Com. v. Saunders, S. ( 2023 )

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NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37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. :
:
:
SAHEED O. SAUNDERS :
:
Appellant : No. 404 EDA 2022
Appeal from the PCRA Order Entered March 28, 2018
In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County Criminal Division at
No(s): CP-51-CR-0009795-2008
BEFORE: LAZARUS, J., NICHOLS, J., and McCAFFERY, J.
MEMORANDUM BY LAZARUS, J.: FILED APRIL 18, 2023
Saheed O. Saunders appeals from the order, entered in the Court of
Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, dismissing his first petition filed
pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9541-
9546. After review, we dismiss the appeal.
On January 18, 2008, at approximately 8:00 p.m., Saunders and two
other men were standing together on Huntingdon Street in Philadelphia. The
victim owed one of the three men $400.00. The group robbed the victim,
emptying the victim’s pockets, where they found, inter alia, $700.00 in cash.
They then drove in the victim’s car to an ATM machine and attempted to
withdraw cash using the victim’s bank card. Next, they drove to Chalmers
Recreation Center, where they asked the victim to call his wife to determine
if there was cash in their home, to which she responded in the negative.
Thereafter, Saunders pistol-whipped the victim and the other two individuals
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searched the victim’s car for valuables, at which point they found half an ounce
of cocaine. The three men decided to leave, and the victim began to yell
threats at the three men. Saunders then stated that “he wasn’t getting shot
no more,” returned to the car and shot the victim twice. The next morning,
the group burned the victim’s car, with him inside, to destroy the evidence.1
On March 8, 2013, Saunders was convicted by a jury of one count each
of second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit robbery, robbery, kidnapping,
and carrying a firearm without a license. He was represented by David
Rudenstein, Esquire, at trial. The court imposed a mandatory sentence of life
in prison for the murder charge with all other sentences to run concurrently.
Saunders filed post-sentence motions, which the court denied on June 28,
2013. On appeal to this Court, Saunders judgment of sentence was affirmed.
See Commonwealth v. Saunders, 105 A.3d 783 (Pa. Super. 2014) (Table).
Saunders’ petition for allowance of appeal was denied by the Supreme Court
of Pennsylvania on December 31, 2014. See Commonwealth v. Saunders,
106 A.3d 725 (Pa. 2014) (Table). Saunders did not seek review in the United
States Supreme Court. See U.S. Sup. Ct. R. 13 (“A petition for a writ of
certiorari seeking review of a judgment of a lower state court that is subject
to discretionary review by the state court of last resort is timely when it is
filed with the Clerk within 90 days after entry of the order denying
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1 See Trial Court Opinion, 10/1/12, at 2-4, for a thorough recitation of the
facts.
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discretionary review). Saunders’ judgment of sentence became final on March
31, 2015, and, thus, he had until March 31, 2016, to file any and all PCRA
petitions.
On February 23, 2015, Saunders filed a timely pro se PCRA petition and
Mitchell Strutin, Esquire, was appointed as counsel. On October 29, 2015,
Attorney Strutin filed a Turner/Finley no-merit letter2 and requested leave
to withdraw. On December 21, 2015, the court dismissed Saunders pro se
petition and granted Attorney Strutin’s motion to withdraw as counsel.
Saunders filed an appeal on January 22, 2016 and, while that appeal was
pending, a second pro se PCRA petition. On April 6, 2016, Sanders’ second
pro se petition was dismissed due to Saunders’ pending appeal in this Court.
On April 6, 2017, this Court vacated the order dismissing Saunders’ first
PCRA petition and remanded for the PCRA court to conduct an evidentiary
hearing on Saunders’ claim that trial counsel, Attorney Rudenstein, was
ineffective for failing to call alleged alibi witness Sherry Lockett, Saunders’
cousin. This Court also directed that PCRA counsel be appointed and, if
counsel deemed necessary, an amended petition be filed. See
Commonwealth v. Saunders, 308 EDA 2018 (Pa. Super. filed April 6, 2017)
(unpublished memorandum decision).
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2Commonwealth v. Turner, 544 A.2d 927 (Pa. 1988); Commonwealth v.
Finley, 550 A.2d 213 (Pa. Super. 1988).
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On May 17, 2017, the PCRA court appointed Earl Kauffman, Esquire,
who filed an amended PCRA petition reasserting Saunders’ ineffective
assistance of counsel claim.3 On March 28, 2018, the PCRA court held an
evidentiary hearing on the sole issue of trial counsel’s alleged ineffectiveness
for failing to call Sherry Lockett as an alibi witness. Following the hearing, the
Court dismissed Saunders’ petition.4 Saunders did not file an appeal.
On July 26, 2018, Saunders filed a third pro se PCRA petition claiming
that Attorney Kauffman failed to file a requested appeal of the March 28, 2018
dismissal of his first PCRA petition, and sought reinstatement of his collateral
appeal rights, nunc pro tunc. On August 20, 2018, before the PCRA court
ruled on Saunders’ third pro se PCRA petition, Saunders’ filed a pro se notice
of appeal. At a status hearing on September 28, 2018 before the PCRA court,
Attorney Kauffman stated that he would withdraw the pending pro se appeal.
