Commonwealth v. Edmiston
| Decision Date | 24 April 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. 613 CAP,J-102-2011,613 CAP |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, Appellee v. STEPHEN REX EDMISTON, Appellant |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Criminal Division, Cambria County on
7/13/2010 at No. CP-11-CR-00001025-
1988
Stephen Rex Edmiston (Appellant) appeals from the denial of relief on two distinct Post-Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) petitions. See 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9541-9546. First, Appellant appeals from the denial of relief on the claims raised in his second PCRA petition, which we affirm because the contentions raised therein are untimely. Second, Appellant seeks review of the PCRA court's denial of his motion for post-conviction DNA testing, filed pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543.1. We affirm the denial of the DNA testing petition for a different reason than that offered by the PCRA court. We conclude that Appellant failed to demonstrate that his DNA testing petition was made "in a timely manner and for the purpose of demonstrating [his] actual innocence and not to delay the execution of sentence or administration of justice." 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543.1(d)(1)(iii).
We set forth the facts of this case in our two prior opinions, Commonwealth v. Edmiston, 634 A.2d 1078 (Pa. 1993) (Edmiston I) and Commonwealth v. Edmiston, 851 A.2d 883 (Pa. 2004) (Edmiston II). To summarize, on July 14, 1989, after a non-jury trial, Appellant was found guilty of murder in the first degree, rape, statutory rape, and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. The Commonwealth's evidence supporting these convictions showed that Appellant kidnapped the two-year old victim, Bobbi Jo Matthew, from her bedroom in the early morning hours of October 5, 1988, drove her to a remote location, and proceeded to inflict separate and gruesome injuries on her. As we detailed in Edmiston I, the evidence demonstrated the following:
The victim lived with her father, Harold Matthew, and grandmother, Nancy Dotts, and several of Ms. Dotts' young children. Appellant was acquainted with the victim's family, and his uncle, Robert Brown, was Ms. Dotts' boyfriend. On the night of October 4, 1988, the victim went to bed in a bedroom she shared with three other children. Two children saw a man in the bedroom talking to the victim at approximately 3:30 in the morning, whom they believed to be Ms. Dotts' boyfriend, Mr. Brown. Mr. Matthew also observed a man in the house at that time, who said goodbye as he left. When the victim's family discovered that she was missing on the morning of October 5, 1988, they came to believe that the man who had been in the house in the middle of the night was Appellant.
Police arranged an interview with Appellant the following day. At the police barracks, Appellant waived his rights and consented to a search of his pickup truck, which revealed blood on the front seat, a blanket with fine, blond hairs, a blood-stained towel, bloody scissors, and a pair of shorts that the victim's family identified as those the victim wore to bed the night she disappeared.
The police confronted Appellant with what they discovered in his truck, voiced their suspicion, and asked him if he killed the victim. Although Appellant initially denied involvement, he soon began to waver. The police asked Appellant to reveal the location of the body. Appellant refused, but when the police asked Appellant to draw a map to the location of the victim's body, he complied. When asked what the police would find at that location, Appellant responded that they would find "a dead raped little girl." Notes of Testimony (N.T.) 7/10/89 at 103. He also stated that he did not know why he did it and began to cry. According to police, Appellant explained that the rape occurred in his pick-up truck, that he hit the victim several times with his fist, and ultimately covered her body with branches. Id. at 103-105.
The police kept Appellant's hand-drawn map in a notebook, and, because there was no photocopying equipment available, copied the map onto another piece of paper by hand. With the copy of the map in hand, police attempted to find the victim's body. They enlisted the help of a local resident, Roger W. Kruis, who indicated his familiarity with the landmarks on the map and accompanied the police to the location. Police recovered the body at the location specified on the map. Additionally, investigators matched the tire tread and wear pattern found near the victim's body with the tires on Appellant's truck.
An autopsy was performed by Dr. Katherine Jasnosz of the Allegheny County Coroner's Office, during which her staff took black and white photographs and color slides (hereafter, the Coroner's photographs). N.T. 7/7/89 at 110. Dr. Jasnosz took oral as well as recto-vaginal smears and swabs from the victim. N.T. 7/7/89 at 130-31. Testing of blood samples taken from Appellant's truck resulted only in identification of the blood as type "O," which matched the blood type of both Appellant and the victim. As to the smears and swabs obtained by the Coroner, the laboratory the Commonwealth chose to conduct DNA testing reported that there was insufficient material for such DNA analysis. The defense chose another laboratory to conduct its own testing, which reported that it was able to extract DNA and that the DNA was from the victim. During a pre-trial conference, the defense indicated to the trial court that because Appellant's DNA was not found on the samples it submitted to its laboratory, it chose to decline further testing, and Appellant indicated his agreement with this decision.
Appellant's defense was that he was innocent, he was too drunk to commit these crimes or form the intent to commit these crimes, he spent a good part of the night in a drunken sleep inside his truck parked outside his mother's house, the Commonwealth'sforensic evidence did not identify him as the perpetrator, and he attempted to point suspicion at his uncle Robert Brown, whom he resembled.
Appellant was found guilty at a bench trial and sentenced to death by a jury on October 5, 1989.1 We affirmed on direct appeal. Edmiston I, 634 A.2d 1078. On May 29, 1996, Appellant filed his first petition for collateral relief under the PCRA. Following several amendments and an evidentiary hearing, the PCRA court denied the petition. On appeal from the denial of PCRA relief, this Court affirmed. Edmiston II.
On June 13, 2005, Appellant filed a second petition for PCRA relief (styled as a "Petition for Habeas Corpus Relief Under Article I, Section 14 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and for Statutory Relief Under 42 Pa.C.S. § 9545(b)(1)(i) & (ii)") (hereafter, Second PCRA Petition) premised upon the Coroner's photographs, which he claimed were newly discovered. In response to the Commonwealth's motion for a more specific pleading, on August 12, 2005, Appellant amended the Second PCRA Petition (hereafter, Amended PCRA Petition). On February 18, 2009, the National Academies of Science published a study entitled Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward (hereafter, the NAS Report), which prompted the filing of Appellant's "Supplemental Petition for Post-Conviction Relief Based Upon Additional Newly Discovered Evidence," (hereafter, Supplemental PCRA Petition) on April 17, 2009. Appellant also filed a Motion for Post-Conviction DNA Testing pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543.1, which the PCRA court denied on September 30, 2009.
On December 23, 2009, following an evidentiary hearing related to the timeliness of the Second PCRA Petition, as amended and supplemented, the PCRA court dismissed the claims raised therein as untimely, with the exception of one claim premised on the NAS Report related to hair comparison analysis. Following a hearing on the merits of this sole remaining claim, the PCRA court denied relief on April 26, 2010.
On appeal from the denial of PCRA relief, our standard and scope of review is limited to determining whether the PCRA court's findings are supported by the record and without legal error. Commonwealth v. Breakiron, 781 A.2d 94, 97 n. 4 (Pa. 2001). Our review of questions of law is de novo. Commonwealth v. Fahy, 959 A.2d 312, 316 (Pa. 2008).
A PCRA petition, including a second or subsequent petition, must be filed within one year of a final judgment, unless the petitioner alleges and proves that he is entitled to one of three exceptions to this general rule, and that the petition was filed within 60 days of the date the claim could have been presented:
To continue reading
Request your trial