Commonwealth v. Mitchell, 677 CAP

• Decision Date: 16 December 2014
• Docket Number: No. 677 CAP,677 CAP
• Citation: 105 A.3d 1257
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Wayne Cordell MITCHELL, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

105 A.3d 1257

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee
v.
Wayne Cordell MITCHELL, Appellant.

No. 677 CAP

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted April 15, 2014.
Decided Dec. 16, 2014.

105 A.3d 1262

Michael Hugh Gonzales, Esq., Matthew C. Lawry, Esq., Federal Community Defender Office, Eastern District of PA, for Mitchell, Wayne Cordell.

Karen T. Edwards, Esq., Ronald Michael Wabby Jr., Esq., Allegheny County District Attorney's Office, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Amy Zapp, Esq., Harrisburg, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

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

OPINION

Justice STEVENS.

This is a capital appeal from the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County denying Appellant Wayne Cordell Mitchell's first petition for relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9541 –46.¹ For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

The facts underlying Appellant's conviction and sentence of death are discussed more fully in this Court's opinion resolving Appellant's direct appeal. See Commonwealth v. Mitchell, 588 Pa. 19, 902 A.2d 430 (2006), cert. denied, 549 U.S. 1169, 127 S.Ct. 1126, 166 L.Ed.2d 897 (2007) ( “Mitchell I ”). In order to place Appellant's current collateral claims in context, some background is required.

The evidence adduced at trial indicated that Appellant and his estranged wife, Robin Little, had a volatile relationship. On September 1, 1997, Robin went to Appellant's place of employment to borrow his bus pass, and after she arrived, she told Appellant she had engaged in sexual relations with another man. Appellant became angry, dragged Robin into a supervisor's office, and raped her. Robin reported the rape to the police, and she underwent an examination at the Magee Women's Hospital.

While Robin was at the hospital, the police arrested Appellant, and after he waived his Miranda rights,² Appellant admitted in a taped statement that he had raped Robin. Police Detective Doug Yuhouse noted that, during the taped statement, Appellant was cooperative and did not appear to be under the influence of alcohol. The police charged Appellant at CC No. 9712047 with rape, terroristic threats, unlawful restraint, and simple assault for the September 1, 1997 attack on Robin. He was arraigned and remained in jail pending a preliminary hearing, which was scheduled for September 9, 1997.

On September 4, 1997, while Appellant was still in jail awaiting his preliminary hearing, Robin filed for a Protection from Abuse (“PFA”) order.³ The court granted the petition entering a ten-day temporary order, which directed Appellant to have no contact with Robin pending a full hearing scheduled for September 10, 1997.

At the September 9, 1997 preliminary hearing on the rape charge, Appellant waived the charges to court in exchange for a nominal bond, with a condition that he seek immediate in-patient treatment for alcohol abuse at St. Francis Hospital. However, for reasons disputed at trial, Appellant was never admitted to the hospital for treatment on September 9, 1997, as

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required by the agreement, and instead, he went home and began calling Robin.

During the afternoon of September 9, 1997, at approximately 4:15 p.m., Appellant arrived at Robin's home and the two argued. At 6:00 p.m., Appellant left, and at 1:00 a.m. on September 10, 1997, Appellant telephoned Sheila Britton, the former director of a college-counseling program at the high school where Appellant and Robin attended. Appellant told Ms. Britton he was going to Robin's house to kill her because she had “disrespected” him. Ms. Britton told Appellant to go to sleep. At trial, she testified that, during their conversation, Appellant did not slur any of his words and spoke in coherent sentences.

Appellant later admitted to Detective Dennis Logan that, instead of going to bed, he walked to Robin's house, arriving at 1:30 a.m. Appellant argued with Robin, who was sitting on the front porch, and punched her in the face and stomach, causing her to fall against the door. When she tried to run, Appellant grabbed her and, when she resisted, Appellant dragged her toward an empty lot near her home, continuing to punch her as she tried to break free. At that point, Robin screamed for help, yelling, “He's going to kill me.” N.T. 10/5/99, trial, at 383. Appellant put a hand over Robin's mouth and continued to drag her.

