Com. v. Palmer, M. ( 2017 )

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NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
PENNSYLVANIA
v.
MARCUS NEAL PALMER
Appellant No. 1399 WDA 2016
Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence September 15, 2016
In the Court of Common Pleas of Butler County
Criminal Division at No(s): CP-10-CR-0000547-2011
BEFORE: BENDER, P.J.E., BOWES AND STRASSBURGER,* JJ.
MEMORANDUM BY BOWES, J.: FILED JULY 26, 2017
Marcus Neal Palmer appeals from his judgment of sentence of thirty
days to six months incarceration that was imposed after he was found guilty
of driving under the influence (“DUI”) – general impairment, DUI – high rate
of alcohol, possession of a small amount of marijuana, possession of
paraphernalia, and reckless driving. We affirm.
The suppression court outlined the salient facts as follows.
[O]n January 31, 2011 at approximately 1:11 a.m. while
parked near the Country Town gas station in the Greater Butler
Mart shopping center, [Patrolman David Diyanni] heard the
squealing of a vehicle’s tires coming from the McDonald[’]s
restaurant’s drive through area. Patrolman Diyanni is a fifteen
(15) year veteran of law enforcement. He testified that he did
not observe any snow or ice on the road surface that morning.
He observed a black Dodge pickup truck in the McDonalds’ [sic]
drive through area and twice more heard the truck’s tires squeal.
* Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.
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[Appellant], the operator of the truck, proceeded
southbound through the parking lot when Patrolman Diyanni
initiated a traffic stop on the basis of probable cause for reckless
driving. [Patrolman Diyanni] testified that the squealing was
intentional. He also testified that there were no other vehicles or
pedestrians in the drive through area at the time of the incident.
Suppression Court Opinion, 9/13/11, at 2.
Appellant filed an omnibus motion to suppress. In that motion he
contended, inter alia, that the patrolman lacked probable cause to believe
that he committed a traffic violation, and therefore, the subsequent traffic
stop and arrest were illegal. The suppression court concluded that the
sudden acceleration and braking, which caused Appellant’s tires to squeal, in
such close proximity to the restaurant and its attendants, placed those
people and that property in an unjustifiable risk of danger so as to form
probable cause to believe that Appellant engaged in reckless driving.
Accordingly, it denied Appellant’s omnibus pre-trial motion to suppress.
Thereafter, the parties stipulated to the circumstances giving rise to
the traffic stop as outlined above, and Patrolman Diyanni’s observations
upon seizing Appellant, including that Appellant smelled of alcohol, that he
failed field sobriety tests, that he had a blood alcohol content of .116 within
two hours of operating a vehicle, and that Patrolman Diyanni would testify to
Appellant’s possession of a small amount of marijuana. The court found
Appellant guilty of the aforementioned offenses, and scheduled the matter
for sentencing.
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Following his conviction, but prior to sentencing, Appellant absconded.
The court issued a bench warrant, but Appellant remained missing for over
four years. On September 15, 2016, Appellant returned before the court for
sentencing, at which time the court imposed a sentence of thirty-days to six
months imprisonment, plus fines. Appellant timely appealed, and complied
with the court’s order to file a Rule 1925(b) concise statement of errors
complained of on appeal. The court authored its Rule 1925(a) opinion. This
matter is now ready for our review.
Appellant raises one question for our consideration: “Whether the trial
court erred in not suppressing the traffic stop of the Appellant, who was
stopped for reckless driving for spinning his vehicle wheels in a drive[-
through?]” Appellant’s brief at 2.
As a preliminary matter, the Commonwealth argues that Appellant
forfeited his right to an appeal by fleeing the state prior to sentencing. Our
High Court has previously held that, “a defendant’s voluntary escape acts as
a per se forfeiture of his right to an appeal, where the defendant is a fugitive
at any time after post-trial proceedings commence.” Commonwealth v.
Jones, 610 A.3d 439, 441 (Pa. 1992). However, in Commonwealth v.
