Commonwealth v. Goodmond

190 A.3d 1197

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania

v.Charles GOODMOND, Appellant

No. 3349 EDA 2016

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted May 21, 2018

Filed June 15, 2018

Earl Douglas, Philadelphia, for appellant.

Lawrence J. Goode, Assistant District Attorney, Philadelphia, for Commonwealth, appellee.

William G. Burrows, Assistant District Attorney, Philadelphia, for Commonwealth, appellee.

BEFORE: OTT, J., McLAUGHLIN, J., and STEVENS^* , P.J.E.

OPINION BY STEVENS, P.J.E.:

Appellant Charles Goodmond appeals from the denial of his first petition filed pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA).¹ We affirm.

Appellant was convicted of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse ("IDSI"), unlawful contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault without consent, incest, endangering the welfare of a child, and corruption of a minor.² A panel of this Court previously set forth the relevant facts which led to these convictions as follows:

[Appellant] assaulted his daughter, C.M., over a four year period, beginning when C.M. was nine-years-old. C.M., who lived with her mother, visited [Appellant] every other weekend. C.M. stated that [Appellant] would take advantage of these visits to assault her. C.M. indicated that the first assault occurred while C.M. was visiting [Appellant] at his girlfriend's house in Philadelphia. C.M. testified that while she was sleeping, [Appellant] carried her from her bed to the living room sofa, where he laid her on top of him and began to rub her buttocks. [Appellant] then placed C.M. on the floor and exposed his penis. He made her rub his penis with her hand and then inserted it into her mouth and moved her head "up and down."

C.M. testified that [Appellant] continued to force her to perform oral sex on him nearly every time she visited him. C.M[.] also testified that [Appellant] inserted his fingers in her vagina on several of these occasions. Once, while C.M. was visiting [Appellant] at her grandmother's house, [Appellant] forced her to suck his penis, ejaculated in her mouth and had her spit his semen into a soda bottle.

C.M. testified that she tried to stop seeing [Appellant], and that she became depressed and began to cut herself as a result of the abuse. Eventually, C.M. told a counselor at a psychiatric inpatient facility that [Appellant] had sexually abused her. [Appellant] was subsequently arrested.

Commonwealth v. Goodmond , No. 185 EDA 2012, unpublished memorandum at 1–2 (Pa.Super. filed July 23, 2013).

Following a non-jury trial, Appellant was found guilty of the aforementioned crimes. On June 17, 2011, Appellant was sentenced to consecutive terms of ten (10) years to twenty (20) years in prison for the rape conviction and five (5) years to ten (10) years in prison for the IDSI conviction. The trial court further ordered that these prison terms would be followed by four consecutive terms of five (5) years' probation for the unlawful contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault, incest, and endangering the welfare of a child convictions.

Appellant filed post-sentence motions, which the trial court denied. Appellant thereafter filed a timely notice of appeal. As the trial court was no longer sitting on the bench at the time Appellant filed his appeal, a concise statement pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) was neither ordered nor filed. This Court denied the appeal in a memorandum decision filed on July 23, 2013. Commonwealth v. Goodmond , 82 A.3d 1074 (Table).

On July 16, 2014, Appellant filed the instant PCRA petition. Counselled amended petitions were filed on September 3, 2015, and on August 26, 2016. The PCRA court dismissed Appellant's petition on September 23, 2016, and the instant appeal followed on October 21, 2016. The trial court issued its Order pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) on March 31, 2017, and Appellant filed his Statement of Matters Complained of on April 18, 2017.

In his appellate brief, Appellant presents the following Statement of Questions Involved:

1. Did the trial court err by dismissing the Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) petition of [Appellant] because trial counsel was ineffective for failing to call any character witnesses to testify on [Appellant's] good character?

2. Did the trial court err by dismissing the Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) petition of [Appellant] where trial counsel was ineffective for failing to obtain the lab results from the rape kit to determine whether the victim had gonorrhea ?

Brief of Appellant at 3 (unnecessary capitalization omitted).

The applicable standards of review regarding the dismissal of a PCRA petition and ineffectiveness claims are as follows:

In reviewing the denial of PCRA relief, we examine whether the PCRA court's determinations are supported by the record and are free of legal error. The PCRA court's credibility determinations, when supported by the record, are binding on this Court; however, we apply a de novo standard of review to the PCRA court's legal conclusions.

