Com. v. Valenzuela, J.

J-S15009-17
NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
PENNSYLVANIA
v.
JOHN VALENZUELA
Appellant No. 3489 EDA 2015
Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence June 26, 2015
In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County
Criminal Division at No(s): CP-51-CR-0007911-2011
BEFORE: BOWES, J., DUBOW, J., AND FORD ELLIOTT, P.J.E.
MEMORANDUM BY BOWES, J.: FILED JUNE 27, 2017
John Valenzuela appeals from the judgment of sentence of eleven and
one-half to twenty-three months incarceration followed by a consecutive
period of five years probation, which was imposed following his jury
conviction of one count each of statutory sexual assault and corruption of
minors. His sole claim on appeal challenges the sufficiency of the evidence
establishing that the victim was under sixteen years of age for purposes of
the statutory sexual assault crime. We affirm.
The Commonwealth adduced the following facts at trial. S.R., born
October 16, 1993, testified that she lived with her biological father and
stepmother from age nine until 2008, her freshman year of high school,
when she moved in with her mother, Blanco Soto. N.T., 7/16/14 (a.m.
J-S15009-17
session), at 75. She started her freshman year at Maryanne Academy but
transferred early in the school year after moving to her mother’s residence
on Phillips Street. Id. at 74. S.R. began taking classes at Edison High
School, and graduated from that institution in June of 2012. Id. Appellant,
who was Ms. Soto’s boyfriend, lived in the Phillips Street home.
S.R. stated that she got along with Appellant at first, but one day he
kissed her “kind of like [how] you give a hand shake” at the end of a
conversation. Id. at 80. She thought this was strange, but wrote it off as
an accident. However, Appellant’s behavior escalated. He would rub against
her, grab her buttocks, and profess his love for her. Id. at 82. One day,
while S.R. was on her bed, he asked her to have sex. She refused, and he
offered her $100. She again refused, so he put the money under her pillow,
took off her clothes, and inserted his penis into her vagina. Id. at 84-86.
He ejaculated into a towel and left the room. This incident occurred when
she was fifteen years old. Appellant thereafter had sex with her “at least
twice a month . . . mainly whenever he got the chance.” Id. at 89. S.R.
stated that these incidents started after her mother quit working. Id. at 84.
Appellant later moved to a home on Hurley Street. Sometime between
the age of sixteen and seventeen, S.R. and her mother moved in as well.
S.R. stated that the abuse continued to occur at Hurley Street, and ended
sometime in February of 2011, when she was a junior in high school. Id. at
92.
-2-
J-S15009-17
The allegations came to the attention of authorities on May 2, 2011,
when one of S.R.’s friends, in whom S.R. confided, reported the allegations
to Sarah Broder, a counselor at the high school. Ms. Broder spoke to S.R.,
who initially denied that anything happened, but eventually confirmed that
Appellant had abused her. Id. at 53. Ms. Broder called the Department of
Human Services, who sent a social worker to interview S.R. Following that
interview, the social worker called the police. Officer Sean Burnett testified
that he prepared an incident report on May 2, 2011, in which S.R. related
that “[Appellant] had been raping her and sexually assaulting her for
approximately two years.” N.T., 7/17/14 (p.m. session), at 77-78.
Appellant was charged with rape by forcible compulsion, involuntary
deviate sexual intercourse by forcible compulsion, statutory sexual assault,
sexual assault, and corruption of minors. The jury returned guilty verdicts
at the counts of statutory sexual assault and corruption of minors, and not
guilty verdicts at all other counts. Appellant received a sentence of eleven
and one-half to twenty-three months incarceration for the sexual assault,
and a consecutive five year period of probation at the corruption of minors
count.
Appellant filed a timely notice of appeal, and Appellant and the trial
court complied with Pa.R.A.P. 1925. He raises one issue for our review:
Where the complainant advised a worker from the Department
of Human Services and a school counselor that she was sixteen
years old when her complaint of sexual abuse was first made
-3-
J-S15009-17
and her trial testimony was equivocal on this point, did the
Commonwealth fail to prove the age element in a statutory
sexual assault case, pursuant to 18 Pa.C.S. § 3122.1?