Deemer, 705 A.2d 827, 829 (Pa. 1997), the Court abrogated Jones, in
part, holding that there was no “absolute rule of forfeiture of appellate
rights.” It explained that “a fugitive who returns to court should be allowed
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to take the system of criminal justice as he finds it upon his return: if time
for filing has elapsed, he may not file; if it has not, he may.” Id.Since the trial court did not impose Appellant’s sentence until after he
returned to Pennsylvania, the time for filing a notice of appeal to this Court
had not elapsed. See Pa.R.A.P. 903 (“In a criminal case in which no post-
sentence motion has been filed, the notice of appeal shall be filed within 30
days of the imposition of the judgment of sentence in open court.”). As
such, Appellant did not forfeit his right to a direct appeal by fleeing following
his conviction because he returned prior to the imposition of his sentence.
See Commonwealth v. Huff, 658 A.2d 1340 (Pa. 1995) (reinstating
defendant’s appellate rights where he fled and was recaptured before he was
sentenced by the trial court). Hence, we will reach the merits of this appeal.
Appellant’s challenge relates to the denial of his motion to suppress.
We evaluate the denial of a suppression motion under well-established
principles. Our review is limited to
determining whether the factual findings are supported by the
record and whether the legal conclusions drawn from those facts
are correct. [Since] the prosecution prevailed in the suppression
court, we may consider only the evidence of the prosecution 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 record supports the factual findings of the
trial court, we are bound by those facts and may reverse only if
the legal conclusions drawn therefrom are in error.
Commonwealth v. Postie, 110 A.3d 1034, 1039 (Pa.Super. 2015) (citation
omitted).
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Appellant contends that Patrolman Diyanni lacked probable cause to
determine that he was in violation of the Vehicle Code at the onset of the
traffic stop.1 In order to justify a traffic stop in the instant circumstances, an
“officer must be able to articulate specific facts possessed by him at the time
of the questioned stop, which would provide probable cause to believe that
the vehicle or the driver was in some violation of some provision of the
Vehicle Code.” Commonwealth v. Enick, 70 A.3d 843, 846 n.3 (Pa.Super.
2013) (citation omitted). Moreover, “[p]robable cause does not require
certainty, but rather exists when criminality is one reasonable inference, not
necessarily even the most likely inference.” Id. Finally, “[i]n determining
whether probable cause exists, we apply a totality of the circumstances
test.” Commonwealth v. Delvalle, 74 A.3d 1081, 1085 (Pa.Super. 2013).
This involves an objective determination, and must be “viewed from the
vantage point of a prudent, reasonable, cautious police officer on the scene
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1
We have previously held that “[i]f it is not necessary to stop the vehicle to
establish that a violation of the Vehicle Code has occurred, an officer must
possess probable cause to stop the vehicle.” Commonwealth v. Salter,
121 A.3d 987, 993 (Pa.Super. 2015). Further, “[w]here a violation is
suspected, but a stop is necessary to further investigate whether a violation
has occurred, an officer need only possess reasonable suspicion to make the
stop.” Id. Patrolman Diyanni testified that he stopped Appellant’s vehicle
because Appellant, by squealing his tires, posed a “potential hazard.” N.T.
Suppression Hearing, 7/20/11, at 7. Since the prospective Vehicle Code
violations implicated by this testimony, namely careless driving or reckless
driving, would not require further investigation, the stop in question must be
justified by probable cause.
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at the time of the [seizure] guided by his experience and training.”
Commonwealth v. Martin, 101 A.3d 706, 721 (Pa. 2014) (citation
omitted).
Under the Vehicle Code, a person is guilty of reckless driving when he
“drives any vehicle in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or
property[.]” 75 Pa.C.S. § 3736(a). Careless driving requires only that a
person “drives a vehicle in careless disregard for the safety of persons or
property[.]” 75 Pa.C.S. § 3714(a).
