Philadelphia, with two plastic bags covering her head and a tree branch forced into her vagina. The victim sustained multiple blunt force injuries to her head

, brain, and face, as well as various other contusions, fractures, and defensive wounds throughout her body. An intact, degenerate sperm was also recovered from the victim's vaginal cavity, and tire impressions were obtained from the scene.

The victim's murder remained unsolved for nearly a year, until June 5, 1997, when Appellant was arrested on an outstanding warrant for a parole violation from a prior second-degree murder conviction in Las Vegas, Nevada. Following his arrest, investigators questioned Appellant regarding the victim's murder, and he stated, inter alia, that he had been at the same bar as the victim on the night of her murder; that he drove a 1993 Ford Escort until March 1997 (the tires of which were later determined to match tire impressions taken from the murder scene); and that he routinely traveled on Interstate 476.

On July 10, 1997, Appellant's then-girlfriend, Mary Rumer, reported to state police that Appellant confessed to her that he murdered the victim, stating that Appellant told her that he watched the victim leave the bar and get into her car, and followed her in his car, until he stopped her on Interstate 476, flashing a fake police badge. Rumer recounted that Appellant told her that, after he approached the vehicle, he knocked the victim unconscious, placed her in his car, and drove her to an abandoned building, where he removed the victim's clothes and hit her in the head with a hard object, killing her. Appellant also admitted to Rumer that he raped the victim, and he later showed Rumer the location on Interstate 476 where the victim's car had been abandoned, as well as the vacant lot where the victim's body was found.

Forensic evidence taken from Appellant's vehicle and the crime scene corroborated Rumer's story and further linked Appellant to the murder. Specifically, blood was recovered from the right front door panel of Appellant's Ford Escort, which matched the victim's DNA; the oil pan from the vehicle matched the pattern of a contusion on the right side of the victim's body; and, as noted, the tires on Appellant's vehicle were consistent with the tire patterns taken from the murder scene. DNA testing also established that Appellant's DNA profile matched the sperm recovered from the victim's vagina.

Additionally, while police were investigating Appellant's involvement in the murder, David O'Donald, Appellant's ex-brother in law, who was incarcerated in federal prison for unrelated offenses, offered to assist police with their investigation. Police transferred O'Donald to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, where Appellant was held, for two weeks in July 1997, and placed him on Appellant's cellblock to serve as a listening post. On July 17, Appellant made several incriminating statements to O'Donald, including, inter alia, “we did whatever we wanted with her, she did whatever we told, and when we were done, I almost took her head off, and we crammed a tree branch up her cunt.” Id. at 842. Quincy Jamal Williams, another inmate incarcerated with Appellant in Montgomery County, also reported to police that Appellant confessed to murdering the victim.

Appellant was subsequently charged with first-degree murder, rape, aggravated assault, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse. The case proceeded to a jury trial before the Honorable Frank T. Hazel of the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County,¹ and, on October 1, 1998, Appellant was convicted of the aforementioned offenses. At the conclusion of the penalty hearing, the jury found three aggravating circumstances—the killing was committed in the perpetration of a felony,² Appellant had a significant history of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence to the person,³ and Appellant had been convicted of another murder committed before or at the time of the offense at issue.⁴ The jury also found one mitigating circumstance—the “catchall” mitigator concerning Appellant's character and record.⁵ After concluding the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstance, the jury returned a sentence of death. The trial court imposed the death sentence on December 4, 1998, and, after deeming Appellant a high-risk dangerous offender pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9714(a)(1),⁶ sentenced Appellant to consecutive terms of 10 to 20 years incarceration on both the rape and kidnapping convictions, as well as a consecutive term of one to two years on the abuse of a corpse conviction.

Following sentencing, a somewhat complicated procedural history ensued. Specifically, trial counsel withdrew from the case, and Steven C. Leach, Esquire, entered his appearance. Thereafter, on January 13, 1999, Appellant filed post-sentence motions raising, inter alia, four claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel.⁷ The trial court held hearings on the post-sentence motions on March 4, 1999 and April 20, 1999, and ultimately denied post-sentence relief, concluding in a written opinion that the claims lacked merit. Appellant subsequently appealed his judgment of sentence. On May 30, 2003, this Court affirmed Appellant's judgment of sentence of death, vacated Appellant's judgment of sentence for his remaining offenses, and remanded for resentencing in light of our decision in Commonwealth v. Butler, 563 Pa. 324, 760 A.2d 384 (2000) (holding 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9714(a)(1) violated procedural due process rights by placing the burden on the defendant to rebut the presumption that he is a high risk dangerous offender). Bomar I, 826 A.2d at 862.

Appellant then filed a timely pro se PCRA petition on January 20, 2004, which he styled as “Defendant's Motion to Support For Preserved Newly Discovered Evidence Through A PCRA Petition.” On April 1, 2004, Appellant was resentenced on his remaining non-capital convictions to an aggregate term of 252 to 504 months incarceration. Appellant appealed that judgment of sentence to the Superior Court. On December 22, 2004, while Appellant's appeal from resentencing was pending, counsel from the Federal Community Defender Office (“FCDO”) for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Capital Habeas Unit filed on Appellant's behalf a “Petition for Habeas Corpus Relief Pursuant to Article I, Section 14 of the Pennsylvania Constitution Statutory Post–Conviction Relief Under the Post–Conviction Relief Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9541 et seq.,” which was deemed to be an amended PCRA petition. The PCRA proceedings were stayed pending the conclusion of Appellant's direct appeal. On May 25, 2005, the Superior Court affirmed Appellant's judgment of sentence on the remaining offenses, and this Court denied allocatur. Michael Wiseman, Esquire,⁸ entered his appearance on February 3, 2006, and the stay of PCRA proceedings was lifted on February 23, 2006. Judge Hazel presided over the PCRA proceedings as well.

Nine months later, on November 21, 2006, Appellant's counsel filed a motion seeking an order declaring Appellant incompetent to proceed. Following a hearing on the matter and briefing by both parties, the PCRA court found Appellant competent and denied the motion on November 16, 2007. Thereafter, the Commonwealth filed a response to Appellant's PCRA petition on March 31, 2008, and evidentiary hearings on Appellant's petition took place on July 17, 2007, May 28, 2008, November 5–7, 2008, January 15–16, 2009, April 28–29, 2009, September 24, 2009, October 20–21, 2009, February 1–3, 2010, July 28, 2010, November 29, 2011, January 20, 2011, and November 29, 2011. The PCRA court ultimately denied Appellant's petition on March 28, 2012. Appellant filed a notice of appeal on April 23, 2012, and, on ...