Court Opinion

ID: 9757172
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:22:14.483997+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:35.569933
License: Public Domain

Justice CASTILLE,
concurring.
I join in the majority’s mandate, as well as its analysis concerning (1) the sufficiency of the evidence to prove murder in the first degree, (2) appellant’s claim involving allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel, and (3) the propriety of the death sentence under 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(h)(3). I write separately only to further address appellant’s claims that the trial court erred in permitting the victim’s sister to testify, over a hearsay objection, to a statement the dead victim made four days before appellant shot her to death.
This case involves the increasingly common circumstance of a criminal defendant, on trial for murdering a human being, now complaining about the admission of the now-deceased victim’s out-of-court statement upon hearsay grounds. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Paddy, 800 A.2d 294 (Pa.2002); Commonwealth v. Laich, 566 Pa. 19, 777 A.2d 1057 (2001); Commonwealth v. Chandler, 554 Pa. 401, 721 A.2d 1040 (1998). Relying upon this Court’s opinion in Chandler, the trial court held that the statement in this case was admissible under the “state of mind” exception to the hearsay rule. Slip op. at 6-7. The majority does not pass upon the fundamental question of the admissibility of the statement in question, instead concluding that, in light of the overwhelming evidence of appellant’s guilt — which included the eyewitness testimony of the victim’s young children, who well knew appellant since he had been *57living with them for over a month, and who witnessed the horrific sight of appellant murdering their mother before their very eyes — any error in its admission was constitutionally harmless.
I would address the question of admissibility directly and conclude that the testimony was properly admitted under this Court’s precedent interpreting the state-of-mind exception to the hearsay rule; thus, in my view, there is no “error” whose harmfulness need be examined. “Pursuant to the state of mind hearsay exception, where a declarant’s out-of-court statements demonstrate her state of mind, are made in a natural manner, and are material and relevant, they are admissible pursuant to the exception.” Laich, 777 A.2d at 1060-61 (citations omitted). “Evidence is relevant if it logically tends to establish a material fact in the case, if it tends to make a fact at issue more or less probable, or if it supports a reasonable inference or presumption regarding the existence of a material fact.” Id. (citation omitted). This Court has consistently held that the out-court-statements of a homicide victim, where probative of the victim’s view of his or her relationship with the defendant, are relevant and admissible to show the presence of ill will, malice, or motive for the killing. See Commonwealth v. Fletcher, 561 Pa. 266, 750 A.2d 261, 276 (2000), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1035, 121 S.Ct. 623, 148 L.Ed.2d 533 (2000) (victim’s statement was relevant to his state of mind regarding relationship with defendant and, therefore, admissible to prove presence of ill will, malice, or motive for killing); Commonwealth v. Puksar, 559 Pa. 358, 740 A.2d 219, 225 n. 6 (1999) , cert. denied, 531 U.S. 829, 121 S.Ct. 79, 148 L.Ed.2d 42 (2000) (victim’s statement that he did not trust defendant and that victim and defendant were involved in dispute admissible under state of mind exception to prove presence of ill will, malice, or motive for killing); Chandler, 721 A.2d at 1045 (victim’s statements “concerning her negative feelings about Appellant and her relationship with him” admissible under state of mind exception because victim’s “opinion of Appellant and her marriage to him went to the presence of ill will, malice, or motive for the killing”); Commonwealth v. Collins, 550 Pa. 46, 703 A.2d 418, 424-25 (1997), cert. denied, 525 U.S. *581015, 119 S.Ct. 538, 142 L.Ed.2d 447 (1998) (statements relevant under state of mind exception to prove, inter alia, motive).
Here, Stephanie Epps’s out-of-court statement to her sister about appellant striking her was part of a larger picture painted by Epps revealing her state of mind regarding her deteriorating relationship with appellant, which ultimately ended in her murder. The evidence showed that, the weekend after the argument during which appellant struck Epps, she attempted to sever all ties with appellant by hiding from appellant, changing the locks at her apartment, and considering filing a petition for a protection from abuse order. Epps also rejected unwanted sexual advances made by appellant while he was retrieving his belongings from her apartment on September 15, 1997, the day before he shot her. Epps’s statements to her sister, including the statement which appellant now challenges, were relevant to explain the progression of events leading up to her murder, as well as to suggest motive, malice, and ill will. I continue to agree with cases such as Chandler, the case relied upon by the trial judge, that statements such as these are admissible under the state of mind exception because they are probative of “the presence of ill will, malice, or motive for the killing.” 721 A.2d at 1045.1 Since the trial court’s ruling unquestionably was correct under our governing precedent concerning the state of mind exception to the hearsay rule, the Court should expressly so hold.
Moreover, I note that this is not at all a case like Laich. There, the defendant conceded being the killer but raised a provocation/heat of passion defense, leading a majority of this Court to conclude that evidence concerning the victim’s state of mind concerning her relationship with the defendant was somehow rendered “irrelevant” only after the defendant testified and, thus, a hearsay challenge to the victim’s out-of-court statements should have been sustained. 777 A.2d at 1062; but see id. at 1065 (Castille, J., dissenting) (disagreeing with Court’s assessment that nature of defense can belatedly alter *59relevance of state of mind evidence). In this case, as the majority notes, appellant denied being the killer and raised a defense of alibi. The victim’s out-of-court statements were relevant and admissible. Laich did not purport to overrule or modify our legion of cases on the state of mind exception, where such evidence is relevant. Since the Laich exception does not apply, our controlling precedent does, and we should follow it.
In any event, I would independently approve the trial court’s admission of this evidence in the face of appellant’s hearsay challenge because appellant — as proven by evidence entirely independent of the disputed evidence — was himself the unlawful agent of the victim’s, unavailability for cross-examination. Because my dissenting opinion in Laich thoroughly sets forth the basis for my belief that it is absurd to reward such extreme misconduct by blindly sustaining hearsay objections that are the ineluctable evidentiary by-product of the very murder on trial, I need not repeat that analysis here. See Laich, 777 A.2d at 1067-69. See also Commonwealth v. Paddy, 800 A.2d 294, 810 n. 9 (Pa.2002). It is enough to say that I continue to believe that there is something absurd and deeply offensive “about the notion that one can murder another and then object to admission of the victim’s statements on the ground that the witness is ‘unavailable’ for confrontation at trial.” Laich, 777 A.2d at 1069. Here, evidence independent of the statements made by Stephanie Epps to her sister shortly before the murder made clear that appellant elected to “confront” his former paramour with a .45 caliber gun in the lobby of her apartment building. This out-of-court confrontation ended when appellant shot at Stephanie Epps no less than four times in front of her very young children, hitting her twice — once in the head and once in the abdomen — and killing her. Having caused Epps’s unavailability by murdering her, I would hold that appellant has received all of the confrontation to which he is entitled, and has waived any objection to the introduction of his victim’s relevant out-of-court statements.
Justice NEWMAN joins this concurring opinion.

. Although I joined Madame Justice Newman’s dissenting opinion in Chandler, that dissent concerned a penalty phase issue.