Opinion ID: 2306564
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Trial Court Error In Charging the Jury

Text: Appellant next claims that the trial court erred in issuing a course of conduct charge to the jury as a basis for finding specific intent to kill. The instruction given was as follows: When deciding whether the defendant had the specific intent to kill, you should consider all the evidence regarding the person's words and conduct and the attending circumstances that may show state of mind, including course of conduct. The Commonwealth may prove the specific intent to kill necessary to support a first-degree murder charge by circumstantial evidence of course of conduct. If you find there is evidence that tended to show a course of conduct involving [P.B.], the length of time involved in this case, and the acts which occurred during the course of that time are factors that may be properly considered in determining whether the defendant had the required premeditation and deliberation. That separates first-degree murder from other types of murder or manslaughter. N.T., 5/17/05 at 33. Appellant's very brief argument mimics his sufficiency claim. Appellant argues that the charge was inappropriate because he does not believe that his abuse of P.B. was a factual predicate establishing that he intended to kill her. Appellant offers two hypothetical situations as examples of fact-patterns that would, in his view, establish such a factual predicate for the charge: first, a situation in which the defendant's course of conduct could only result in death; and second, a circumstance where the defendant explicitly expresses his or her desire to kill the victim. Appellant points to Tharp, supra, as an example of both hypothetical situations because the defendant there expressly stated that she intended to kill the victim, and because starvation inevitably leads to death. In contrast to the Tharp scenario, appellant argues that the trial record here is devoid of any evidence that appellant verbally expressed a desire to kill P.B. In a related, but distinct, claim, appellant also objects to the trial court's choice of language in issuing the charge. Appellant asserts that the trial court wrote its own course of conduct instruction, and that the language used by the trial court misled the jury. Appellant's Brief at 28. Appellant argues that the language of the instruction conflated the supposedly separate issues of child abuse and the specific intent required for first-degree murder, and essentially allowed the jury to find that appellant possessed a specific intent to kill if it found that appellant's abuse of P.B. was deliberate and premeditated. Appellant argues that the instruction was erroneous because it did not convey appellant's view that a pattern of severe abuse, in and of itself, is insufficient to permit an inference of specific intent. The Commonwealth responds that a direct expression of the intent to kill is unnecessary to justify a course of conduct instruction because the specific intent to kill may be proven by circumstantial evidence alone. The Commonwealth argues that Tharp establishes that a prolonged course of abusive conduct can be sufficient proof of the intent to kill even absent a definitive final act. The Commonwealth adds that appellant's claim regarding the wording of the instruction is waived due to appellant's failure to object at trial. Taking appellant's second point first, a review of the record reveals that the Commonwealth is correct that appellant did not object to the court's wording of the instruction. Therefore, this issue is waived. Pa.R.A.P. 302(b); Commonwealth v. Light, 458 Pa. 328, 326 A.2d 288, 291 (1974) (failure to object to specific language of jury charge forecloses review). However, appellant did object to the charge being given at all on the grounds that the facts of the instant case were not analogous to Tharp, supra . N.T., 5/16/05, 26-33. Appellant renewed this objection during jury deliberations, in the course of a conversation between counsel and the trial court, and the trial court acknowledged that appellant's objection to the issuing of a course of conduct charge was preserved. N.T., 5/18/05, at 12. The trial court did not err in issuing the course of conduct instruction. When a court instructs the jury, the objective is to explain to the jury how it should approach its task and the factors it should consider in reaching its verdict. Commonwealth v. Hartman, 536 Pa. 211, 638 A.2d 968, 971 (1994). Instructions on defenses or theories of prosecution are warranted when there is evidence to support such instructions. Commonwealth v. Browdie, 543 Pa. 337, 671 A.2d 668, 674 (1996) (citing cases). In examining jury instructions, our scope of review is to determine whether the trial court committed a clear abuse of discretion or an error of law controlling the outcome of the case. Von der Heide v. Com., Dep't of Transp., 553 Pa. 120, 718 A.2d 286, 288 (1998). A charge will be found adequate unless the issues are not made clear, the jury was misled by the instructions, or there was an omission from the charge amounting to a fundamental error. Id. While the instant case is factually distinguishable from Tharp, Tharp did not purport to hold that direct evidence, such as the definitive statement of purpose in Tharp, was necessary to sustain a finding of a specific intent to kill. Rather, Tharp reaffirmed that the specific intent to kill may be proved through circumstantial evidence, such as a prolonged course of conduct that logically leads to death. Here, the medical examiner's expert testimony established that the pattern of abuse and neglect substantially contributed to P.B.'s death; the course of conduct instruction was supported by this evidence. Furthermore, the evidence showed that appellant took four young girls into his home and turned that home into a virtual torture chamber, inflicting horrific abuse upon them for months. Appellant's ongoing actions regarding the children revealed his course of conduct, which culminated in the death of P.B. The Commonwealth argued that the jury should infer from this evidence that appellant intended not only to kill P.B., but to do so in a prolonged and painful way. Appellant now counters that the jury was obligated to infer that he took such pleasure in abusing P.B. that he would never wish to kill her and deprive himself of that pastime. Appellant was, of course, free to argue whatever inferences he chose to the jury, but the jury was equally free to disbelieve his claims. It is neither self-evident nor logical that sustained child abuse and an intention to kill are mutually exclusive. The jury in this case was free to conclude that a course of conduct involving abusing, starving, isolating and terrorizing a helpless three-year-old child indicates an intention to kill that child. We see no logical reason to transform appellant's fact-specific argument into a point of law, and to forbid future juries from drawing their own inferences from the evidence presented. Moreover, the charge properly left it to the jury to determine whether there was a course of conduct, and if so, whether that tended to prove specific intent to kill. Accordingly, no relief is warranted.