As they passed a house, Appellant saw a knife lying on the porch. Appellant punched Robin several times, temporarily disabling her while he returned to the porch to get the knife. When Robin attempted to pull herself up off the ground, Appellant pushed her down and stabbed her in the stomach. He then removed her clothes, wrapped his hands around her neck, and raped her, first vaginally and then anally. When Robin vomited blood, Appellant wiped her mouth with a rag and continued to rape her. When he finished, he turned her over and stabbed her multiple times in the neck. Appellant threw Robin's clothes, the knife, and the bloody rag into a nearby sewer. Appellant later told Detective Logan he left Robin's body naked because “[i]f she wanted to f– –k everybody, now everybody could see her f– –king body.” N.T. 10/5/99, trial, at 387.

Appellant called Ms. Britton again at 4:00 a.m., and told her, “Robin Little is no more.” Id. at 330. At 9:00 a.m., Appellant appeared in court for the PFA hearing; however, when Robin failed to appear, the court dismissed the temporary PFA order. When Appellant returned home, his mother informed him that Robin was found dead, and upon his mother's urging, Appellant decided to go to the emergency room of St. Francis Hospital, where he reported sometime around noon on September 10, 1997.

Meanwhile, at around 10:15 a.m., Robin's naked body was discovered in a backyard close to her home, and the police later discovered Robin's clothes in the sewer. Appellant's clothing was recovered from a vacant house in a nearby neighborhood. As soon as Robin's body was discovered, homicide detectives began looking for Appellant and learned he was being evaluated at the emergency room of St. Francis Hospital. As Appellant was being released from the emergency room at approximately 1:54 p.m., the police approached Appellant in the waiting room and asked him to accompany them to their office. Appellant agreed to do so. During the short ride to the homicide office, Appellant said he had nothing to do with Robin's death, at which point Detective Logan replied he did not want to talk about the case in the car.

At the homicide office, Detective Logan told Appellant he wished to speak to him about Robin's murder, and Appellant was escorted to an interview room where, after waiving his Miranda rights, Appellant

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made a full statement to Detective Logan admitting that he raped Robin on September 1, 1997, and that he raped her again and murdered her on September 10, 1997. Detective Logan noted Appellant appeared in full control of his faculties and provided a remarkably detailed account of his turbulent relationship with Robin, as well as a full explanation of how and why he raped her twice and then murdered her.

In addition to the charges at CC No. 9712047, as set forth supra, the police charged Appellant at CC No. 9713318 with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse (IDSI), and unlawful restraint for the September 10, 1997 attack of Robin. Moreover, at CC No. 9711609, the police charged Appellant with one count of criminal homicide for the September 10, 1997 strangulation and stabbing death of Robin. The Commonwealth filed and served a timely notice of its intention to seek imposition of the death penalty.

Appellant filed several pre-trial motions, which the trial court denied. On October 1, 1999, Appellant pleaded guilty to the charges arising from the September 10, 1997 sexual assault at CC No. 9713318. The court deferred imposition of sentence until after trial on the remaining charges, which commenced before a jury on October 4, 1999. At trial, the Commonwealth presented evidence from a number of witnesses, including Robin's mother, Robin's sister-in-law, Ms. Britton, several police officers, the doctor who examined Robin after the first rape, and the chief forensic pathologist from the coroner's office.

Although Appellant declined to testify, he presented testimony from several witnesses, including his uncle,⁴ Attorney Rosalyn Guy–McCorkle (Appellant's former defense attorney),⁵ and Dr. Lawson Bernstein (a forensic neuropsychiatrist).⁶ Appellant called these witnesses to support his diminished capacity defense that, due to his psychological condition and long-term alcohol abuse, he was unable to form the requisite specific intent to kill for a murder conviction.

At the close of the trial, the jury rejected Appellant's defense and found him guilty of first-degree murder for the September 10, 1997 death of Robin at CC No. 9711609, as well as the remaining charges of rape, unlawful restraint, and simple assault arising from the September 1, 1997 incident at CC No. 9712047. Accordingly, as the Commonwealth was seeking the death penalty, the...