Commonwealth v. Keaton

• Decision Date: 17 December 2013
• Citation: 82 A.3d 419
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Alexander KEATON, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

82 A.3d 419

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee

v.Alexander KEATON, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted Aug. 22, 2013.

Decided Dec. 17, 2013.

Michael Hugh Gonzales, Esq., Hunter Stuart Labovitz, Esq., Defender Association of Philadelphia, for Alexander Keaton.

Hugh J. Burns, Esq., Philadelphia, William George Young, Esq., Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

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

OPINION

Justice STEVENS.

In this PCRA capital appeal, Alexander Keaton asserts the PCRA court erroneously denied his underlying claim that his invocation of a Fifth Amendment right to counsel during custodial interrogations on a rape charge invalidated uncounseled, incriminating statements he gave weeks later in unrelated murder and rape cases. Finding evidentiary support for the PCRA court's factual determination that Keaton never invoked his right to counsel in the initial rape case, we affirm.

The underlying facts and procedural history are set forth in our earlier disposition of Keaton's PCRA appeal, Commonwealth v. Keaton, 615 Pa. 675, 45 A.3d 1050 (2012), and may be reproduced herein as follows:

In December, 1992, Keaton was charged with rape and related offenses stemming from the November, 1992 sexual assault of Nadine S. One month later, the body of Keaton's ex-girlfriend, Sherrill Ann Hall, was found. Police questioned Keaton, who was in custody for the attack on Nadine S., about Hall's death. After waiving his rights, Keaton gave a written statement incriminating himself in the killing, and he was charged with murder. Later that day, police questioned Keaton about the June, 1992 rape of another woman, Michelle B. After waiving his rights, Keaton gave a written statement in which he admitted having oral sex with this victim, but denied assaulting her. He was charged with the rape of Michelle B. and related offenses.

The Commonwealth moved to consolidate the charges for all three victims. Over defense objection, the trial court granted the motion. Prior to trial, Keaton moved to suppress his statements; the motion was denied, and Keaton was tried before a jury and found guilty of first degree murder, rape, and related offenses. At the penalty phase, the Commonwealth sought to prove the following aggravating circumstances: the murder was committed in the perpetration of a felony, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(6); and the defendant had a significant history of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence to the person, id., § 9711(d)(9). Keaton sought to establish the following mitigating circumstances: he was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance because of his drug addiction, id., § 9711(e)(2); his age (31) at the time of the crime, id., § 9711(e)(4); and any other evidence of mitigation concerning his character and record or the circumstances of the offense, id., § 9711(e)(8). The jury found no mitigating circumstances and one aggravating circumstance, that the murder occurred in perpetration of the felony of rape, id., § 9711(d)(6); accordingly, Keaton was sentenced to death. Id., § 9711(c)(1)(iv).

This Court affirmed on direct appeal, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. Keaton v. Pennsylvania, 528 U.S. 1163, 120 S.Ct. 1180, 145 L.Ed.2d 1087 (2000). Keaton timely filed a pro se PCRA petition and received appointed counsel, who filed an amended petition alleging all prior counsels' ineffectiveness for not raising numerous guilt and penalty phase issues. The PCRA court held a hearing on the sole issue of trial counsel's ineffectiveness for failing to investigate and present mitigating evidence at the penalty phase. The PCRA court rejected Keaton's guilt phase claims, denying him a new trial; however, the court concluded trial counsel was ineffective for failing to develop and present mitigating evidence, and granted a new penalty hearing.

Keaton appealed from the denial of his guilt phase issues the Commonwealth appealed from the grant of a new penalty phase. The PCRA court's Rule 1925(a) opinion did not address several of the issues in detail, merely stating it found Keaton's claims of guilt phase error meritless and would not further discuss them; the only penalty phase issue the court addressed was trial counsel's ineffectiveness for not investigating and presenting mitigating evidence at the penalty phase. See PCRA Court Opinion, 9/11/03, at 12–22. Without conclusive findings regarding whether Keaton is mentally retarded, we could not address his Atkins claim; accordingly, we remanded for the PCRA court to consider the claim's merits and issue an opinion detailing its findings. See Per Curiam Order, 1/22/09; see also Commonwealth v. Miller, 585 Pa. 144, 888 A.2d 624, 632–33 (2005) (where both parties' experts' testimony was equivocal on issue of mental retardation, wavering between “borderline retarded” and “mentally retarded,” remand for evidentiary hearing was necessary). The PCRA court complied, issuing an opinion rejecting Keaton's claim of mental retardation and holding his Atkins claim was meritless. See PCRA Court Opinion, 11/13/09, at 1, 16–18.