Appellant’s brief at 2.
Appellant’s offense was graded as a felony of the second degree. The
statutory language for that crime reads:
(a) Felony of the second degree.--Except as provided in
section 3121 (relating to rape), a person commits a felony of the
second degree when that person engages in sexual intercourse
with a complainant to whom the person is not married who is
under the age of 16 years and that person is either:
(1) four years older but less than eight years older
than the complainant; or
(2) eight years older but less than 11 years older
than the complainant.
18 Pa.C.S. § 3122.1. The only element challenged in this appeal is the age
requirement. Thus, Appellant does not contend that the jury could not credit
S.R.’s testimony that sex occurred; rather, he maintains that the jury could
not credit her testimony regarding when that sex first occurred. “As is
obvious from a brief review of the definitions, the offenses require proof that
the victim was less than 16 years of age at the time the offense was
committed.” Commonwealth v. Hooks, 921 A.2d 1199, 1202 (Pa.Super.
2007) (holding that person reaches age of sixteen on anniversary of
birthday, not the day before the birthday as under common law). Since S.R.
was born on October 16, 1993, the Commonwealth was required to prove
that Appellant had sex with S.R. on or before October 15, 2009.
-4-
J-S15009-17
Whether the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction presents
a matter of law; our standard of review is de novo and our scope of review is
plenary. Commonwealth v. Walls, 144 A.3d 926, 931 (Pa.Super. 2016)
(citation omitted). In conducting our inquiry, we
examine whether the evidence admitted at trial, and all
reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, viewed in the light most
favorable to the Commonwealth as verdict winner, support the
jury's finding of all the elements of the offense beyond a
reasonable doubt. The Commonwealth may sustain its burden by
means of wholly circumstantial evidence.
Commonwealth v. Doughty, 126 A.3d 951, 958 (Pa. 2015). As a general
proposition, evidence is sufficient to prove an element of a crime if a witness
credibly testifies to the existence of that element. Thus, the testimony of a
sex crime victim, standing alone, is sufficient to convict. “This Court has
long-recognized ‘that the uncorroborated testimony of a sexual assault
victim, if believed by the trier of fact, is sufficient to convict a defendant,
despite contrary evidence from defense witnesses.’” Commonwealth v.
Charlton, 902 A.2d 554, 562 (Pa.Super. 2006) (quoting Commonwealth
v. Davis, 650 A.2d 452, 455 (Pa.Super. 1994)). The Commonwealth urges
us to apply this familiar principle by holding that the jury could credit S.R.’s
testimony that sex occurred when she was fifteen.
Appellant counters that this principle does not apply herein because of
what our Supreme Court has described as an exception to our normal mode
of review. “We have, however, made exception to the general rule that the
-5-
J-S15009-17
jury is the sole arbiter of the facts where the testimony is so inherently
unreliable that a verdict based upon it could amount to no more than
surmise or conjecture.” Commonwealth v. Smith, 467 A.2d 1120, 1122
(Pa. 1983). “Following this principle, courts of this jurisdiction have
recognized that where evidence offered to support a verdict of guilt is so
unreliable and/or contradictory as to make any verdict based thereon pure
conjecture, a jury may not be permitted to return such a finding.” Id.(quoting Commonwealth v. Farquharson, 354 A.2d 545, 550 (Pa. 1976)).
Appellant points to the following circumstances in support of a finding
that the evidence establishing when sex occurred was so unreliable and/or
contradictory as to make any verdict unlawful. With respect to the first time
Appellant kissed her, S.R. was asked, “Do you remember what grade you
were in when that happened?”, she replied, “I think I was still in ninth
grade.” The prosecutor then asked, “Okay. So you’re still 15, right?” to
which S.R. replied, “Yes.” N.T., 7/16/14 (a.m. session), at 80. After S.R.
discussed the first time she and Appellant had sex, she was asked a similar
set of questions and gave similar answers.
