Com. v. Corbett, F. ( 2021 )

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NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
: PENNSYLVANIA
:
v. :
:
:
FRANCES CORBETT :
:
Appellant : No. 263 WDA 2020
Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence Entered January 23, 2020
In the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County Criminal Division at
No(s): CP-02-CR-0008833-2019
BEFORE: BOWES, J., NICHOLS, J., and McLAUGHLIN, J.
MEMORANDUM BY McLAUGHLIN, J.: FILED: April 22, 2021
Frances Corbett appeals from the judgment of sentence imposed
following her convictions for two counts of driving under the influence of a
controlled substance (“DUI”). See 75 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 3802(d)(1), 3802(d)(2).
Corbett argues the evidence was insufficient to prove she had driven a vehicle
while she was intoxicated. We affirm.
At Corbett’s non-jury trial, the Commonwealth put into evidence1 the
testimony of Officer Nicklas Hawk of the Blawnox Police Department. Officer
Hawk testified that on June 2, 2019, he responded to a 911 call for a suspected
overdose. See Trial Court Opinion, filed May 12, 2020, at 3 (footnotes
omitted). The caller stated that there was a woman sitting in the driver’s seat
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1 By agreement of the parties, Officer Hawk’s testimony from both the
preliminary hearing and a pre-trial hearing on Corbett’s habeas corpus petition
were incorporated into the trial evidence. See N.T., 1/23/20 (Habeas
Corpus/Non-Jury Trial), at 24.
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of a car, slumped out of the window. N.T. at 50-51. Officer Hawk “arrived
within thirty (30) to forty-five (45) seconds and observed [Corbett] fully
outside the vehicle but leaning against it with the car keys in her right hand.”
Trial Court Op. at 3 (footnotes omitted). The car was registered to Corbett’s
boyfriend. Id. The engine was off, and the car was legally parked alongside a
public road. N.T. at 10-11, 19.
Officer Hawk testified that Corbett told him “that she had come from
Walmart and Giant Eagle and had just dropped off a friend at a housing
complex.” Trial Court Op. at 3 (footnotes omitted). Officer Hawk later
confirmed that the friend to whom Corbett referred, Heather Burke, lived in
an apartment complex located one block away from where the car was parked.
N.T. at 46. When defense counsel asked Officer Hawk on cross examination
whether Corbett actually admitted that she had been driving, Officer Hawk
responded, “Yeah, she stated that she had just dropped her friend Heather
off,” but clarified that Corbett “did not come out and say, ‘Hey, I was driving.’”
Id. at 9, 44.
When asked whether Officer Hawk could determine what time the
vehicle had been parked, Officer Hawk responded, “Actually, she told me that
she had just gotten there. She had just dropped her friend Heather off because
she was at Walmart and Giant Eagle.” Id. at 12.2 “Officer Hawk testified that
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2See also id. at 13 (Officer Hawk testifying, “Ms. Corbett told me that she
had just gotten back – she had just drove and she had just gotten back from
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the hood of the vehicle was warm to the touch, and that after receiving
consent to search the vehicle, [he] located a plastic grocery bag with an item
that was still cold to the touch.” Trial Court Op. at 3 (footnotes omitted).
Specifically, Officer Hawk testified that when he searched the car, “there was
cottage cheese up in the front seat. It was in a Giant Eagle bag that was still
cold[.]” N.T. at 17; see also id. at 12, 36-37.
Officer Hawk’s testimony also established Corbett’s level of intoxication,
which Corbett did not contest:
[Corbett] had difficulty maintaining balance, appeared confused,
and exhibited slurred speech. These behaviors were to the degree
that the officer chose not to conduct field sobriety tests out of
concern for [Corbett’s] physical safety. Officer Hawk, a five (5)
year veteran with the police department with experience from DUI
training and nearly 200 [DUI] stops, asked [Corbett] if she had
taken anything, to which she responded that she uses methadone
in the mornings.
...