Appellant insists that merely squealing his tires did not rise to the level
of “a gross departure from prudent driving standards,” as required by 75
Pa.C.S. § 3736. Appellant’s brief at 11. Further, he claims that his conduct
did not evince willful and wanton conduct. Hence, the patrolman did not
have probable cause to stop him for reckless driving. In similar fashion,
Appellant concludes that Patrolman Diyanni lacked probable cause to stop
Appellant for careless driving.2 He emphasizes that his conduct occurred
early in the morning, in a drive-through lane, in the absence of pedestrians
or other vehicles, and thus, he did not pose a danger to people or property.
He asserts that, since his stop was based on a “potential hazard” and not an
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2
Appellant also argues that Patrolman Diyanni lacked probable cause to stop
him for disorderly conduct. Based on our disposition herein, we need not
address this claim.
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“actual one,” his “act of briefly squealing [his] tires [was] not more than
ordinary negligence.” Appellant’s brief at 13.
We find that, based on the totality of the circumstances, Patrolman
Diyanni articulated specific facts that would lead a prudent and reasonable
police officer to infer that the driver was in “some violation of some provision
of the traffic code.” Enick, supra. At the suppression hearing, Patrolman
Diyanni testified that, at 1:11 a.m., he overheard a vehicle squealing its
tires in a nearby McDonald’s drive-through. Upon investigating the
disturbance, he observed a black Dodge pickup truck “squeal its tires two
more times as it traveled through the drive-through in the area of the order
window and the pickup window.” N.T. Suppression Hearing, 7/20/11, at 5.
The officer described the sound as intermittent “squealing and stopping.”
Id. He stated that he initiated the traffic stop because he believed the
squealing posed a “potential hazard.” Id. at 7. The patrolman conceded
that there were no pedestrians or other vehicles visible in the vicinity. Id. at
8-9. However, he asserted that the squealing was caused by “heavy
acceleration.” Id. at 10. When the officer was questioned as to the cause of
the sound, he insinuated that it was produced intentionally, stating that,
based on his experience as a police officer, “if somebody is intentionally
squealing a tire, it has a certain sound to it,” and further, “that the
acceleration, heavy acceleration caused the rear tires of the vehicle to break
traction.” Id. at 12-13.
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We find that, based on the above testimony, the potential danger to
persons or property caused by Appellant’s rapid acceleration and braking, so
that his tires lost traction with the pavement, would lead a prudent police
officer to infer that Appellant was operating his vehicle in a manner
constituting careless driving.3 The danger implicit in such sudden
acceleration in a restaurant parking lot, to the point where the vehicle’s tires
lost traction, regardless of whether other vehicles or pedestrians were
immediately in sight, would lead a reasonable police officer to conclude that
the conduct constituted a violation of the Vehicle Code. By spinning his tires
such as he did, Appellant created a situation where he was not in complete
control of his vehicle. That lack of control, in an area adjacent to a building
and where pedestrian and vehicular traffic was foreseeable, unnecessarily
raised the specter of damage to person or property. Patrolman Diyanni’s
observations support the reasonable inference that Appellant’s conduct
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3
We recognized that the mens rea applicable to convict a person of careless
driving requires that the Commonwealth prove beyond a reasonable doubt
that the person acted with “less than willful or wanton conduct but more
than ordinary negligence or the mere absence of care under the
circumstances.” Commonwealth v. Gezovich, 7 A.3d 300, 301 (Pa.Super.
2010) (citation omitted). We note that, under the relevant standard of
review, the evidence available to Patrolman Diyanni at the time of the traffic
stop did not need to meet this standard, but only show that a prudent,
reasonable, and cautious police officer could make a reasonable inference
that such behavior constituted a violation of the Vehicle Code.
Commonwealth v. Martin, 101 A.3d 706, 721 (Pa. 2014);
Commonwealth v. Enick, 70 A.3d 843, 846 n.3 (Pa.Super. 2013).
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violated the Vehicle Code. Enick, supra. Hence, based on the totality of
the circumstances, Patrolman Diyanni had probable cause to effectuate a
traffic stop, and the suppression court did not err in denying Appellant’s
omnibus pre-trial motion to suppress.
Judgment of sentence affirmed.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 7/26/2017
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