Q. And do you remember what grade you were in when that
incident that you just told us about happened?
A. I believe I was still in ninth grade.
Q. So you’re still 15?
A. Yes.
-6-
J-S15009-17
Q. And the incident that you just described is that the first
actual sexual intercourse that happened?
A. Yes.
Id. at 85.
On cross-examination, Appellant impeached S.R. with prior
inconsistent statements. S.R. agreed that she told Officer Graham that the
first time Appellant had sex with her was when she was fourteen. N.T.,
7/16/14 (p.m. session), at 21. She explained this discrepancy by saying she
was “a year off.” Id. Appellant also agreed that when Dr. McColgan asked
her when the first time anything sexual happened, she responded, “I can’t
remember the first time it happened.” Id. at 23. Additionally, Appellant
introduced S.R.’s preliminary hearing testimony given under oath. S.R.
reviewed the transcript and agreed she testified that the first time she had
sex with Appellant was in the summer of 2009. Id. at 24. Finally, Appellant
points to the following exchange on redirect examination:
Q. [S.R.], talking about this case, and everything, are you clear
on the dates that any of this happened?
A. No.
Q. You talked today about you were 15 years when it started?
A. Yes.
Q. Are you certain you were 15 when you moved into the house
on Phillip Street?
[APPELLANT]: Objection.
-7-
J-S15009-17
THE COURT: Overruled.
The witness: I don’t remember.
Id. at 49.
Appellant does not rely solely on S.R.’s own testimony in making this
claim. He notes that the social worker who interviewed S.R. at the high
school related that S.R. said the first time anything sexual happened was in
October of 2009. N.T., 7/17/14 (a.m. session), at 17. He also highlights
that S.R.’s mother, Ms. Soto, was not certain when S.R. moved in to the
Phillips Street home. Moreover, he points out that Ms. Soto was uncertain
when she quit working, and, since S.R. stated the abuse occurred only after
Ms. Soto stopped working, the Commonwealth could not pinpoint when the
abuse started. Taken together, Appellant maintains that the inconsistencies
and uncertainties within S.R.’s own testimony, paired with these other
points, demonstrate that she was not certain if sex occurred before she
turned sixteen. In short, he avers that if the victim herself was not certain
when sex first occurred, the jury certainly could not be.
Turning to the law, Appellant relies upon Commonwealth v. Woong
Knee New, 47 A.2d 450 (Pa. 1946), and Commonwealth v. Karkaria,
626 A.2d 1167 (Pa. 1993), cases which discharged convictions on sufficiency
grounds by applying the exception and discarding our normal deference to
jury’s determinations of credibility. We examine each before reviewing
Appellant’s arguments in light of these authorities.
-8-
J-S15009-17
In Knee New, supra our Supreme Court discharged a homicide
conviction on the grounds that the evidence was so unreliable that it could
not support guilt. Therein, a Chester County laundromat owner named Lee
Joe was found dead in a pool of blood on his bedroom floor at 9:15 a.m. on
June 24, 1945. Woong Knee New was friendly with Lee Joe and visited him
once or twice a week. Knee New was arrested in New York the day after the
murder and told detectives that he had left Chester on June 24. Knee New
further told the police that he had last seen Lee Joe on June 24 around 4:00
a.m. A jury convicted Knee New of homicide.
The only concrete facts that the Commonwealth offered to justify the
conviction were Knee New’s admitted presence with Lee Joe the night before
the murder, and testimony that Lee Joe’s time of death was between 2:30
a.m. and 4:30 a.m. The Court found that the latter fact was not actually
established, as the testifying physician admitted that the timeframe was an
approximation and was largely conjecture based on rigor mortis. Therefore,
the Court found no firm support for the time of death. Turning to the former
fact, the Court stated, “If it is accepted as a fact that this appellant was at
Lee Joe's habitation at 4:00 A.M. June 24, 1945, and since there is no
evidence that anyone else was seen with the victim between 4:00 A.M. and
the time his body was discovered, suspicion naturally falls upon this
appellant, but suspicion is never accepted in a court of justice as a substitute
for proof.” Id. at 457.
