Commonwealth v. Orlowski
| Decision Date | 07 September 1984 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. George Gregory ORLOWSKI, Appellant. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
Argued May 22, 1984. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] [Copyrighted Material Omitted] [Copyrighted Material Omitted]
John J. Kerrigan, Jr., Newton, for appellant.
Robert E. Goldman, Asst. Dist. Atty., Doylestown, for Commonwealth, appellee.
Before DEL SOLE, MONTEMURO and HOFFMAN, JJ.
This is an appeal from a judgment of sentence. The appellant, George Gregory Orlowski, and his co-defendant, Victor Hassine, were tried in the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County before the Honorable Paul R. Beckert and a jury. The appellant was found to be guilty of the first degree murder [1] of James Puerale, and the attempted murders [2] of Albert "Skip" Kellet, Jr., Lois Kellet and George Sofield, and multiple counts of criminal conspiracy [3] and criminal solicitation. [4]
The jury returned a sentence of life imprisonment on the conviction of first degree murder. Post-verdict motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were filed by the appellant, and the issues therein fully briefed and argued to the court. These motions were denied. On January 4, 1983, the appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment and various concurrent terms of imprisonment. This appeal followed.
The appellant raises several allegations of error which we find to be without merit.
The first of the appellant's grievances to be addressed is his assertion that the Commonwealth failed to produce sufficient evidence to sustain his convictions. If the evidence is insufficient, as alleged, it is a defect in quality, not in quantity, for the Commonwealth spared no effort in the prosecution of this case, producing the testimony of more than thirty witnesses in a jury trial that spanned some nine days and eighteen hundred pages of testimony. Two defects are alleged: the first, that the evidence demonstrated a more compelling motive to kill Kellet on the part of appellant's co-defendant, Vicor Hassine; the second, that the Commonwealth did not sufficiently establish the appellant's criminal liability on either a conspiracy theory or accomplice liability theory because the evidence showed that appellant only wished to have Kellet "beaten up", and not killed.
By whatever selective reading process these arguments were derived, we cannot tell, but our thorough review of the evidence convinces us that the evidence was sufficient to establish each and every element of the crimes for which the appellant was convicted under the standard set forth in Commonwealth v. Lovette, 498 Pa. 665, 669, 450 A.2d 975, 977 (1982), cert. denied, Pennsylvania v. Lovette, 459 U.S. 1178, 103 S.Ct. 830, 74 L.Ed.2d 1025 (1983):
The test for sufficiency of the evidence is whether accepting as true all of the evidence reviewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, together with all reasonable inferences therefrom, the trier of fact could have found that each element of the offenses charged was supported by evidence and inferences sufficient in law to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. [citations omitted].
This tale begins in the remote passages of the appellant's youth and unfolds to a tragic denouement. The appellant was a young boy when he became apprenticed to Albert Kellet, Sr., proprietor of the Kellet Family Market in Fallsington, Bucks County. The appellant was a butcher's boy doing odd jobs and cleaning the market while being taught the intricacies of the trade. He was trained and nurtured by the senior Kellet to such an extent that he was like a member of the family; almost like a brother to Kellet's natural son, Albert, Jr., also known as "Skip." Skip also worked at the family market but growing differences between him and his father caused him to seek employment elsewhere, while the appellant remained.
Since they were reared as brothers, the appellant and Skip had their "good and bad times." It would seem that their situation could be characterized as either fighting or between fights. On several occasions, their fights stemmed from drug deals which had soured.
In 1975, the senior Kellet sold the store. The appellant went with the new owners "like a piece of equipment," and he continued to run the meat department. At some point in the late seventies, the appellant rented the store and operated it himself. He also began operating a small side business--dealing in marijuana and methamphetamine. Coincidentally, Skip Kellet engaged in a similar sideline.
Enter Victor Hassine, the young scion of a wealthy emigre family which had some real estate holdings in the Fallsington area. Moreover, Hassine was the vessel into which three years of legal education had been poured, and so he was entrusted by the family corporation with the management of some of its interests including those in the Fallsington area.
