Commonwealth v. Johnson
| Decision Date | 25 May 2017 |
| Docket Number | No. 711 CAP,711 CAP |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Marcel Emanuel JOHNSON, Appellant |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
John J. Fioravanti Jr., Esq., Law Offices of John J. Fioravanti, Jr., for Marcel Emanuel Johnson, Appellant.
Joanna Rose Dombrowski, Esq., Matthew D. Weintraub, Esq., Bucks County District Attorney's Office, Amy Zapp, Esq., PA Office of Attorney General, Stephen B. Harris, Esq., for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Appellee.
OPINION
In June 2015, Marcel Emanuel Johnson ("Johnson") was convicted of killing Ebony Talley ("Talley"), her unborn child, and her four-year-old daughter, R.R. He was sentenced to death for R.R.'s murder. In this automatic direct appeal,1 Johnson raises nine issues for our review. Following our thorough consideration of these issues and for the reasons set forth below, we affirm his convictions and the imposition of the death sentence.
In November 2013, Talley was living in Apartment 604 of the Avalon Court Apartments in Bristol Township, Bucks County with R.R.2 Early in the afternoon of November 25, 2013, Talley's mother and sisters arrived at Avalon Court to visit. Talley, who was twenty weeks pregnant, and her mother left briefly to obtain a money order for a partial amount of Talley's rent. Upon their return, Johnson arrived at the apartment. Johnson and Talley were friends and he was well acquainted with her visiting family members. Johnson was storing some of his belongings in the apartment and Talley occasionally allowed him to stay overnight. Johnson socialized with Talley and her family that afternoon. When Talley's mother and sisters left at approximately 2:30 p.m., Johnson remained.
Shortly thereafter, around 3:00 p.m, a fire was detected in Talley's apartment. The fire emitted a thick, black smoke that made it difficult for the responding firefighters to gain entry. Once inside, firefighters discovered Talley's lifeless body in the bedroom. Talley was lying face-down with numerous stab wounds
to her head, neck and body. A plastic bag was also wrapped tightly around her head.3 Small, empty yellow wax bags stamped in red ink with "# 1 way to go" were found scattered around Talley's body. More of these distinctive empty wax bags were found in a shoebox in the bedroom. In the living room, the firefighters found an unresponsive R.R. in a pool of blood beneath an overturned couch. R.R. had been stabbed in the chest and bled profusely. She was rushed to the hospital, but pronounced dead soon after her arrival. Minutes before the fire was detected, a resident of Avalon Court observed Talley's vehicle speed out of the parking lot, hitting another vehicle in its haste. The resident noticed that vehicle was being driven by a black male.
While emergency responders were still at the scene of the fire, Johnson placed a series of calls to Talley's cousin, Brittany Coles. Ms. Coles, who had been alerted to what was happening at Talley's apartment and was in a frantic state, told Johnson about the fire. Because she was at work and could not leave, she implored Johnson to return to the apartment complex to obtain more information. Johnson refused, explaining that he wanted to avoid the police because there were outstanding warrants for his arrest. Later that afternoon, Johnson called Talley's sister, Paulina Burke. Ms. Burke informed Johnson that both Talley and R.R. had died. She asked Johnson to turn Talley's vehicle over to the police and otherwise aid in the police investigation. Again, Johnson refused, citing the outstanding warrants as the basis for his refusal.
In these phone conversations, Johnson indicated that he was calling from a friend's home in the Levittown Trace Apartment complex.4 Based on this information, the police proceeded to the Levittown Trace Apartments at approximately 6:00 p.m. and located Talley's vehicle in the most remote portion of the apartment complex's parking lot. When the police approached the vehicle, they found it was vacant. They also noticed that the license plate had been changed, but the VIN number, which is visible through the windshield, verified that it was Talley's vehicle. Shortly after 7:00 p.m., Johnson entered the vehicle and began to leave the parking lot. The police immediately stopped him, utilizing a "felony stop" procedure. During a felony stop, the police officers remain shielded by their vehicles and, with weapons drawn, they instruct the motorist to exit his car, demonstrate that he does not possess a weapon, and lay on the ground before they approach. The police then transported Johnson to their headquarters for questioning. A subsequent search of Talley's vehicle revealed, among other items, a bundle of eight empty wax packets stamped in red with "# 1 way to go," in the ash tray. These packets were identical to the packets found around Talley's body and in her bedroom.
