Commonwealth v. Stilo
| Decision Date | 28 April 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 2838 EDA 2014,2838 EDA 2014 |
| Citation | 2016 PA Super 91,138 A.3d 33 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Anthony STILO, Appellant. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
138 A.3d 33
2016 PA Super 91
COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania
v.
Anthony STILO, Appellant.
No. 2838 EDA 2014
Superior Court of Pennsylvania.
Argued Jan. 26, 2016.
Filed April 28, 2016.
Brian J. Foley, Philadelphia, for appellant.
Alison J. Guest, Assistant District Attorney, Philadelphia, for Commonwealth, appellee.
BEFORE: LAZARUS, J., OTT, J., and STEVENS, P.J.E.*
OPINION BY OTT, J.:
Anthony Stilo appeals from the July 23, 2014, judgment of sentence imposed by the Philadelphia County Municipal Court on his conviction for possession of a controlled substance,1 as confirmed by the order entered in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County denying his petition for writ of certiorari. In this appeal, Stilo challenges the denial of his suppression motion. Based upon the following, we affirm.
The common pleas court judge summarized the procedural and factual background of this case, as follows:
On November 13, 2013, Defendant Anthony Stilo, was arrested and charged with Knowing and Intentional Possession of a Controlled Substance under 35 [P.S.] § 780–113(a)(16). On June 9, 2014, the Honorable Martin S. Coleman denied [Stilo's] motion to suppress any and all physical evidence recovered during his arrest. On July 23, 2014, the Honorable David C. Shuter found [Stilo] guilty of Knowing and Intentional Possession of a Controlled Substance and sentenced him to six months reporting probation. On August 20, 2014, [Stilo] filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari which this Court denied on September 22, 2014.
* * *
On June 9, 2014, a motion to suppress physical evidence was held before the Honorable Martin S. Coleman. At that hearing, Police Officer Bruce Cleaver testified and his testimony established the following.
On November 13, 2013, at approximately 2:45 p.m. Officer Cleaver set up surveillance outside [address deleted] Kelvin Avenue due to receipt of a narcotics complaint. N.T. 6/9/14 pp. 6, 13. At approximately 3:00 p.m., [Stilo] arrived at the location as a passenger in a white
Ford Explorer, N.T. 6/9/14 p. 6. [Stilo] exited the vehicle and entered the basement of the property where he remained for approximately three minutes. N.T. 6/9/14 p. 6. As [Stilo] exited the property, an unknown white male arrived on location in a red Ford pickup truck and entered the property. N.T. 6/9/14 pp. 6–7, 12. [Stilo] re-entered the Ford Explorer and waited a few minutes. N.T. 6/9/14 p. 7. Shortly thereafter, the unknown white male exited the property and entered his truck. N.T. 6/9/14 p. 7. Both [Stilo] and the male left the location simultaneously. N.T. 6/9/14 pp. 7, 12. [Stilo] was followed, stopped, and removed from the vehicle. N.T. 6/9/14 pp. 7, 11. Officer Cleaver spoke to [Stilo] and [Stilo] gave the officer a clear Ziploc bag containing marijuana and he was arrested. N.T. 6/9/14 p. 7; 11. Following his arrest, [Stilo] was searched and recovered from his person were: four white Ativan pills, seventeen round blue Oxycodone pills, and two round white Oxycodone pills. N.T. 6/9/14 p. 7.
Common Pleas Court Opinion, 2/12/2015, at 2.
In Stilo's motion to suppress the evidence, he contended police lacked reasonable suspicion that he was engaged in criminal activity when they stopped his vehicle. The municipal court judge denied the motion, and Stilo was convicted and sentenced, as stated above. Stilo then filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the court of common pleas, which denied the petition. This appeal followed.2
Stilo raises the following argument for our review:
[T]he trial court err[ed] in denying [Stilo's] motion to suppress physical evidence in this case, where police merely saw him enter and leave after a few minutes a house police believed, based on an anonymous tip, was a drug house, where police did not see any transaction, cash, suspected contraband, or any other item, and where police saw just one other person enter and leave[.]
Stilo's Brief at 3.
The principles that guide our review are as follows:
Our standard of review in addressing a challenge to the denial of a suppression motion is
limited to determining whether the suppression court's factual findings are supported by the record and whether the legal conclusions drawn from those facts are correct. Because the Commonwealth prevailed before the suppression court, we may consider only the evidence of the Commonwealth and so much of the evidence for the defense as remains uncontradicted when read in the context of the record as a whole. Where the suppression court's factual findings are supported by the record, we are bound by these findings and may reverse only if the court's legal conclusions are erroneous. The suppression court's legal conclusions are not binding on an appellate court, whose duty it is to determine if the suppression court properly applied the law to the facts. Thus, the conclusions of law of the courts below are subject to our plenary review.
Commonwealth v. Jones, 605 Pa. 188, 988 A.2d 649, 654 (2010), cert. denied, [562] U.S. [832], 131 S.Ct. 110, 178 L.Ed.2d 32 (2010) (citations, quotations and ellipses omitted). Moreover, appellate
courts are limited to reviewing only the evidence presented at the suppression hearing when examining a ruling on a pre-trial motion to suppress. See In Interest of L.J., 622 Pa. 126, 79 A.3d 1073, 1083–1087 (2013)....
It is well-established that there are three categories of interaction between citizens and police officers. As our Supreme Court has clearly articulated:
The first of these is a “mere encounter” (or request for information) which need not be supported by any level of suspicion, but carries no official compulsion to stop or to respond. The second, an “investigative detention” must be supported by a reasonable suspicion; it subjects a suspect to a stop and a period of detention, but does not involve such coercive conditions as to constitute the functional equivalent of an arrest. Finally, an arrest or “custodial detention” must be supported by probable cause.
Commonwealth v. Gutierrez, 36 A.3d 1104, 1107 (Pa.Super.2012), appeal denied, 616 Pa. 643, 48 A.3d 1247 (2012), quoting Commonwealth v. Ellis, 541 Pa. 285, 662 A.2d 1043, 1047 (1995) (citations omitted)....
... In [Commonwealth v.] Foglia, [979 A.2d 357 (Pa.Super.2009) (en banc), appeal denied, 605 Pa. 694, 990 A.2d 727 (2010),] this Court set forth the standard that must be applied in determining whether an investigative detention of an individual is constitutionally sound:
A police officer may detain an individual in order to conduct an investigation if that officer reasonably suspects that the individual is engaging in criminal
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