-9-
J-S15009-17
We now address Karkaria. Therein, Karkaria was convicted by a jury
of forcible rape pursuant to a private complaint approved by an
administrative judge after the Allegheny County District Attorney declined to
file charges. Karkaria was alleged to have raped his stepsister, S.F., who
was fourteen years old at the time of trial. The criminal charges specifically
required the Commonwealth to prove that a rape occurred sometime
between April 9, 1984 and September 19, 1984.1
The rapes allegedly started in 1981 when Karkaria, then sixteen years
old, would babysit S.F., then eight. The victim testified that Karkaria raped
her over 300 times, that the rapes always occurred on the weekend when
Karkaria acted as babysitter, and that the rapes always took the same exact
form. She also testified that the appellant’s biological brother, who lived
with Karkaria’s biological mother, was never present for these rapes. The
evidence established that Karkaria’s father and S.F.’s mother had a troubled
and distant relationship, and S.F. admitted that she did not like her
stepfather.
The Karkaria Court found that the evidence was so inherently
unreliable as to preclude a conviction. The Court noted that other evidence
proved that Karkaria and his brother were together every weekend pursuant
____________________________________________
1
These dates were selected because Karkaria turned eighteen on April 9,
1984 and could be prosecuted as an adult.
- 10 -
J-S15009-17
to a custody agreement. S.F. agreed that was true, but then explained that
the rapes occurred at some other time, yet failed to specify when. The
Court identified a number of other problems with the evidence:
In order for the jury in this case to have concluded that [S.F.]
was forcibly raped by [Karkaria], the jury would have had to
conclude that the child had been forced to submit to sexual
intercourse at least once between April 9, 1984 and September
19, 1984. Since there was no direct evidence of sexual
intercourse between those dates, the jury in order to convict,
would have had to conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, that
the child had been forced to submit to sexual intercourse over
300 times, without ever feeling pain, without any physical
evidence to support the contention that she was so victimized,
and without any specific recollection by [S.F.] as to a date
certain upon which even one of the several hundred assaults
occurred.
....
[S.F.]'s testimony as to when any particular act of rape occurred
is disturbingly vague. She initially insisted that the assaults only
occurred on Friday or Saturday evenings. She also maintained
that [the brother] was never present when the assaults
occurred. However, when confronted with her own testimony
that [he] was in her home every other weekend from Friday
evening to Sunday evening and that on the alternate weekends
[Karkaria] was not in the home, she testified that the assaults
occurred at another time. However she failed to specify when
that particular opportunity arose. [S.F.] steadfastly maintained
that the assaults only occurred when [Karkaria] was babysitting,
and, as she testified that her parents only went out on Friday or
Saturday evenings, that would have been the only opportunity
for [Karkaria] to have assaulted her.
The most striking inadequacy in the Commonwealth's
case however, is the fact that [S.F.] insisted that the
assaults only occurred when [Karkaria] was babysitting
and yet she also admitted that during the time period
charged in the indictment (April through September
1984), [Karkaria] no longer acted as the babysitter. This
- 11 -
J-S15009-17
point is extremely troublesome when considered along with
[S.F.]'s description of the numerous rapes.
Id. at 1171 (emphasis added).
We find that the inconsistencies and discrepancies cited by Appellant
herein fall well short of the extraordinary circumstances examined in Knee
New and Karkaria. Knee New is readily distinguishable, as the
Commonwealth lacked any direct evidence linking Knee New to the crime.
