Com. v. Townsville, A. ( 2015 )

J-S43024-15
NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
PENNSYLVANIA
Appellee
v.
AUBREY TOWNSVILLE
Appellant No. 2748 EDA 2014
Appeal from the PCRA Order September 16, 2014
In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County
Criminal Division at No(s): CP-51-CR-0306661-1998
BEFORE: GANTMAN, P.J., PANELLA, J., and OLSON, J.
MEMORANDUM BY PANELLA, J. FILED NOVEMBER 20, 2015
Appellant, Aubrey Townsville, appeals pro se from the order dismissing
as untimely his petition pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”).
As the PCRA court correctly observed that Townsville failed to establish the
application of an exemption to the PCRA’s jurisdictional time-bar, we affirm.
On January 25, 1999, Townsville was sentenced to an aggregate term
of imprisonment of fifteen to thirty years after being convicted of aggravated
assault, terroristic threats, false imprisonment, and unlawful restraint. After
this Court affirmed his judgment of sentence on October 25, 2002,
Townsville filed a timely first PCRA petition in July 2003. That petition was
ultimately denied for lack of merit.
On April 23, 2012, Townsville filed his second PCRA petition, which
forms the basis of this appeal. In his petition, Townsville conceded that the
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petition was facially untimely, but argued that it qualified for a time-bar
exception. The PCRA court reviewed the petition, concluded that Townsville
had failed to establish that the exception applied, and dismissed the petition.
This timely appeal followed.
On appeal, Townsville once again concedes that his petition was
facially untimely. But he claims that the petition qualifies for the timeliness
exception provided at 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9545(b)(1)(iii) as he alleged that the
Supreme Court of the United States recognized a new constitutional right to
effective assistance of counsel in negotiating a plea in Lafler v. Cooper,
132 S. Ct. 1367 (2012) and Missouri v. Frye, 132 S. Ct. 1399 (2012).
However, this Court has held that Frye and Lafler did not create a new a
constitutional right sufficient to qualify for the exception contained in
subsection (iii). See Commonwealth v. Feliciano, 69 A.3d 1270, 1277
(Pa. Super. 2013). Thus, the PCRA court correctly dismissed Townsville’s
petition.1
Order affirmed.
____________________________________________
1
Townsville also argues on appeal that his family’s discovery of a plea offer
presented by the Commonwealth, allowing for a four to ten year sentence,
attached to the Notes of Testimony, supports his effort to avoid the time-
bar. However, this allegation does not meaningfully distinguish this case
from Feliciano. See Feliciano, 69 A.3d at 1273.
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J-S43024-15
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 11/20/2015
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