Court Opinion

ID: 9638809
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:54:58.881456+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:07.696271
License: Public Domain

MONTEMURO, J.,
concurring and dissenting:
¶ 1 While I agree with the majority as to the entrapment issue, I must dissent from its decision finding no error during sentencing.
¶ 2 The procedure to follow when a defendant contests his prior record score, according to 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9714(c), is as follows:
[t]he trial court, prior to imposing sentence, must have a complete record of the previous convictions and must furnish a copy of the record to the defendant. If the defendant contests the accuracy of the record, the court must schedule a hearing and *1231direct the defendant and the Commonwealth to submit evidence regarding the previous convictions of the defendant. Finally, the trial court must, based on the foregoing, determine by a preponderance of the evidence the previous convictions of the defendant.
Commonwealth v. Perkins, 372 Pa.Super. 30, 538 A.2d 930, 932 (Pa.Super.1988) (internal citations omitted) (emphasis added).
¶ 3 At the sentencing hearing, Appellant contested the accuracy of the record. Appellant denied that all of the North Carolina convictions were attributable to him; while Appellant admitted to being incarcerated in North Carolina, he denied that he was convicted of all the offenses listed on the presen-tenee report.
¶ 4 The Commonwealth knew that Appellant was contesting his. prior record score. Sentencing was postponed for this very reason. Instead of supporting their position with official documents that were available, the Commonwealth’s sole evidence was the testimony of their detective, who testified he “gave Sergeant Matz faxed copies of the fingerprints [for Bobby Lewis Medley which were] obtained from Greensboro, North Carolina. He compared them to fingerprints obtained from Bobby Lewis Medley here [and] determined they were obtained from the same person.” (Trial Ct. Op. at 5-6). This hearsay testimony regarding the matching of Appellant’s fingerprints was the only evidence provided by the Commonwealth.
¶ 5 The majority stresses the relaxed standards of admissibility at sentencing hearings and the rebanee on presentence reports, which are hearsay. Although the standards of admissibihty at sentencing hearings are less restrictive than at trials, Appellant is contesting prior convictions, which can easily be proven through official documents. See Commonwealth v. Lark, 350 Pa.Super. 558, 504 A.2d 1291, 1297 (Pa.Super.1986) (“The proof of prior conviction is a simple historical fact which may be ascertained through official documents”). Fingerprint comparison would not even be necessary if an official document stating Appellant’s convictions was provided.13
¶ 6 This Court is “fully cognizant of how difficult it often is to get information from sister jurisdictions.” Perkins, 538 A.2d at 933 n. 2. However, when official documents are available, our system of justice should not allow hearsay testimony regarding the contents of such documents to suffice.
¶ 7 The majority states that when a defendant alleges that his prior record score is incorrect because he was not responsible for certain prior convictions listed in the presen-tence report, the court should inquire into the circumstances surrounding the conviction. To support this proposition, the majority relies upon three cases: Commonwealth v. Neary, 355 Pa.Super. 92, 512 A.2d 1226 (Pa.Super.1986), appeal denied, 515 Pa. 576, 527 A.2d 537 (1987); Commonwealth v. Charles, 339 Pa.Super. 284, 488 A.2d 1126 (1985); and Perkins, supra. Only Neary addresses a similar issue to that presented in this case.
¶ 8 In Neary, supra, the defendant claimed that the court erred in considering a report of criminal convictions compiled by the FBI. Unlike the case before us, the Commonwealth in Neary provided sufficient evidence to Sustain its burden of proving the defendant’s convictions by a preponderance of evidence. Neary, 512 A.2d at 1234. Specifically, “the probation officer, after describing the method by which the data in the FBI report was compiled, testified that the information was accurate and that ab convictions contained therein were attributable to appellant.” Id.; see also Commonwealth v. Whisnant, 390 Pa.Super. 192, 568 A.2d 259, 260 (1990) (prior convictions established during sentencing proceeding through certified record from State of New Jersey); Commonwealth v. Meo, 362 Pa.Super. 328, 524 A.2d 902, 903, appeal denied, 516 Pa. 632, 533 A.2d 91 (1987) (prior record substantiated by Commonwealth through testimony of person who prepared report). No such corroboration was provided here.
*1232¶ 9 Moreover, in Charles, supra, this Court relied upon Commonwealth v. Cowan, 275 Pa.Super. 341, 418 A.2d 753 (Pa.Super.1980), where we
vacated a judgment of sentence and remanded for resentencing when the lower court had relied on information in a pre-sentence report that the defendant had argued was wrong. The Commonwealth had not brought forth any evidence showing that the report, listing a conviction for larceny, was accurate, after the defendant had protested that the information was wrong.
Charles, 488 A.2d at 1132. This Court held that “[i]f the allegations warrant it, the court should require the production of evidence by the Commonwealth showing the validity of the convictions.” Id. This is not a case like Charles where an appellant was claiming that certain prior convictions were invalid due to the absence of assistance by counsel. Id. at 1131. Here, Appellant contends that' he was not convicted of all the offenses listed on the pre-sentence report.
¶ 10 In Perkins, supra, this Court recognized that the
Supreme Court has declared that the trial court is to be furnished with a complete record of a defendant’s prior convictions. While Pennsylvania courts have consistently rejected the notion that due process requires a higher standard of proof than a preponderance of the evidence in mandatory sentencing proceedings, we have stressed the importance of proof through official documents.
Perkins, 538 A.2d at 932 (internal citations omitted) (emphasis added). The Commonwealth could have easily produced this evidence in the form of an official document.
¶ 11 The majority contends that the court may receive any relevant information for the purposes of determining the proper penalty. This is true in cases such as Commonwealth v. Maroney, 201 Pa.Super. 493, 193 A.2d 640, 642 (Pa.Super.1963), where a hearsay statement made by the assistant district attorney that defendant would not cooperate with police was admissible at sentencing, and Commonwealth v. Orsino, 197 Pa.Super. 306, 178 A.2d 843, 846 (1962), where defendant’s wife’s testimony regarding abuse was admissible at a hearing for revocation of probation. But in Commonwealth v. Cruz, 265 Pa.Super. 474, 402 A.2d 536, 537 (1979), an Unsubstantiated statement that a defendant was a major drug dealer was found to be an inappropriate factor in a judge’s imposition of sentence. Cf. Gardner v. Florida, 430 U.S. 349, 359, 97 S.Ct. 1197, 1205 n. 10, 51 L.Ed.2d 393 (1977) (noting concern “about the possibility that critical unverified information may be inaccurate and determinative in a particular case”); see also Commonwealth v. Allen, 340 Pa.Super. 189, 489 A.2d 906, 910 (1985) (although 12 prior arrests shown on presentenee report, court only relied upon the 9 that defendant recalled).
¶ 12 Although the majority is correct that courts have wide latitude in considering certain facts at sentencing whether or not these facts are produced by witnesses whom members of the court see and hear, courts should consider official records when available, not hearsay testimony as to their contents. See Commonwealth v. Petrillo, 340 Pa. 33, 46, 16 A.2d 50, 58 (1940). Here, an accurate record of Appellant’s prior convictions was available and should have been produced at sentencing in order to substantiate the validity of the North Carolina convictions.
¶ 13 Therefore, I would vacate the judgment of sentence and remand for resentenc-ing.

. Appellant was contesting the accuracy of the presentence report which listed his prior convictions. I fail to see how matching his fingerprints could suffice to prove that every single offense on the presentence report was committed by Appellant when he admitted to being incarcerated in North Carolina.