Commonwealth v. Tejada
Decision Date | 01 June 2018 |
Docket Number | No. 170 WDA 2016,No. 892 WDA 2016,No. 872 WDA 2016,No. 24 WDA 2016,No. 119 WDA 2016,24 WDA 2016,119 WDA 2016,170 WDA 2016,872 WDA 2016,892 WDA 2016 |
Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Ricky TEJADA, Appellant Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Ricky Tejada, Appellant Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Ricky Tejada, Appellant Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Ricky Tejada, Appellant Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Ricky Tejada, Appellant |
Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
Emily E. Mosco, Erie, for appellant.
Paul S. Sellers, Assistant District Attorney, Erie, for Commonwealth, appellee.
Ricky Tejada appeals from the judgment of sentence of four to eight years incarceration imposed following his convictions for two counts of aggravated harassment by a prisoner. Appellant elected to act as his own counsel, but was removed from the courtroom due to his behavior during voir dire . The trial court, which did not appoint standby counsel and rejected Appellant's request for same, conducted the entire trial without any representation of Appellant's interests. We reverse.
Implicated herein is the defendant's constitutional rights to be present for trial, have counsel, and represent himself if he so wishes. The United States Supreme Court has not held that appointment of standby counsel is required when a defendant elects to represent himself.1 It is, however, well-settled that a defendant may forfeit his right to be present for his trial. In this issue of first impression in Pennsylvania, we address an intersection of those lines of case law: whether a pro se defendant forfeits his right to representation when his behavior results in the loss of right to be present for trial. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that a defendant cannot forfeit his right of representation, and therefore vacate Appellant's judgment of sentence and remand for a new trial.
Appellate counsel previously filed a petition to withdraw from representation and a brief pursuant to Anders v. California , 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), and Commonwealth v. Santiago , 602 Pa. 159, 978 A.2d 349 (2009), which we denied. Commonwealth v. Tejada , 176 A.3d 355 (Pa.Super. 2017). We directed counsel to file a merits brief on the question of whether the trial court erred in proceeding with trial after ordering Appellant's removal.
We previously set forth the factual and procedural history2 of this matter in our decision denying the petition to withdraw, which we reproduce herein:
Id. at 357–58 (footnotes and citations omitted).
We stated that the issue appeared to be one of first impression in this Commonwealth, and the parties' substituted briefs likewise view it as such. Appellant largely relies on precedents by our sister courts who have addressed this issue. The Oregon Court of Appeals cogently summarized the position that Appellant asks this Court to take:
State v. Lacey , 282 Or.App. 123, 385 P.3d 1151, 1152–53 (2016), review allowed , 361 Or. 350, 393 P.3d 1176 (2017) (emphasis added). Accord People v. Ramos , 210 Cal.Rptr.3d 242 (Ct.App. 2016) ( ); People v. Cohn , 160 P.3d 336, 343 (Colo.App. 2007) ( ).
The Commonwealth does not take a position on whether we should accept or reject the foregoing analysis. Its argument is reproduced in full:
Commonwealth's brief at 2–3. Beyond these statements, the Commonwealth has not developed why this Court should not, as Appellant urges, follow the lead of our sister courts and conclude that "Where a criminal case is tried...
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