Opinion ID: 2332913
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Claim 4Prior Bad Acts

Text: Chambers next avers that the trial court erred because it permitted the Commonwealth to introduce irrelevant and prejudicial evidence indicating that Chambers had committed prior unrelated crimes. Specifically, the court admitted evidence that Chambers: (1) had participated in a robbery; (2) had engaged in sex for money; and (3) had been incarcerated in the York County Prison on unrelated offenses. As the Commonwealth notes, this claim is waived because Chambers failed to object to the introduction of this evidence at any stage of the trial. However, as above, we will review the alleged error to determine if prior counsel was ineffective for having failed to raise it. The Commonwealth contends that in each instance the trial court properly admitted the evidence. The Commonwealth charged Chambers in the instant case with both robbery and murder and the Commonwealth proceeded on a theory that Chambers' financial situationhe was consistently unemployed and without any source of incomeserved as the motive for the robbery in the present case and the earlier robbery. Likewise, the Commonwealth asserts that the fact that Chambers prostituted himself was relevant to establish Chambers' motive to acquire money. The Commonwealth maintains that evidence of Chambers' incarceration in the York County Prison served as the foundation for two jailhouse confessions that Chambers made to his cellmates and, therefore, evidence of his incarceration is relevant. Evidence of the incarceration of Chambers was relevant to establish his presence at the York County Prison at the time he allegedly confessed to the crime and, therefore, was admissible. The admission of evidence of Chambers' prior robbery and prostitution, however, is more troubling. Pennsylvania Rule of Evidence 404(b)(2) provides that [e]vidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts may be admitted... as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity or absence of mistake or accident[,] provided that the probative value of the proffered evidence outweighs any potential prejudice. The Commonwealth attempts to classify this evidence as proof of Chambers' motive to rob Anna Mae Morris (Morris). The connection seems tenuous. Chambers may have been motivated to commit the prior robbery and prostitute himself in order to remedy his then financial situation. He may also have committed the robbery of Morris to remedy his current financial situation. However, the Commonwealth is not using the fact of the existence of the prior robbery or Chambers' prostitution as the motive for the robbery of Morris. The alleged motive is Chambers' financial situation, not his commission of these prior bad acts. Accordingly, Chambers' claim has arguable merit. Even if a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel has underlying merit, a defendant must still prove that counsel's deficient performance caused him prejudice. The facts of this case establish Chambers' guilt in the murder of Morris. At approximately 4:15 p.m. or 4:30 p.m. on the day of the Morris' death, Edgar Coder (Coder) and Travis Wolfe (Wolfe) stated that they saw Chambers and Morris on the Silver Bridge. Although they could not hear what Chambers and Morris were saying to each other, they appeared to be arguing. In addition, Coder testified that Chambers had what appeared to be a large stick in one of his hands. Sometime between 4:45 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., another witness, Kevin Hartmen (Hartmen), while walking his dog, noticed a body, that of Morris, under the Maryland-Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge. The autopsy revealed the victim was beaten to death by a blunt instrument and the cause of death was later determined to be a subdural hemorrhage or brain hemorrhage. While the police were investigating the murder scene, Chambers, armed with an axe handle, went to a local bar called the Shady Dell. Before he was permitted to enter the bar, the manager, John Ettline (Ettline), ordered Chambers to leave this club outside because Ettline did not want patrons carrying weapons into his establishment. Over the next few months, the police engaged in an exhaustive investigation. The questioning of witnesses revealed that Chambers often carried an axe handle, that he told his friends the police considered him a prime suspect, and that the police stopped Chambers as he was attempting to leave town. Debra Phillips, a woman who knew Chambers, told the police she gave him the axe handle because of a foot injury he received in an altercation with Debra's nephew some time before the murder. Intense questioning of acquaintances of Chambers confirmed that on the day of the murder Chambers was seen carrying this axe handle. Dr. Robert Silverman, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Morris, testified that not only were the injuries sustained by Morris generally consistent with blunt trauma inflicted by a weapon such as an the axe handle of Chambers, but also that certain of the wounds found on Morris matched the pattern of curves seen on the axe handle and that other wounds were compatible with a screw on a clamp attached to the weapon. Roy Phillips (Phillips), a friend of Chambers, testified that a week or two after the murder, Chambers approached him and said, Do you know I killed that old lady? April Wright, the girlfriend of Phillips, confirmed that Chambers had made such a statement to Phillips. While he was awaiting trial in the death of Morris, Chambers was in the York County Prison on charges unrelated to this incident. He confided in two fellow prisoners, Jeffrey Hutchenson (Hutchenson) and Richard Taylor (Taylor), and told them that he had killed Morris. Chambers told them that when he asked the victim for her money and she refused, he hit her with the axe handle and took the money. The next day Hutchenson contacted his attorney, who notified the police. The police recovered the axe handle. In toto, this evidence established: (1) that Chambers and Morris were seen arguing by two objective witnesses; (2) that at that time Chambers possessed the axe handle; (3) that within, at most, forty-five minutes, Hartmen discovered Morris' body; (4) that Chambers confessed to Hutchenson and Taylor; and, (5) that the police recovered the axe handle. Chambers has not suffered any prejudice as a result of counsel's failure to object to the admission of this evidence because Chambers was not deprived of a fundamentally fair and reliable adjudication of his guilt. Kimball, supra ; see Commonwealth v. Peterkin, 538 Pa. 455, 649 A.2d 121 (1994), cert. denied, 515 U.S. 1137, 115 S.Ct. 2569, 132 L.Ed.2d 821 (1995) (defendant did not receive ineffective assistance of counsel when his attorney failed to object to prosecution's closing argument request that jury be as cold and ruthless as defendant was when he walked up to the victims and pumped fifteen bullets into one body and nine into another because any prejudice from the remark was outweighed by the totality of the evidence of his guilt). All of the evidence referring to that Chambers had engaged in prostitution and most of the evidence that he had participated in a robbery unrelated to the murder of Morris, was offered only during the penalty phase and, therefore, had no bearing on the jury's determination of Chambers' guilt. The only guilt phase testimony cited by Chambers regarding the robbery was given by the robbery victim on re-direct examination by the prosecutor, after he had previously stated that Chambers had nothing to do with the robbery. The assertion of the robbery victim that Chambers was somehow involved does not comport with the testimony of either Vince Raineri or Aaron Heiner, the two individually who admitted to having jointly robbed Coder. Accordingly, Chambers has failed to demonstrate ineffective assistance of counsel that would warrant relief.