In 1979, Hassine met the appellant and decided to go into business with him. Together they opened a new store in Morrisville, Bucks County, called Greg's Quality Meat Market, which was financed by the Hassine family, overseen by Victor Hassine, and operated by the appellant. For various reasons, the business did not prosper, and soon the appellant began selling marijuana and methamphetamine out of the store to supplement the store's income. The appellant and several employees of the store engaged in the selling. Hassine also began to advise the appellant how to squeeze more profit out of the drug sales.
In early June of 1980, Skip Kellet purchased some methamphetamine from the appellant for one hundred and fifty ($150.00) dollars. Upon bringing the drugs back to his apartment, Kellet discovered the drugs were of an inferior quality and he became enraged. In order to gain revenge on the appellant, he called appellant and told him the drugs were good and he wanted more. The appellant came to Kellet's apartment (where coincidentally appellant had lived for several years prior to Kellet's tenancy) and encountered the enraged Kellet brandishing a cudgel. Kellet threatened the appellant with the club; took the drugs, which appellant had brought with him, and all of appellant's money (either sixty-four ($64) or one hundred and four ($104) dollars); and threw him out of the apartment.
A few days later, a meeting was held at the meat market. Present were the appellant, Hassine, various employees of the meat market, and one William Eric Decker, an itinerant drug fiend and convicted felon, who had been doing labor work for Hassine. Hassine told Decker, in the appellant's presence, that he wanted Skip Kellet killed, or "wasted." Hassine also said that if Kellet's wife, Lois, was there, she "was to go also, because any witnesses had to go." Appellant added that Kellet could be killed at Penn Manor Lakes because he always went fishing there. Appellant also asked one of the employees, Billy Hayes, who lived next door to Kellet, if he could shoot Kellet from Hayes' bedroom window with Hayes' father's gun. Hassine then asked everyone to attempt to procure a gun. The appellant went out and made a phone call, ostensibly to attempt to find a gun, but the party he tried to reach was "sleeping."
Thereafter, Decker accompanied the appellant to the home of one David Evans, a friend of the appellant. Their purpose in going there was to look for a gun. However, Evans' gun, a hunting rifle, was not suited to their purposes so they did not take it. Decker also accompanied Hassine to the apartment of one Ted Camera, a tenant of a Hassine family apartment in Trenton, to ask for a gun; but again they did not obtain one.
The appellant purchased a .25 caliber automatic handgun from a Tom Easterwood for seventy-five ($75) dollars. Sometime in July, 1980, Hassine gave this weapon to Decker and said, "[h]ere, hit him in the head and leave it there." The gun was test-fired by Hassine and Decker in the back of the market in the presence of appellant and was found to have a defective part.
In late July, 1980, there was a confrontation between Kellet and Hassine in front of one of Hassine's apartments (which was coincidentally across the street from Kellet's apartment). Hassine filed criminal charges of harassment against Kellet. Later a charge of terroristic threats was added when Kellet called the meat market and threatened to burn it down.
On August 1, 1980, Hassine and Decker drove to Edelman's Gun Shop to obtain a part to repair the gun. They did not get the part, but Hassine purchased a box of shells for the gun, for which he signed the register.
Returning from Edelman's, they passed Kellet's apartment, and seeing Kellet, Hassine told Decker to shoot him. Decker demurred because it was daylight, a witness was present and because Hassine was there. Hassine promised Decker that he could have one of Hassine's apartments if he killed Kellet.
On or about August 5, 1980, the appellant and Hassine met with Fred Tuite and Joseph "Critter" Schwab at the appellant's house. Tuite and Schwab were members of the Breed Motorcycle Gang, and Tuite had just been bailed out of jail by Kerry Conklin, a friend of appellant's who frequented the market and also worked as a laborer for Hassine. Tuite had been jailed for offenses relating to the possession of a .357 magnum handgun, which he previously had attempted to sell to Hassine. Tuite and Schwab were asked by Hassine how much they wanted to kill Kellet. They answered fifteen hundred ($1,500) dollars. The appellant then asked how much to have Kellet beaten up. They answered two hundred and fifty ($250) dollars. At Hassine's direction, appellant left the room and returned with an envelope containing the lesser amount. Tuite and Schwab never did the job.
Thereafter the...
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