On October 3, 2018, this Court granted the motion to withdraw the appeal.
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3 In the amended PCRA petition, Attorney Kauffman also averred that
Saunders wished to add an illegality of sentencing claim under Miller v.
Alabama, 567 U.S. 406 (2012). However, Attorney Kauffman noted that he
would not raise this claim at an evidentiary hearing because Miller does not
apply to a defendant who is 18 or older.
4 At the evidentiary hearing, Lockett testified that the last time she saw
Saunders that night was between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., see N.T.
Evidentiary Hearing, 3/28/18, at 12, at least an hour before the murder
occurred. See also PCRA Court Opinion, 4/13/22, at 12 (“Because [Lockett]
did not actually provide [Saunders] with an alibi, [Attorney Rudenstein] had
no reason to call [Lockett] as a witness, and could not have been ineffective
for failing to do so.”).
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On November 30, 2018, Saunders filed, though Attorney Kauffman, an
amended third PCRA petition requesting that his rights to appeal the March
28, 2018 dismissal of his first PCRA petition be reinstated, nunc pro tunc,
because Attorney Kauffman did not file Saunders’ requested appeal. The
amended PCRA petition concedes, “[Saunders] advised counsel he wished to
appeal.” PCRA Petition, 11/30/2018, at 2. On December 7, 2018, the PCRA
court granted Saunders relief and, through Attorney Kauffman,5 Saunders
filed a notice of appeal, nunc pro tunc.
On October 21, 2019, this Court dismissed Saunders’ appeal, finding
that his amended third pro se petition was untimely and therefore, the PCRA
court lacked jurisdiction to reinstate his right to appeal the dismissal of his
first pro se petition. See Commonwealth v. Saunders, 28 EDA 2019 (Pa.
Super. filed October 21, 2019) (unpublished memorandum decision). This
Court reasoned that pursuant to Commonwealth v. Ballance, 203 A.3d
1027 (Pa. Super. 2019), Saunders was required, but failed to, plead and prove
any of the timeliness exceptions in 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9545(b)(1)(i)-(iii). This
Court also permitted Attorney Kauffman to withdraw.
Saunders filed a fourth pro se PCRA petition on November 15, 2019,
wherein he again requested reinstatement of his right to appeal the dismissal
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5 Although Saunders was still represented by Attorney Kauffman on appeal
and counsel could not raise his own ineffectiveness, “a defendant [who wishes]
to assert claims that PCRA counsel was ineffective can request to have new
counsel appointed to permit the assertion of such claims or can seek to
represent himself.” Commonwealth v. Stahl, 2023 PA Super 17, --- A.3d -
--, *3 (Pa. Super. 2023).
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of his first pro se PCRA petition and raised an ineffective assistance of counsel
claim based on Attorney Kauffman’s failure to file an appeal. Saunders
claimed it was not until October 3, 2018 that he learned Attorney Kauffman
did not file an appeal of the PCRA court’s dismissal of Saunders’ first petition
and, thus, he met a timeliness exception. James Berardinelli, Esquire, was
appointed as PCRA counsel on July 24, 2020, but moved to withdraw on
September 1, 2020. On September 18, 2020, Attorney Berardinelli was
relieved, and on September 22, 2020, the court appointed Coley Reynolds,
Esquire, as PCRA counsel.
On April 5, 2021, Saunders filed a motion to proceed pro se. However,
before the court could rule on his motion, Saunders retained Teri Himebaugh,
Esquire, as counsel. On December 1, 2021, Attorney Himebaugh filed an
amended fourth petition, raising claims of police misconduct and Brady6
violations and seeking reinstatement of Saunders’ right to appeal from the
March 28, 2018 dismissal of his first PCRA petition. Upon finding that it had
jurisdiction due to the newly-discovered fact exception to the PCRA time bar,
the PCRA court reinstated Saunders’ rights to appeal, nunc pro tunc, the
dismissal of his first PCRA petition.
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6 Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) (holding “the suppression by the
prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due
process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment,
irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution”).
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On December 18, 2021, Saunders filed a nunc pro tunc appeal from the
PCRA court’s December 21, 2015 order dismissing his first petition. However,
that order had already been vacated and the case remanded for an evidentiary
hearing. Thereafter, the docket was corrected to reflect that the appeal lies
from the March 28, 2018 order dismissing his first PCRA petition. Following
this correction, Saunders was directed to, and timely filed, a Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b)
concise statement of errors complained of on appeal.
Saunders raises one question for our review: “Did the PCRA [c]ourt err
when it found that trial counsel was not ineffective, in violation of [Saunders’]
Sixth Amendment rights, for failing to present alibi witness Sherry Lockett?”