Commonwealth v. Roney , 622 Pa. 1, 15–16, 79 A.3d 595, 603 (2013) (citation omitted), cert. denied , ––– U.S. ––––, 135 S.Ct. 56, 190 L.Ed.2d 56 (2014).

In order to obtain relief on an ineffectiveness claim, a petitioner must establish:

(1) the underlying claim has arguable merit; (2) no reasonable basis existed for counsel's actions or failure to act; and (3) petitioner suffered prejudice as a result of counsel's error such that there is a reasonable probability that the result of the proceeding would have been different absent such error. Trial counsel is presumed to be effective, and Appellant bears the burden of pleading and proving each of the three factors by a preponderance of the evidence.

Commonwealth v. Barndt , 74 A.3d 185, 192 (Pa.Super. 2013) (citations omitted). "A court is not required to analyze the elements of an ineffectiveness claim in any particular order of priority; instead, if a claim fails under any necessary element of the ineffectiveness test, the court may proceed to that element first." Commonwealth v. Tharp , 627 Pa. 673, 692, 101 A.3d 736, 747 (2014) (citations omitted).

Appellant first asserts counsel was ineffective for failing to call any character witnesses to testify as to Appellant's good character. Appellant attached to his first supplemental PCRA petition affidavits of his mother, Diane Harris, and another woman, Linda Ansley, which indicated they would testify as to his reputation in the community for "being honest" and "telling the truth." See Petition for Post Conviction Collateral Relief, filed September 3, 2015, Exhibit "A." Appellant contends such testimony would not have been utilized either to bolster or to impeach a witness, but rather baldly states that:

The importance of character testimony is extremely important in the case at bar because the conviction of Appellant [ ] of assaulting C.M. over a four year period beginning when she was 9 years old is based primarily on the testimony of C.M. The disclosure by C.M. happened when she told a counselor at a psychiatric inpatient facility that Appellant [ ] had sexually abused her. Appellant [ ] was subsequently arrested.

Character testimony was therefore extremely important in order to raise a reasonable doubt.

Brief of Appellant at 10–11, 17–18.³

We begin by noting that other than the aforementioned quotation, Appellant's argument on this point is comprised primarily of quotations and paraphrases of literary works and other writings by what Appellant refers to as "authors and other luminaries." See Brief of Appellant at 8–11, 15–18. Because this claim is undeveloped, we could find it waived, for this Court will not act as counsel and will not develop arguments on behalf of an appellant. See In re R.D. , 44 A.3d 657, 674 (Pa.Super. 2012), appeal denied, 618 Pa. 677, 56 A.3d 398 (2012) ; Commonwealth v. Jones , 583 Pa. 130, 140, 876 A.2d 380, 386 (2005) (undeveloped claims based upon a boilerplate assertion of counsel's ineffectiveness cannot establish counsel's ineffectiveness). Notwithstanding, this claim lacks merit.

As a general rule, evidence of a person's character may not be admitted to show that individual acted in conformity with that character on a particular occasion. Pa.R.E. 404(a). However, Pennsylvania Rule of Evidence 404(a)(1) provides an exception which allows a criminal defendant to offer evidence of his or her character traits which are pertinent to the crimes charged and allows the Commonwealth to rebut the same. Pa.R.E. 404(a)(1). This Court has further explained the limited purpose for which this evidence can be offered:

It has long been the law in Pennsylvania that an individual on trial for an offense against the criminal law is permitted to introduce evidence of his good reputation in any respect which has "proper relation to the subject matter" of the charge at issue. Such evidence has been allowed on a theory that general reputation reflects the character of the individual and a defendant in a criminal case is permitted to prove his good character in order to negate his participation in the offense charged. The rationale for the admission of character testimony is that an accused may not be able to produce any other evidence to exculpate himself from the charge he faces except his own oath and evidence of good character.

It is clearly established that evidence of good character is to be regarded as evidence of substantive fact just as any other evidence tending to establish innocence and may be considered by the jury in connection with all of the evidence presented in the case on the general issue of guilt or innocence. Evidence of good character is substantive and positive evidence, not a mere make weight to be considered in a doubtful case, and, ... is an independent factor which may of itself engender reasonable doubt or produce a conclusion of innocence. Evidence of good character offered by a defendant in a criminal prosecution must be limited to his general reputation for the particular trait or traits of character involved in the

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