The only testimony placing Knee New with the victim on the day of the
murder came from Knee New’s answers to police officers in New York. In
this regard, we note that Knee New predates Miranda v. Arizona, 384
U.S. 436 (1966). As quoted supra, the Court hesitated to accept that Knee
New was actually with Lee Joe at 4:00 a.m. on June 24, since the source of
that fact was Knee New’s responses to questions posed by police officers.
The Court explained at some length its skepticism that Knee New, an
immigrant who had been in the United States less than two years, actually
understood the questions asked of him:
The record raises a substantial doubt whether this defendant
made to the officers in New York the admissions attributed to
him, with an intelligent comprehension of the questions asked
him. In saying this, no reflection is cast upon the honesty of the
officers. They testified to an unrecorded interview with the
defendant seven months after it occurred. Detective Horris, who
did most of the questioning, was asked as to what the
defendant's attorney said to him on July 28th at the extradition
proceedings and he said he ‘would have to refresh his
recollection from the minutes of that proceeding.’ Yet, the same
officer testified as to the interrogation a month earlier, without
any ‘minutes' of that proceeding. Detective Allen testified that
- 12 -
J-S15009-17
Detective Horris ‘seemed to understand him [Knee New] better
than anyone else and we told him to talk to him.’ This would
indicate that there was considerable difficulty about the
questioning. Detective Horris may have had to resort to leading
questions in order to obtain the answers and Knee New may
have nodded assent to these questions without realizing their
import. It frequently appears in this record that witnesses
testified to Knee New's assent to a question merely because he
nodded his head. Foreigners who do not understand our
language frequently nod their heads to indicate that they are at
least trying to understand.
....
The interrogation of a man charged with a crime, and
particularly a capital crime, by officers who speak a language
which the interrogated subject only partially understands,
without notifying the accused of his rights, without anyone
being present to protect his interests, and without there being a
stenographic record made of the questions and answers, is a
practice which degrades the administration of justice and
we condemn it.
Id. at 462-65 (emphases added). Indeed, Knee New’s employer confirmed
that the company employed an interpreter and that Knee Knew could not
speak English. Since this case predates Miranda, the Court obviously did
not apply that case and did not deem the confession inadmissible as the
product of an involuntary statement, but its condemnation certainly tracks
the broad outline of Miranda. Therefore, the evidence linking Knee New to
the crime was so extraordinarily weak that the conviction could not stand. It
is self-evident that the facts sub judice do not come close to those extreme
circumstances and the case is inapposite.
Karkaria represents a closer case since the conviction, like the one at
issue herein, involved a sex crime. Furthermore, unlike Knee New,
- 13 -
J-S15009-17
Karkaria did involve direct evidence that, if credited, would sustain a
conviction. However, we find that the facts herein are distinguishable. The
Karkaria Court observed that the “most striking inadequacy” in the
Commonwealth’s case was the fact that the victim insisted all of the rapes
occurred only when the defendant was acting as babysitter, yet she
simultaneously admitted that the defendant had stopped babysitting her by
1984, the time alleged in the criminal complaint. Karkaria, supra at 1171.
Thus, the victim’s own testimony affirmatively disproved the allegations of
rape for the dates charged in the criminal information. Additionally,
Karkaria deemed the timing of S.F.’s complaints relevant to its unreliability
analysis. “The timing of these initial complaints to law enforcement
authorities coincide precisely with the pending reconciliation of her mother
and stepfather. This fact is important in light of [S.F.]'s repeated expressions
of hatred for her stepfather.” Id. at 1171.
S.R., in contrast, did not testify that sex occurred only after she was
sixteen. Moreover, S.R.’s allegations came to the attention of the authorities
because S.R.’s classmate, to whom S.R. confided, informed a school
counselor. Hence, Karkaria is similar in kind, but remarkably different in
degree.