Medics arrived and transported [Corbett] to the hospital where a
blood draw was conducted with results showing she was positive
for Methadone, Fentanyl, Clonazepam, and 7-aminoclonazepam.
While at the hospital[, Corbett] offered that she is a recovering
heroin addict, reiterating that she takes methadone, and also
admitted to consuming two (2) to three (3) alcoholic beverages.
Based on his training, experience, and observations, Officer Hawk
testified that he believed [Corbett] was under the influence of a
substance and was incapable of safely operating a vehicle.
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the store”), 36 (Officer Hawk testifying, “[S]he had made a statement to me
that she had just come from the grocery store. She came from Walmart and
Giant Eagle, and she had just dropped her friend Heather off”).
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Trial Court Op. at 3-4 (footnotes omitted). The police did not locate any
evidence of intoxicating substances or drug paraphernalia when searching the
vehicle. Id. at 3.
The court found Corbett guilty of two counts of DUI. It sentenced her to
four days in Allegheny County’s DUI Alternative to Jail Program, and six
months’ concurrent probation.
Corbett presents a single issue on direct appeal: “Whether the evidence
was sufficient to support Ms. Corbett’s DUI convictions where the
Commonwealth failed to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that she was
driving, operating, or in actual physical control of the vehicle while under the
influence of a controlled substance[.]” Corbett’s Br. at 5.
On appellate review of a sufficiency challenge, “we ‘must determine
whether the evidence admitted at trial, and all reasonable inferences drawn
therefrom, when viewed in a light most favorable to the Commonwealth as
verdict winner, support the conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.’”
Commonwealth v. Clemens, 242 A.3d 659, 664 (Pa.Super. 2020) (quoting
Commonwealth v. Feliciano, 67 A.3d 19, 23 (Pa.Super. 2013) (en banc)).
“[T]he Commonwealth’s evidence need not preclude every possibility of
innocence in order to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” and the
Commonwealth may prove each element of the crime through circumstantial
evidence. Id. at 665. It is within the purview of the fact-finder to determine
which portion of the evidence to believe—all, part, or none—and we do not re-
weigh the evidence on sufficiency review. Id.
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Corbett was convicted of two counts of DUI under Section 3802(d),
which states “[a]n individual may not drive, operate or be in physical control
of the movement of a vehicle” while she has controlled substances in her blood
or while under the influence of a drug which impairs her ability to drive safely.
75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3802(d)(1), (d)(2). Actual physical control “is determined
based on the totality of the circumstances, including the location of the
vehicle, whether the engine was running and whether there was other
evidence indicating that the defendant had driven the vehicle at some point
prior to the arrival of police on the scene.” Commonwealth v. Wolen, 685
A.2d 1384, 1385 (Pa. 1996); see also Commonwealth v. Williams, 941
A.2d 14, 27 (Pa.Super. 2008).
Corbett argues the evidence was insufficient to prove that she had
driven, operated, or otherwise been in actual physical control of the car while
she was intoxicated. Corbett asserts no witnesses saw her driving the car, she
was not sitting in the drivers’ seat when Officer Hawk arrived, and the car was
turned off and legally parked. She argues that there was no evidence to prove
that Heather Burke, who was with her at the store and whose home was within
walking distance, had not driven the car there, or that Corbett had not become
intoxicated after she parked the car. Corbett emphasizes that she never
explicitly admitted to driving the vehicle when speaking with Officer Hawk,
and never told him exactly when she had arrived. Corbett argues Officer
Hawk’s testimony that the engine was warm does not establish that the car
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had recently been driven, because the incident occurred on an afternoon in
June.
Corbett relies on Commonwealth v. Price, 610 A.2d 488 (Pa.Super.
