Com. of Pa. v. Mangel

181 A.3d 1154

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant

v.Tyler Kristian MANGEL, Matthew Robert Craft

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Appellant

v.Tyler Kristian Mangel, Matthew Robert Craft

No. 703 WDA 2017

No. 704 WDA 2017

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted November 13, 2017

Filed March 15, 2018

Mark W. Richmond, Assistant District Attorney, Erie, for Commonwealth, appellant.

Garrett A. Taylor, Erie, for Craft, appellee.

Kenneth A. Bickel, Erie, for Mangel, appellee.

BEFORE: SHOGAN, J., OTT, J., and MUSMANNO, J.

OPINION BY MUSMANNO, J.:

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania appeals from the Order denying its Motion in Limine to introduce Facebook posts and messages allegedly authored by defendant Tyler Kristian Mangel ("Mangel"). We affirm.

On June 26, 2016, Nathan Cornell ("Cornell") was assaulted at a graduation party. On July 15, 2016, a Criminal Complaint was filed against Mangel, at CR 2939 of 2016, charging him with aggravated assault, simple assault and harassment of Cornell. See 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 2702(a)(1), 2701(a)(1), 2709(a)(1). At CR 2940 of 2016, the Commonwealth filed a separate Criminal Complaint against Matthew Robert Craft ("Craft"), charging him with the same offenses. The criminal cases against Mangel and Craft were consolidated for trial. Attached to the Criminal Complaints was an Affidavit of Probable Cause,¹ which indicated that Cornell had told police that "several fights ensued as a result of an undetermined amount of people arriving" at the party. Affidavit of Probable Cause, 7/15/16, at 1. Cornell had further stated that "he was walking away from where these altercations were taking place when he was struck in the back of the head[,] knocked to the ground[,]" and "was repeatedly kicked and punched by [ ] Mangel [ ] and [ ] Craft [ ]." Id. Cornell also stated that he did not know Mangel or Craft, "nor had he been in contact with them during the course of the night, but he was able to identify them as a result of being shown Facebook pictures by his family." Id. As a result of the assault, Cornell suffered facial lacerations, a broken maxilla bone, a broken nasal bone, and seven of his teeth were knocked out. Id.

On March 15, 2017, the Commonwealth filed a Motion for Provider to Provide Subscriber Information, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 2307(c) and 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 5743(c) and (d), seeking to obtain Mangel's Facebook records. The trial court granted the Motion on that same date. At the time of jury selection on May 8, 2017, the Commonwealth filed a Motion in Limine to introduce screenshots of certain pages of a Facebook account for "Tyler Mangel," consisting of undated online and mobile device "chat" messages. See Motion in Limine , 5/8/17, at Appendices A–C. The Commonwealth also sought to introduce a Facebook screenshot wherein a photograph of purportedly bloody hands had been posted by "Justin Jay Sprejum Hunt." See id.

On May 8, 2017, the trial court conducted a hearing on the Motion, at which the Commonwealth presented the testimony of Erie County Detective Anne Styn ("Detective Styn"), whom the trial court qualified as an expert in computer forensics. N.T., 5/8/17, at 7. Detective Styn testified that she had received a request from the Commonwealth to determine the owner of a particular Facebook account, bearing the name "Tyler Mangel," and was provided with "Facebook screenshots captured from online, as well as mobile device chats" of that account taken by Trooper Schaeffer² of the Pennsylvania State Police. Id. at 7–8, 12–14.

Detective Styn then "conducted a search on Facebook for the individual's name, Tyler Mangel, in which only one name had populated at that time [as] being [‘]Tyler Mangel.[’]" N.T., 5/8/17, at 9. Detective Styn then compared the Facebook account that she had located to the screenshots that she had received from the Commonwealth, and noticed that both the screenshots and the Facebook account bore name "Tyler Mangel;" both listed the account holder as living in Meadville, Pennsylvania; and some of the photographs on the screenshots were the same as those on the Facebook account. Id. at 9. In the "about" section of the Facebook account located by Detective Styn, the page indicated that the individual had attended Meadville High School. Id. Detective Styn further testified that the username associated with the Facebook account was "Mangel17." Id. at 11. Upon receiving the requested subscriber records from Facebook, Detective Styn determined that the account was created by using the first name "Tyler" and the last name "Mangel," and the registered email addresses of mangel17@facebook and tylertkm@hotmail.com. Id. The Facebook subscriber records also indicated that the Facebook account had been verified by the cell phone number (814) 573–4409. Id. at 11–12. Detective Styn then obtained a court order for the Verizon subscriber records associated with this phone number, which identifed the owner of the number as "Stacy Mangel," residing at 10866 Pettis Road, Meadville, Pennsylvania. Id. at 12. The trial court took judicial notice of the fact that this particular address is the same as the address listed in the Criminal Complaint filed against Mangel. Id.