At the police station, Johnson waived his Miranda5 rights and agreed to speak with investigators. He explained his friendship with Talley and acknowledged that he was at her apartment earlier that day. He stated that he left Talley's home on foot and met up with a friend named Eric Stahl, who was driving Talley's vehicle, and that Stahl gave him the keys later that day. After being confronted with evidence that conflicted with this account, Johnson changed his story and admitted both to taking Talley's car and her Xbox gaming system and hitting another vehicle as he did. When asked why he did not come to the scene of the fire or the police station at Talley's family's requests, he reiterated his concern about the arrest warrants. The police arrested Johnson that evening on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia based on items found in his possession when the police stopped him in Talley's vehicle.6 That night, while he was in custody, the police obtained and executed a warrant for samples of Johnson's DNA, fingernail scrapings, hair samples and clothes.
In January 2014, Johnson was charged with the murders of Talley, R.R., Talley's unborn child and related crimes. While detained in the Bucks County Correctional Facility, Johnson admitted to another inmate that he killed Talley and that he killed R.R. because she could identify him as her mother's killer. Also while incarcerated, Johnson phoned his brother, Marquis Johnson, and told him that he hid "evidence" in a precise location at the Levittown Trace Apartments and asked him to retrieve it, admonishing that the items should never see the light of day. Marquis did as his brother requested and retrieved a blue plastic glove containing 167 packets of heroin, all in wax packets stamped in red with "# 1 way to go," and a money order for eighty dollars.
A jury trial commenced in May 2015, at the conclusion of which Johnson was convicted of the first-degree murders of both Talley and R.R., third-degree murder of Talley's unborn child, arson (endangering people), and possessing instruments of crime.7 During the penalty phase, the Commonwealth presented evidence of four aggravating factors as to Talley: torture; conviction of another murder at the same time of Talley's murder; involvement in the sale of narcotics at the time of the murder; and knowledge of Talley's pregnancy.8
N.T., 6/8/2015, at 192–95. The Commonwealth pursued three aggravating factors with regard to R.R.: that R.R. was a witness to a murder and was killed to prevent her from testifying; conviction of another murder at the same time as R.R.'s murder; and that R.R. was less than twelve years old.9 Id. at 197–200.
Johnson presented evidence in support of four mitigating factors: his lack of a significant history of prior criminal convictions; extreme mental or emotional disturbance at the time of the murders; and the fact that he was twenty-one at the time of the murders.10 Id. at 200. Johnson also presented an assemblage of evidence under the catchall mitigating factor, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(8), including evidence that Johnson's life up until the time of the murders was characterized by chronic and pervasive abuse, neglect and abandonment; that he suffered brain damage and had been diagnosed with various mental illnesses; cycles of placement in and out of treatment programs; and a complete lack of any semblance of stability or permanence. The jury ultimately sentenced Johnson to death for R.R.'s murder and life in prison for Talley's murder.11
The trial court denied Johnson's post-sentence motions, after which Johnson filed this timely appeal. He presents several issues for our review, challenging the denial of his motions to suppress, evidentiary rulings, the sufficiency of the evidence, the trial court's refusal to allow Johnson to present certain mitigating evidence, the trial court's jury instruction during the penalty phase, the denial of his motion to preclude the Commonwealth from seeking the death penalty, and the constitutionality of the three statutory aggravating factors presented by the Commonwealth in connection with R.R.'s murder.
In all death penalty cases, this Court reviews the sufficiency of the evidence to ensure that it supports the verdicts of first-degree murder, whether or not the appellant raises the issue. Commonwealth v. May , 584 Pa. 640, 887 A.2d 750, 753 (2005). When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we consider whether the evidence presented at trial, and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, when viewed in a light most favorable to the Commonwealth as the verdict winner, support the jury's verdict beyond a reasonable doubt. Commonwealth v. Patterson , 625 Pa. 104, 91 A.3d 55, 66 (2014). The determination of whether sufficient evidence exists to support the verdict is a question of law; accordingly, our standard of review is de novo and our scope of review is plenary. Id.
To establish first-degree murder, the Commonwealth must prove that a human...
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