Opinion ID: 2827857
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Mental-Health Expert

Text: Numerous non-expert Commonwealth witnesses testified appellant lacked emotion at the time of the fire and after his daughter’s death. Trial counsel attempted to rebut this testimony by presenting appellant’s mother, who described appellant as generally unemotional and stated he had acted this way since he was a child, attributing his indifferent demeanor to a family trait. The PCRA court determined appellant failed to establish the reasonable basis and prejudice prongs of the ineffectiveness test. Appellant argues counsel failed to investigate and present mental-health evidence to rebut the Commonwealth’s non-expert testimony that he showed no emotion and lacked grief for his daughter’s death. Specifically, appellant asserts he suffered brain damage from an accident approximately ten years before the fire. He posits that had counsel presented mental-health evidence, an explanation would have been provided to the jury that his indifferent demeanor or lack of emotion stemmed from his brain damage and mental-health issues, not from a desire to murder Jessica. The Commonwealth argues counsel made a reasonable strategic decision not to present a mental-health expert in light of the pre-trial examination conducted by Steven Reilly, see infra, Issue XI, and appellant failed to show he was prejudiced by counsel’s alleged ineffectiveness. While appellant offers extensive argument as to counsel’s ineffectiveness for failing to present mental-health evidence during the penalty phase, he makes only [J-49-2013] - 45 cursory claims of ineffectiveness regarding the guilt phase, merely incorporating by reference the entirety of his penalty-phase contentions for support as to why counsel was ineffective in the guilt phase of his trial. Because he fails to explain why counsel had no reasonable basis for his guilt-phase decisions or how the outcome would have been different, his guilt-phase issue is waived as underdeveloped. See Walter, at 566 (holding claims waived for failure to develop them).