Detective Styn then compared the Facebook account that she had located to the screenshots provided to her by the Commonwealth, and came to the conclusion that the Facebook account that she had located "should be the same" as the account in the screenshots provided by the Commonwealth because both accounts (1) bore the name "Tyler Mangel;" (2) listed the account holder as living in Meadville, Pennsylvania; (3) listed the account holder as having attended Meadville High School; and (4) displayed several photographs which seemed to be of the same individual. Id. at 14. With regard to the screenshots of the mobile device chats that the Commonwealth initially provided to Detective Styn, she testified that "[t]he Facebook name itself ... and even the images on his Facebook page" added to her opinion that the chats came from Mangel. Id. at 15. Detective Styn referred to a post by "Tyler Mangel," in the screenshots provided by the Commonwealth, stating "[i]f all that you leave is a scratch you know you're a bitch[,]" and opined that "it looks like he's posting it in regard to an altercation that may or may not have happened." Id. at 16. When Detective Styn was asked what contextual clues she had found in the chats to indicate that they were from the same Facebook account, the defense objected. Id. After hearing argument from counsel, the trial court questioned Detective Styn, as follows:

The Court: Well, I'm the gatekeeper of admissibility. So[,] I want to know, first of all, can you even testify to a reasonable degree of computer and scientific certainty the answer to that question? I mean, can you do that? And[,] this is a criminal case. This is not probability. This is certainty and you know what that is.

[Detective] Styn: Correct.

The Court: So, can you do that, first of all?

[Detective] Styn: Based on my training and experience, in this particular instance I would solely base my testimony off the records that I received from Facebook and Verizon.

The Court: And could you do that with a reasonable degree of certainty that it was what? [ ] Mangel that did all of this?

[Detective] Styn: That this account was registered under Tyler Mangel's account and—

The Court: No. That [ ] Mangel actually did this. You can do that with a reasonable degree of certainty? You can say that he did this? That no one else intervened or someone else grabbed the account? You can do that?

[Detective] Styn: I cannot, Judge.

The Court: So, objection sustained.

Id. at 20. On cross-examination, Detective Styn testified that she did not obtain an IP address for the Facebook account she had located.³ Id. at 23. Defense counsel then showed Detective Styn his own cell phone, on which he had conducted a Facebook search for "Tyler Mangel," resulting in five accounts bearing that name, one of which listed Meadville, Pennsylvania, as the hometown. Id. at 24. Defense counsel took a screenshot of his Facebook search, which was admitted as an exhibit into evidence for the hearing. Additionally, the trial court admitted into evidence the screenshots taken by Detective Styn of the homepage and "about" page of the Facebook account she had located for "Tyler Mangel;" the Facebook and Verizon subscriber records; and the screenshots provided by the Commonwealth to Detective Styn of the online and mobile device chats on the Facebook account for "Tyler Mangel" located by Trooper Schaeffer. Id. at 21. At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court denied the Commonwealth's Motion in Limine.

On May 9, 2017, the Commonwealth timely filed a joint Notice of Appeal, pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 311(d), claiming that the trial court's Order denying its Motion in Limine terminated or substantially handicapped the prosecution of its criminal cases against Mangel and Craft. The Commonwealth thereafter filed a joint court-ordered Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) Concise Statement of matters complained of on appeal.⁴

On appeal, the Commonwealth raises the following issues for our review:

1. Did the trial court commit legal error when it applied a "reasonable degree of scientific certainty" standard in determining whether [the Commonwealth] provided adequate extrinsic evidence to support the authenticity of Facebook records?

2. Did the trial court commit legal error when it failed to apply "whether the jury could reasonably find the authenticity of the Facebook records by a preponderance of the evidence" standard in determining whether [the Commonwealth] provided adequate extrinsic evidence to support the authenticity of the Facebook records?

Brief for the Commonwealth at 3 (capitalization omitted).⁵

The Commonwealth claims that the trial court erred by applying "a reasonable degree of certainty, reliability, scientific, technological certainty" standard in determining whether the Commonwealth had satisfied the requirements for...