1992), for support. She argues that in that case, we found the evidence was
insufficient to prove the defendant had operated a motor vehicle, even though
the police had found him sitting in the driver’s seat and holding the keys to
the trunk in his hand. Corbett’s Br. at 17-18 (citing Price, 610 A.2d at 488-
89). We held that “[t]here must be some indicia that the intoxicated person,
who was seated in the car, had actual physical control of the vehicle,” and
that “at a very minimum, a parked car should be started and running before
a finding of actual physical control can be made.” Id. at 19 (quoting Price,
610 A.2d at 490) (emphasis in Price).
Further, Corbett distinguishes her case from Commonwealth v. Trial,
652 A.2d 338 (Pa.Super. 1994), in which we held Price applied only to parked
cars. Id. at 19-21 (citing Trial, 652 A.2d at 340). We concluded the evidence
in Trial was sufficient to prove actual physical control where the police found
the defendant slumped over the steering wheel of the car, which had been
stopped in the middle of traffic, with his seatbelt fastened, the keys in the
ignition, and the parking lights on. Id. (citing Trial, 652 A.2d at 339-40).
Corbett argues the facts of her case more closely align with Price than those
of Trial, as Corbett was simply standing outside of a legally parked car when
the police arrived.
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Corbett also distinguishes her case from Commonwealth v. Johnson,
833 A.2d 260 (Pa.Super. 2003), in which she asserts we held that the idea
that an unknown person might have been driving the defendant’s car and fled
the scene of an accident was an “implausible and unconvincing” speculation.
Id. at 21-22 (quoting Johnson, 833 A.2d at 264). She argues that in
Johnson, the defendant had been in a two-vehicle crash, with no evidence to
support the existence of another driver, whereas here, Corbett told Officer
Hawk that Heather Burke had been shopping with her, and the vehicle was
parked only one block from Burke’s home, indicating that Burke might have
driven the vehicle. Id. at 22 (citing Johnson, 833 A.2d at 261, 264).
The circumstantial evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the
Commonwealth, as verdict-winner, supports a finding that Corbett drove the
car while intoxicated. The car was registered to her boyfriend, and Corbett
told Officer Hawk that she had just “dropped off” Burke. The commonsense
interpretation of this statement is that Corbett had driven them both to
Burke’s home, Burke had gotten out, and Corbett had continued driving. The
evidence was also sufficient to dispel any notion that Corbett became
intoxicated only after parking the vehicle. Not only was the hood of the car
still warm, but there was cold cottage cheese in the car, and no alcohol, drugs,
or drug paraphernalia to be found. This evidence was sufficient to prove
beyond a reasonable doubt that Corbett had driven the car while intoxicated.
The holding of Price does not compel a different result. In Price, as in
the case before us, the police found the intoxicated defendant with a parked
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vehicle, and the defendant admitted on the scene to having driven the vehicle.
610 A.2d at 488-89. However, in Price, the car was inoperable when the
police arrived, and at trial, the defendant introduced evidence proving that his
girlfriend had driven the car and had left to seek help – evidence that the jury
believed, as reflected by a special interrogatory on the verdict slip. Id. at 490.
Here, Corbett did not introduce any evidence at trial that so contradicted her
on-the-scene admissions to Officer Hawk as to invalidate those statements.
Nor was her car inoperable when the police arrived.
In contrast, in Johnson, a police officer responded to the scene of a
two-car accident, where she found the defendant leaning on the outside of his
car, women and children seated in the second car, and no other cars or
persons in a three-block radius. 833 A.2d at 261. We concluded the
defendant’s bald argument that an unnamed party may have driven his vehicle
and fled the scene of the accident to be entirely speculative. Id. at 263-64.
Similarly, Corbett’s argument that Burke could have driven the vehicle is
without basis in evidence, making Corbett’s case more akin to Johnson than
Price.3
Judgment of sentence affirmed.
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3 We agree with Corbett that her case is readily distinguishable from Trial,
where the police found the defendant passed out in a stalled car, with his keys
in the ignition and his seatbelt on, in the middle of traffic. 652 A.2d at 212-
13. There was no contest in this case that Corbett’s car was parked.
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Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 4/22/2021
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