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NON - PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA

v.

KEDAR WRIGHT

Appellant : : : : : : : : : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF

PENNSYLVANIA

No. 62 WDA 2021 Appeal from the PCRA Order Entered December 16, 2020 In the Court of Common Pleas of Erie County Criminal Division at No(s): CP

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- 0003085

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BEFORE: DUBOW, J., KING, J., and STEVENS, P.J.E. * MEMORANDUM BY DUBOW, J.: FILED: NOVEMBER 29, 2021 Appellant, Kedar Wright, appeals from the order dismissing his petition filed pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act, 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9541

- 46 (“PCRA”) . Appel lant alleges ineffective assistance of appellate counsel (“IAC”) for failure to challenge the weight and sufficiency of the Commonwealth’s
evidence on direct appeal. After careful review, we conclude that Appellant has waived all issues for our review and, therefore, we affirm. On November 25, 2015, the trial court convicted Appellant at a bench trial of 40 counts of Child Pornography and one count of Possession of an Instrument of Crime. On February 29, 2016, the court sentenced Appellant to an aggregate term of 31⁄2 to 1 7 years’ incarceration. Appellant did not initially file a direct appeal.

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* Former Justice specially assigned to the Superior Court.J

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After the court reinstated his appeal rights nunc pro tunc , Appellant timely appeal ed his J udgment of S entence , raising a single challenge to the discretionary aspects of his sentence. T his Court affirmed Appellant’s Judgment of Sentence, and , on September 19, 2018, our Supreme Court denied allowance of appeal. Commonwealth v. Wri ght , 188 A.3d 576 (Pa. Super. filed Mar. 27, 2018) (non

- precedential decision), appeal denied 194 A.3d 561 (Pa. 2018). On October 24, 2019, Appellant filed a pro se PCRA petition , followed by
a counseled amended petition on January 13, 2020 , alleging IAC for fail ure to

raise challenges to the weight and sufficiency of the Commonwealth’s
evidence on direct appeal.

T he PCRA court held an evidentiary hearing on Appellant’s petition on September 18, 2020

. Appellant and his ap pellate counsel testified

. Relevant to the instant appeal, c ounsel testified that he did not raise weight or sufficiency challenges on direct appeal because he believed those claims to be

merit less . N.T. Hearing, 9/18/20, at 37. On December 16, 2020, t he P CRA court dismissed Appellant’s petition. It reasoned that Appellant failed to prove that his underlying claim was arguabl y merit orious , as the Commonwealth adduced more than sufficient evidence at trial to convict Appellant of the crimes charged, and the evidence was not tenuous, vague, or uncertain. See Trial Ct. Op., 12/16/20, at 15

- 20. Appellant timely filed a Notice of Appeal, and both he and the PCRA court complied with Pa.R.A.P. 1925.J

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Appellant raises the following issue for our review:

The [t] rial [c] ourt erred in failing to grant [Appellant’s] petition for p ost

- conviction relief where he asserts that trial counsel was ineffective in failing to raise issues of either the weight or sufficiency of the evidence at trial in his appeal filed on behalf of [Appellant]

. Appellant’s Br. at 1. 1 In his brief, Appellant argues that c ounsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to file an Anders 2 brief raising weight and sufficiency challenge s on direct appeal. 3 Id. at 7

- 8. Although Appellant a cknowledg e s
that counsel did not raise these claims because counsel believed they were
without merit and frivolous , Appellant contends that counsel should have filed

an Anders brief so that this Court c ould have conducted an independent

review to determine whether counsel’s assessment w as correct. Id. at 5, 7

- 8. Appellant does not argue the merit of his underl y ing weight or sufficiency
claims , only that counsel should have raised the claims in an Anders brief.
Before con sidering the merits of Appellant’s claim, we must first determine if he has preserved the issue for our review. It is axiomatic that

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1 “ We review the denial of PCRA relief to decide whether the PCRA court ’ s factual determinations are supported by the record and are free of legal error. ” Commonwealth v. Medina , 209 A.3d 992, 996 (Pa. Super. 2019) (citation omitted).

2 Anders v. California , 386 U.S. 738 (1967).

3 Appellant testified at his PCRA hearing, and reiterate s in his brief, that he asked counsel to raise these claims on direct appeal. N.T., 9/18/20, at 13, 15; Appellant’s Br. at 3

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issues not included in a Rule 1925(b) Statement are waived. Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b)(4)(vii)

. In his Rule 1925(b) Statement, Appel lant only challenged the PCRA
court’s finding that the sufficiency cla i m underlying his IAC assertion lacked

merit. See Rule 1925(b) Statement, 4/19/21, at ¶ (3)(a). He did not raise and preserve any challenge to counsel’s failure to file an Anders brief . As a
result , Appellant has waived our consideration of this argument. 4

Further , by focusing solely on counsel’s failure to file an Anders brief, Appellant does not actually address in his brief the PCRA court’s conclusion
that the underlying sufficiency claim lacked merit. Our r ule s of a ppellate

p rocedure require that an appellant present an argument addressing th e lower
court’s decision underlying his appeal and support his argument with

“ discussion and citation of authorities as are deemed pertinent .” Pa.R.A.P. 2119(a). When an appellant fails to do so, this Court “will not become the counsel for an appellant, and will not, therefore, consider [the] issue[.]”
Commonwealth v. Gould , 912 A.2 d 869, 873 (Pa. Super. 2006) (internal citation and quotation marks omitted). See also Commonwealth v. Kane , 10 A.3d 327, 331 (Pa. Super. 2010) (“This Court will not act as counsel and

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4 Appellant likewise did not raise this issue in his Question Presented , further precluding our review

. See Pa.R.A.P. 2116(a) (stating that we will not consider any question “unless it is stated in the statement of questions involved or is fairly suggested thereby.”).
Additionally, Appellant failed to raise in his Rule 1925(b ) Statement , and has therefore waived, a ny challenge to the PCRA court’s finding that the weight claim underlying his IAC assertion lacked merit.J

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will not develop arguments on behalf of an appellant.” (citation omitte d)); Pa.R.A.P. 2101 (“if the defects are in the brief [] of the appellant and are substantial, the appeal or other matter may be quashed or dismissed.”). Appellant’s failure to develop any legal argument to support his claim
that counsel was ineffective f or failing to challenge the sufficiency of the Commonwealth’s evidence on direct appeal precludes our ability to consider the issue. As a result, we conclude that Appellant has waived this claim. Accordingly, we affirm the PCRA court’s Order dismissing Ap pellant’s
petition.
Order affirmed.
Judgment Entered.

Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq. Prothonotary

Date: 11/29/2021