Appellant’s Brief, at 3. Specifically, Saunders argues that the PCRA court
abused its discretion by not giving sufficient weight to the 2010 statement
Lockett made. Saunders claims that the “last time [Lockett] had a clear
independent, personal memory of what took place was when she gave her
statement in 2010 to the private investigator.” Appellant’s Brief, at 19.
However, “[b]efore [this Court] can address the merits of [this] issue,
[] we must determine if the PCRA court had jurisdiction to restore [Saunders’
collateral] appeal [rights] such that this appeal is properly before us for
review.” Ballance, supra at 1030-31. A petitioner must file a PCRA petition
within one year of the date his judgment of sentence becomes final. See 42
Pa.C.S.A. § 9545(b)(1); id. at § 9545(b)(3) (stating that judgment of
sentence becomes final at conclusion of direct review or expiration of time for
seeking review). If a petitioner fails to file a PCRA petition within one year,
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he must plead and prove an exception to the one-year time bar listed in 42
Pa.C.S.A. § 9545(b)(i)-(iii). This jurisdictional time bar is applied to all
petitions, including second or subsequent petitions. Ballance, supra at 1031.
Here, Saunders’ judgment of sentence became final on March 31, 2015,
90 days after his petition for allowance of appeal was denied by the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Thus, he had one year, or until March 31, 2016,
to file any and all petitions. Id. The petition pursuant to which the PCRA
court granted the relief resulting in his nunc pro tunc appeal—Saunders’
fourth—was filed on November 15, 2019, almost four years after this
judgment of sentence became final. Thus, Saunders was required to plead
and prove a timeliness exception.
Although Saunders’ fourth petition pleads an exception, he fails to prove
its merit. Saunders argues that “the Superior Court specifically stated in its
Order that the ‘new fact exception’ to the PCRA’s time-bar, 42 Pa.C.S.[A]. §
9545(b)(I)(ii), was applicable.”7 Fourth Amended PCRA Petition, 12/01/21, at
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7 In Saunders, 28 EDA 2019, while reviewing Saunders third PCRA petition,
this Court stated,
The unjustified failure to file a requested appeal constitutes per se
ineffectiveness. See Commonwealth v. Lantzy, 736 A.2d 654,
572 (Pa. 1999). In Commonwealth v. Peterson, 192 A.3d 1123(Pa. 2018), our Supreme Court held that the petitioner's discovery
of his counsel's per se ineffectiveness constituted a newly
discovered ‘fact’ that satisfied the timeliness exception of section
9545(b)(l)(ii), as the petitioner had pled applicability of the
timeliness exception within 60 days of learning of his counsel's
(Footnote Continued Next Page)
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6. Specifically, Saunders claims that he did not know Attorney Kauffman failed
to file a requested appeal of Saunders’ first PCRA petition following the March
28, 2018 evidentiary hearing until October 3, 2018. See Third Pro Se PCRA
Petition, 11/15/2019, at 11, 13 (unpaginated). Thus, Saunders claims he had
until October 3, 2019 to file a PCRA petition.
Here, however, even accepting Saunders’ argument that counsel’s
ineffectiveness was a newly discovered fact, Saunders’ fourth petition, filed
on November 15, 2019, is still beyond his allotted time to file PCRA petition.
See 42 Pa.S.C.A. § 9545(b)(2) (“Any petition invoking a [timeliness
exception] in [42 Pa.S.C.A. § 9545(b)(1)] shall be filed within one year of the
date the claim could have been presented.”).8
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ineffectiveness, and he demonstrated that he could not have
discovered it sooner with the exercise of due diligence.
Id. at 10 n.5. We note that as of December 15, 2018, the 60-day time bar to
file a petition has been extended to one year. See 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9545(b).
8 We are cognizant of our Supreme Court’s decision in Commonwealth v.
Bradley, 261 A.3d 381 (Pa. 2021), where it determined that a petitioner is
permitted to raise claims of ineffective PCRA counsel at the first opportunity
to do so, even if on appeal. Id. at 401. However, Bradley does not create
an exception to the PCRA’s time bar. Id. at 404 n.18 (“We decline to adopt
[an] approach [] that would deem a petitioner’s ‘discovery’ of initial PCRA
counsel’s ineffective assistance to constitute a “new fact” that was unknown
to petitioner, allowing such petitioner to overcome, in a successive petition,
the PCRA’s time bar provision under the ‘new fact’ exception.”). See also
Stahl, supra at *4, citing Bradley, at 406 (Justice Dougherty concurring)
(“Importantly, our decision today does not create an exception to the PCRA’s
jurisdictional time-bar, such that a petitioner represented by the same counsel
in the PCRA court and on PCRA appeal could file an untimely successive PCRA
petition challenging initial PCRA counsel’s ineffectiveness because it was his
’first opportunity to do so.’”).
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Because Saunders failed to plead and prove a timeliness exception, the
PCRA court lacked jurisdiction to consider the merits of his petition.
Accordingly, the PCRA court’s reinstatement of Saunders’ collateral appeal
rights, nunc pro tunc, was in error. Ballance, supra.
Appeal dismissed.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 4/18/2023
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