Court Opinion

ID: 9757101
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:18:52.352761+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:34.854977
License: Public Domain

VAN der VOORT, Judge,
dissenting:
Appeal is taken to our Court from judgments of sentence rendered on jury findings of guilt as to charges of criminal attempt to commit murder, possession of instrument of crime and use of prohibited offensive weapon, felonious restraint and false imprisonment, robbery, simple and aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, theft, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy.1 Jury trial had been held on October 28-31,1975, and appellant was sentenced on January 7, 1976, to two concurrent terms of 10-20 years’ imprisonment on the kidnapping and robbery convictions, and to 10-20 years’ imprisonment for criminal attempt to run consecutively to the above. Sentence was suspended on the possession and criminal conspiracy convictions, the other convictions warranting no sentence because they merged with the charges on which sentences were imposed. Post-trial motions were orally argued immediately after trial.
*448In his opinion, lower court Judge STEFAN has concisely and completely described pertinent facts adduced at trial, and we quote therefrom:
At eleven o’clock on the morning of May 15,1975, seventy-eight-year-old Frank Rigney drove his 1974 Plymouth Duster into a parking lot at 69th and Walnut Streets, directly across from Gimbels Department Store, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He parked the car and began to look at the headlines of his newspaper. Suddenly, a gun was pointed at his head on his left, and another gun appeared through the front passenger window at his right. Two men jumped into the car from both sides, forcing Mr. Rigney between them in the front seat.
As they began to drive, Mr. Rigney was told not to move and to look straight ahead. One of the men said to him: ‘You white MF, you’re going to die, man.’ Mr. Rigney told them that he was seventy-eight years old; that they had his car; and he asked them to let him out. They refused and told him to shut up and look straight ahead. They drove to an isolated spot in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia, whereupon they stopped, ordered Mr. Rigney to get out of the car, picked him up and put him into the trunk of the car, and closed and locked the trunk.. Mr. Rigney testified that half to three-quarters of an hour had elapsed up to this time.
They proceeded to drive with Mr. Rigney in the trunk for another half to three-quarters of an hour. Their final destination was a very remote, wooded, secluded area of Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, at the site of a ravine. The trunk of the car was opened and Mr. Rigney was pulled out. A third man had joined the other two somewhere along the way, and he told Mr. Rigney to put his hands behind his back. As Mr. Rigney backed away, he was struck in the stomach and fell to the ground. While he lay on the ground, his hands were tied behind his back with white adhesive tape. He was then pulled to his feet and a necktie that had been *449made into a noose was slipped over his head and pulled tight. He was then led to the edge of the ravine and pushed. As he fell, Mr. Rigney lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness, Mr. Rigney discovered that he had fallen only about five or six feet down and had come to rest in a plateau area of the ravine. His hands were free and the tape was hanging from his wrists. He removed the noose from his neck and tried to move, at which time he became violently sick and then lost consciousness again. Several hours later, he regained consciousness and was able to climb slowly out of the ravine. When he could go no farther, he lay down on the road. Approximately twenty minutes later, a jogger found him and called the police and an ambulance.
Mr. Rigney had been beaten severely. According to the description of his condition given by the jogger who found him and by the policemen who arrived on the scene, his face was swollen, deformed, and black and blue from bruises. There was a very severe gash on his forehead, and his left eye was swollen closed. Dried blood covered his face and neck, and there were severe abrasions on his neck. His hands were cut and black and blue, and his ears were discolored black. His clothing was covered with dirt and debris and ticks had infested the exposed areas of his skin. He was gasping and had difficulty speaking. Ultimately, he suffered permanent loss of hearing in one ear. His sixteen-year-old Timex wristwatch, his keys, and his wallet with his vehicle registration card in it had all been taken.
Two days later, on May 17, 1975, the defendant, Gregory Williams, was spotted driving Mr. Rigney’s car in an area not far from where Mr. Rigney had been abducted. The defendant was stopped and when he could not produce a registration card for the car, he was arrested and taken into custody. Mr. Rigney’s watch and vehicle registration card were found on the defendant’s person. A search of the car revealed a gun, several rolls of white adhesive *450tape, a letter addressed to defendant, and several books with defendant’s name on them.
Appellant now asserts four claims of trial error.
During direct examination at trial of Commonwealth witness William P. O’Brien, Upper Merion Township police officer who interrogated appellant on the night of his arrest and incarceration, the following occurred:
Q. [by Commonwealth Attorney]: What did you do having met Mr. Williams [the appellant, at his place of incarceration in the Philadelphia lock-up]?
A. [by witness O’Brien]: I asked him for his personal identification, name, address, date of birth, inquired as to how he came into possession of a vehicle that he was operating, that of Mr. Rigney’s.
Q. Did he tell you how he came in possession of it? A. He said that on the date prior to that, the 16th, he had found the car parked along a street with the keys in it and took it for a ride.
Q. Then what happened?
A. After that he elected to remain silent.