Having concluded the cases relied upon by Appellant are
distinguishable, we now review Appellant’s arguments to determine if
extraordinary circumstances nevertheless justify our departure from our
- 14 -
J-S15009-17
normal mode of sufficiency analysis. Appellant emphasizes that S.R.
admitted that she gave contradictory answers to the authorities who initially
investigated these crimes, some of which would render the conviction invalid
if true. However, the Commonwealth offered a sensible explanation for
these inconsistencies in that S.R. was unexpectedly called upon to
repeatedly revisit the incidents with multiple people in a short timeframe and
gave varying answers as a result of those circumstances.
Appellant also notes that when S.R. was asked when the first act of
sex occurred, S.R. replied, “I believe I was still in ninth grade.” He
emphasizes the phrase “I believe” is proof of her uncertainty. Contrary to
Appellant’s interpretation, we do not read this prefatory remark as an
admission that she was unsure as to when the sex occurred, as opposed to
an inartful answer made under the stress of testifying in a courtroom
setting. Furthermore, to the extent there is any ambiguity, the prosecutor
immediately dispelled it by asking a follow-up question: “Okay. So you’re
still 15, right?” to which S.R. replied, “Yes.” N.T., 7/16/14 (a.m. session), at
80.2
Appellant also attaches significance to the following exchange on
redirect examination:
____________________________________________
2
Appellant avers that we must discard such testimony as unreliable due to
the “leading and objectionable question from the prosecutor.” Appellant’s
brief at 12. However, Appellant did not object to the question or response.
- 15 -
J-S15009-17
Q. [S.R.], talking about this case, and everything, are you clear
on the dates that any of this happened?
A. No.
Q. You talked today about you were 15 years when it started?
A. Yes.
Q. Are you certain you were 15 when you moved into the house
on Phillip Street?
[APPELLANT]: Objection.
THE COURT: Overruled.
The witness: I don’t remember.
N.T., 7/16/14 (p.m. session), at 49. He maintains that her negative answer
proves she was uncertain regarding when any of these events occurred, and
hence her testimony is unreliable as a matter of law.
We disagree. The first question posed, while perhaps poorly phrased,
specifically asked S.R. if she remembered specific dates. Appellant reads
this statement as if it stated, “Are you clear on the years that any of this
happened?” Additionally, her lack of certainty regarding her age when she
moved is not fatal. S.R. clearly testified that she moved in with her mother
early in her freshman year of high school. S.R.’s birth month, October, is
quite early in the normal school year. Thus, in context, S.R. simply
professed that she was unsure whether she had already turned fifteen when
she moved in with her mother.
- 16 -
J-S15009-17
Finally, we note that this trial occurred in July of 2014, over three
years after the preliminary hearing which took place July 7, 2011. On cross-
examination, Appellant confronted S.R. with a prior inconsistent statement
given under oath at that proceeding in which she related that the abuse
occurred sometime during the summer of 2009. In assessing the sufficiency
of the evidence, we examine all of the evidence presented. Hence, while
Appellant used this statement to generally discredit S.R., i.e., by showing
she gave multiple different versions of the events and was therefore not
believable en toto, the fact remains that S.R. made a prior statement under
oath much closer in time to the actual allegations. This statement firmly
establishes that sex occurred well before October of 2009. We see no
reason to ignore that statement when determining whether or not the
evidence is so unreliable as to require discharge. C.f. Commonwealth v.
Brown, 52 A.3d 1139 (Pa. 2012) (where witnesses to homicide recanted at
trial, prior out-of-court statements reduced to writing and adopted by said
witnesses were admissible as substantive evidence and therefore sufficient
to convict).
That there are inconsistencies in S.R.’s account is unquestionable. We
simply do not agree that these contradictions render her trial testimony so
unreliable as a matter of law that it cannot be credited for sufficiency
purposes. We therefore apply the normal method of review, and conclude
that the jury was entitled to weigh all the testimony and credit or discredit
- 17 -
J-S15009-17
the inconsistencies as it saw fit. We have no license to reweigh its
determinations, and we therefore must defer to its finding that S.R. was
fifteen years old when the first act of sex occurred. Hence, we affirm the
conviction.
Judgment of sentence affirmed.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 6/27/2017
- 18 -