Opinion ID: 1516216
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Admission of Evidence from Officer Joseph Thomas[18]

Text: Appellant claims that it was improper for the trial court to admit hearsay testimony from Officer Joseph Thomas and, accordingly, his prior counsel were ineffective for not objecting to the testimony. Particularly, appellant contends that Officer Thomas should not have been allowed to testify that an announcement on police radio, on the night of the murder, informed him that William Lloyd's shooter had run toward the 2100 block of Catherine Street. Appellant asserts that this testimony violated his Confrontation Clause rights and that he was prejudiced by admission of the information, as the prosecutor argued in his closing that the police were informed that William Lloyd's murderer ran in the direction of where appellant lived on Catherine Street. The Commonwealth argues that Officer Thomas's testimony was properly admitted as course of conduct evidence, permitted for the purpose of establishing that the police followed a specific course based on information transmitted to the police. The Commonwealth argues that the police found and arrested appellant based, in part, on the information disseminated on the radio. Additionally, the Commonwealth notes that appellant cannot show that the verdict would have been different if the statement had been excluded. For its part, the PCRA court accepted the Commonwealth's instant argument and denied appellant's claim. The Confrontation Clause affords the accused in criminal prosecutions the right to confront adverse witnesses. U.S. CONST. amend. VI. Made applicable to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Pointer v. Texas, 380 U.S. 400, 403, 85 S.Ct. 1065, 1068, 13 L.Ed.2d 923 (1965), the Confrontation Clause may be violated by the admission of harmful hearsay testimony as substantive evidence against the defendant. Collins, 888 A.2d at 576. However, it is elemental that, [a]n out of court statement which is not offered for its truth, but to explain the witness' course of conduct is not hearsay. Commonwealth v. Sneed, 514 Pa. 597, 526 A.2d 749 (1987) (citing Commonwealth v. Cruz, 489 Pa. 559, 414 A.2d 1032, 1035 (1980)); see also Chmiel, 889 A.2d at 532. Moreover, of course, the purpose for which evidence is offered determines its admissibility. See Commonwealth v. DeJesus, 584 Pa. 29, 880 A.2d 608, 615 (2005). In the instant matter, Officer Thomas testified that he heard on the police radio that the individual who shot William Lloyd ran toward Catherine Street. He then requested that another officer arriving on the scene check the area. Since the evidence was introduced for course of conduct, and not for its truth, it was not hearsay, and counsel cannot be deemed incompetent for failing to object.