Thereupon defense counsel objected and requested a mistrial, arguing that the witness’ statement about the appellant’s remaining silent was unduly prejudicial. The motion was refused. Appellant now argues that such denial was error because “it is reversible error to admit evidence of a defendant’s silence at the time of his arrest”. Commonwealth v. Greco, 465 Pa. 400, 350 A.2d 826, 828 (1976). The Fifth Amendment forbids such commenting upon an accused’s silence, the fear being that jurors will accept such as an indication of guilt. Commonwealth v. Haldeman, 449 Pa. 367, 296 A.2d 765 (1972). In these cited cases, and others mentioned therein, the references to the defendant’s remaining silent are more than one in number and leave no doubt, by deduction or inference, that the accused during questioning would not discuss the crime. Therein arises the fear that jurors will suspect that the man “knew something he wasn’t telling.” However, in the instant case, after, identi*451fying questions, only the theft of movable property charge was referred to, which precipitated the defendant’s silence. There was no detailed questioning into any other aspect of the alleged criminal activities, nor was the subject’s act of silence again mentioned. I consider it the duty of the trial court to assess the possibility of prejudicial inference arising from such testimony, and here the court did so. Because it is very difficult for an appellate court from the printed record to have the same feeling for the events at trial as did the lower court judge, I should find error only when it is clear that the trial judge abused his discretion in denying the motion for a mistrial. I do not so find. On the contrary, I believe the lower court’s determination that no prejudice arose was justified. The public is not unaware of the accused’s right to remain silent and the duty of the Commonwealth to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. With this recently increased awareness, I find it more and more unlikely to suspect that prejudice arises when the exercise of the constitutional right is mentioned, particularly in an off-hand manner. I believe that the awareness of this right has been most generally disseminated through the media until we have now reached the juncture where slight, unrepeated mention of the accused’s remaining silent without contextual direct or inferential potential for prejudice, is no more harmful to the accused in the eyes of jurors than prosecution statements as to allegations of guilt.
As a part of its case, the Commonwealth introduced into evidence four sticks, identified by an F.B.I. investigator who analyzed the items as pieces of a broomstick. As to only one piece he “concluded that those yarns [found thereon] could have originated from this shirt [which the victim was wearing].” Notes of testimony, p. 75. Appellant objects, arguing that the jury was thus permitted to infer that at least one of these items was used to beat the body of the victim. There is no basis for such inference, these items not being such as immediately to inflame the mind or cause one instantly to recoil as from a readily-identifiable instrument *452of crime. The point of their admission in this case is one of relevancy. And we hold that they were relevant to show the fall of the victim into the ravine, and his stopping at the spot where the sticks were found, together with some of his personal items. This is a fact material to the case. See Commonwealth v. Myers, 439 Pa. 381, 266 A.2d 756 (1970).
One of the indictments was for possession of an instrument of crime. This was a handgun found in the possession of appellant when he was stopped in Philadelphia. However there was no direct testimony as to possession of any gun in Montgomery County—the victim when released from the trunk, tied, and abandoned in Montgomery County, did not testify to seeing this handgun, which he had observed when first abducted. Appellant argues that it was error for the lower court not to have sustained his demurrer or request for directed verdict on the basis that Montgomery County had no jurisdiction over this charge. Circumstantial evidence is sufficient for indictment and conviction. The circumstantial evidence here presented that this weapon accompanied appellant during the entire event, from Philadelphia, to Montgomery County, and back to Philadelphia, together with the law allowing that, “in order to obviate the difficulty of proof as to offenses committed during journeys from place to place, in any indictment for felony or misdemeanor committed on any . . . carriage whatever employed in any journey, it shall be sufficient to allege that such felony or misdemeanor was committed within any county or place through any part whereof such . carriage shall have passed in the course of the journey during which such felony or misdemeanor shall have been committed . . .make clear that Montgomery County had jurisdiction. Act of 1860, March 31, P.L. 427, § 49, 19 P.S. 525. See Commonwealth v. Hainds, 448 Pa. 67, 292 A.2d 337 (1972).2
*453Appellant’s final argument is that the weight of the evidence is insufficient to sustain the conviction. The evidence against appellant, viewed more favorably to the verdict winner, is mainly circumstantial because the victim was ordered not to look to either side at his captors immediately upon having been taken, and he was unable to see them when released from the trunk, tied, and pushed into the ravine because of the rapidity of events. The circumstantial evidence in this case was sufficient to convict. Commonwealth v. Roscioli, 454 Pa. 59, 309 A.2d 396 (1973). As stated so excellently by Judge STEFAN in his opinion:
The evidence presented in the instant case, including the circumstances surrounding defendant’s possession of stolen property, are sufficient to support the verdicts of the jury. Defendant was found driving the victim’s car within approximately forty-eight hours of the crime, in an area not far from the scene of the abduction; he gave two false and conflicting stories of how he happened to have possession of the car; he was wearing the victim’s sixteen year-old Timex watch; he was carrying the victim’s vehicle registration card in his own wallet in his own pocket; a gun was found inside the car; and, several other items belonging to defendant were found inside the vehicle. Defendant’s assertion that there was nothing to indicate that a gun existed in Montgomery County is without merit. There was direct testimony that it was there at the scene of the abduction, and later, that the outline of it was observed in the pocket of one of the abductors. A gun was found in the victim’s car when defendant was picked up. It would be folly to imagine that the gun had not gone along with the men to Montgomery County on this entire nefarious venture, and that it did so was not an unreasonable inference for the jury to have drawn.
I would affirm.
WATKINS, President Judge, and PRICE, J., join in this Dissenting Opinion.

. In violation of the “Crimes Code”, Act of 1972, Dec. 6, P.L. 1482, No. 334, 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 901, 907-908, 2902-2903, 3701, 2701-2702, 2705, 3921, 2901, and 903 respectively.

. On appeal, appellant argues that this possession indictment, while not within the jurisdiction of the trial court, moreover prejudiced appellant by its being part of the trial. This argument was not advanced during post-trial motions, and is waived for our purposes.