Keaton, 615 Pa. at 690–92, 45 A.3d at 1058–60 (2012) (footnotes deleted).

In our initial disposition of Keaton's PCRA appeal, we affirmed the PCRA order denying guilt phase relief in all respects except on the single factual question of whether Keaton invoked his right to counsel during his December 19, 1992 arrest and interrogation on charges of raping Nadine S. and, if so, whether his so doing rendered presumptively involuntary his January 13, 1993 incriminating statements given during uncounseled, custodial interrogations on other rape and murder cases. We therefore reversed on that issue and remanded the matter to the PCRA court directing it to conduct an evidentiary hearing in order to develop the factual record. We further instructed that if the PCRA court found that Keaton invoked the right, it was to address whether under the recent United States Supreme Court decision Maryland v. Shatzer, 559 U.S. 98, 130 S.Ct. 1213, 175 L.Ed.2d 1045 (2010) (holding a 14 day period between initial and subsequent interrogation, where defendant had benefit of returning to general prison population during that time, sufficient to dissipate coercive effects) the January interrogation was nevertheless lawful.

Facts

Taking place on November 12, 2012, the court-ordered hearing pitted Keaton's testimony that upon his arrest of December 19, 1992, he employed his customary practice of demanding a lawyer against police testimony aimed at impeaching Keaton's credibility, given the unavailability of either the arresting officer or interviewing detective to provide direct testimony denying that any such invocation was ever made. Keaton recalled the circumstances surrounding his December 19, 1992 arrest, stating he had just exited a grocery store on Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, when a uniformed police officer standing alongside a patrol car called him over for a brief talk before detaining him. N.T. 11/16/12 at 8. Handcuffed and seated in the back of the patrol car, Keaton observed the officer walk over to Nadine S., whom Keaton knew from the neighborhood, and talk to her for several minutes before returning to inform him he was being arrested for rape. N.T. at 8. Believing the officer was unwilling to listen to “his side of the story,” Keaton testified, he asked for a lawyer. N.T. at 8.

Keaton claimed on direct examination that he made this request in the presence of arresting officers as a matter of routine, as it had recently procured his release from police detention on two occasions in the recent past, including several weeks earlier in the Nadine S. case at a South Philadelphia police station and in a September 14th, 1992 arrest, also on allegations of rape. N.T. at 9–10, 14–15. “That's [requesting a lawyer] what you do in the hood. You don't speak to the police[,]” Keaton testified. N.T. at 19.

Cross-examination of Keaton yielded inconsistent testimony that while he was sittingin the back seat of the patrol car on December 19, 1992, the arresting officer engaged him in conversation and, in fact, “wanted to hear [his] side of the story.” N.T. at 24. Keaton, however, testified that he declined to tell his side and instead asked for a lawyer, which differed from his earlier testimony that the officer was unwilling to listen. N.T. at 25. Keaton also confirmed that the officer had not read Miranda warnings or been prepared to take notes at the time Keaton claims to have requested a lawyer.

According to Keaton, the officer transported him to a police station without a word, placed him in an interrogation room situated “to the back,” and closed the door behind him. N.T. at 11. He further described the room as little and windowless, with tables and two chairs. N.T. at 11. An “olive-complected, dark hair[ed]” detective who was “smaller than [Keaton]” entered, Keaton said, and he informed Keaton of his Miranda rights. N.T. at 12, 26–27. Keaton testified that he again asserted his right to counsel, and the detective consequently left the room. N.T. at 13.

Commonwealth witness Lieutenant Michael Boyle provided a differing account of both the interrogation site and the physical description of the detective. He described the South Philadelphia Sex Crime Unit to where Keaton was transported as having no such interrogation room in the back; defendants were interviewed at the investigating detective's desk in an open room where all detectives worked. N.T. at 58–59. He also knew the detective assigned to Keaton's case, George Hicks, and was of the opinion that he was neither olive-complexioned nor aptly described as “dark-haired” given his baldness. N.T. at 55.

The Commonwealth also called the arresting officer from the November 22, 1992 arrest, Officer Jose Perez, who claimed to have a vivid recollection of the arrest. Perez testified...