Commonwealth v. Hunt
| Decision Date | 20 October 1978 |
| Citation | 393 A.2d 686,259 Pa.Super. 1 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Renard HUNT, Appellant. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
Argued April 10, 1978.
Morton B. DeBroff, Pittsburgh, for appellant.
Leo M. Dillon, Asst. Dist. Atty., with him Robert E. Colville Dist. Atty., Pittsburgh, for Commonwealth, appellee.
Before JACOBS, President Judge, and HOFFMAN, CERCONE, PRICE, VAN der VOORT, SPAETH and HESTER, JJ.
Appellant requests that our Court order an evidentiary hearing to determine whether he was competent to stand trial. We grant this request and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
On March 16 1973, a Corapolis, Allegheny County, police officer arrested appellant and charged him with robbery, [1] receiving stolen goods, [2] and assault and battery with intent to kill. [3] The charges stemmed from a robbery of a taxicab driver and an ensuing attack on the victim with a five inch paring knife. When appellant failed to post bail, he was placed in the Allegheny County jail.
On April 23, 1973, Allegheny County authorities charged appellant with prison breach, [4] assault by a prisoner, [5] holding a hostage, [6] and aggravated assault and battery. [7] The complaint alleged that on April 22, 1973, appellant accosted a prison guard, held a five inch piece of glass to his throat, inflicted a wound, and ordered the guard to open the prison gate. After subduing appellant, prison authorities placed him in the jail hospital under full restraint.
On April 27, 1973, Duncan Campbell, a staff psychiatrist with the Allegheny County Behavior Clinic, interviewed appellant and wrote a report in which Dr. Campbell stated that appellant needed some restriction because of his dependence on drugs, particularly heroin and amphetamines. While recognizing that appellant suffered from a personality disorder and a dependency on drugs, Dr. Campbell opined that appellant was not "grossly mentally ill." Dr. Campbell concluded that appellant should be judged according to the evidence.
In September, 1973, prison officials, concerned that appellant might be psychotic because of his strange behavior, [8] asked the Behavior Clinic to conduct another psychiatric examination. On September 18, 1973, Dr. Robert Bowman, a staff psychiatrist, examined appellant and filed a report. Dr. Bowman observed many manifestations of disturbed behavior which suggested that appellant had extremely tenuous control over himself. Dr. Bowman concluded that Dr. Bowman did not forward his report to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.
On October 2, 1973, appellant's non-jury trial commenced in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas. Neither appellant nor his trial counsel raised any question concerning appellant's competency to stand trial. According to the trial judge, who recorded his observations in an opinion written four years after trial, appellant ". . . appeared at all times to be coherent and lucid while listening to the testimony as well as when he testified." The trial court found appellant guilty on all charges and immediately sentenced him to the following terms of imprisonment: 7 1/2 to 15 years for robbery, 2 1/2 to 5 years for assault and battery with intent to kill, 5 to 10 years for holding a hostage, 5 to 10 years for prison breach, and 5 to 10 years for assault by a prisoner; all these sentences were to run consecutively. The court suspended sentence on the charges of aggravated assault and battery and receiving stolen goods.
After trial, appellant obtained new counsel. On October 9, 1973, this attorney filed timely written post-verdict motions which asserted, Inter alia, that the lower court erred in not ordering a psychiatric examination to determine appellant's competency to stand trial and that trial counsel was ineffective for not requesting such an examination.
On November 5, 1973, counsel filed an application for modification or vacation of appellant's sentences on the basis of appellant's history of psychiatric problems. Counsel also requested the lower court to order an examination by two psychiatrists; the court granted this request.
On November 20, 1973, Dr. Bowman again interviewed appellant and filed another report. Dr. Bowman noted that since the September 18, 1973 interview, appellant's behavior had continued to be bizarre and indicative of paranoid schizophrenia. Appellant also could not accurately relate details of his personal history, including his age or the length of the recently imposed sentences. Inconsistencies in his narration indicated a breakdown in his cognitive processes. Dr. Bowman emphasized that appellant, at that time, was an extremely dangerous individual who posed a security risk in the state penitentiary. Because the therapeutic atmosphere of a state hospital might reduce tensions, Dr. Bowman recommended that appellant be hospitalized at Farview State Hospital.
On December 6, 1973, a second psychiatrist, Dr. Berry, examined appellant and found him to be "obviously mentally ill and dangerous to others." Dr. Berry recommended extended hospitalization. On December 14, 1973, the lower court, on the basis of these two psychiatric reports, vacated appellant's sentence and committed appellant to Farview State Hospital for a period not to exceed 50 years; the court specifically premised this order on a finding that appellant's mental disability required in-patient institutional treatment.
From December 14, 1973, until October 7, 1976, appellant remained at Farview State Hospital. Psychiatric staff evaluations during this period revealed that appellant suffered from a chronic schizophrenic condition and organic deficiencies due to past drug intoxication; appellant made little headway in overcoming these problems. Nevertheless, on September 10, 1976, a staff evaluation recommended that appellant be considered for return to a state penitentiary, at least on a trial basis. While appellant had ". . . shown (no) . . . appreciation of the nature of his disability, . . .", his illness had undergone "minor modifications", and appellant had expressed a desire to return to a penitentiary setting. Accordingly, on October 7, 1976, the lower court ordered appellant transferred to the Allegheny County jail to await further disposition.
On November 9, 1976, appellant's counsel requested a deferral of re-sentencing until the completion of another psychiatric examination; the court granted this request. On January 24, 1977, Dr. Elliott Shinn, a psychiatrist retained by appellant's counsel, forwarded a psychiatric report to the lower court in which he made the following diagnosis: "Chronic Schizophrenic Reaction with paranoid delusions complicated by organic brain damage (probably due to drug usage)." On the question of appellant's competency to stand trial on October 2, 1973, Dr. Shinn found some hints in the record that appellant did not fully understand the proceedings, but also noted that a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, standing alone, did not mandate a finding of incompetence. In sum, Dr. Shinn found the evidence available to him inconclusive on the issue of appellant's competency to stand trial. In the dispositional portion of his report, Dr. Shinn recommended that appellant be placed in a mental hospital or a closed penal institution. Dr. Shinn cautioned that if appellant were released into society in the near future, he would almost certainly resume his drug habit and become grossly psychotic as well as potentially dangerous. Dr. Shinn concluded that appellant's illness could only be controlled, not cured.
On February 22, 1977, the lower court, after denying appellant's post-verdict motions, [9] resentenced appellant to the following consecutive terms of imprisonment: 7 1/2 [393 A.2d 689] to 15 years for robbery, 2 1/2 to 5 years for assault and battery with intent to kill, 3 to 6 years for holding a hostage, 3 to 6 years for prison breach, and 3 to 6 years for assault by a prisoner; these sentences run consecutively and total 19-38 years imprisonment. The lower court suspended sentence on the aggravated assault and battery and receiving stolen goods charges. This appeal followed the lower court's denial of appellant's motion for reconsideration of sentence.
Appellant contends that we should remand the instant case for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether he was competent to stand trial on October 2, 1973. In Commonwealth v. Kennedy, 451 Pa. 483, 487, 305 A.2d 890, 892 (1973), our Supreme Court summarized the standards for determining when a defendant is incompetent to proceed to trial:
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