Commonwealth v. Hartleb

1

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA v. COREY LEE HARTLEB Appellant

No. 216 WDA 2022

No. J-S36044-22

Superior Court of Pennsylvania

March 6, 2023

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence Entered November 30, 2021 In the Court of Common Pleas of Erie County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-25-CR-0002127-2020

BEFORE: STABILE, J., KING, J., and COLINS, J. ^[*]

MEMORANDUM

COLINS, J.

Appellant Corey Lee Hartleb, appeals from the judgment of sentence of 6 to 12 years' incarceration and 3 years of probation imposed on him after he was convicted by a jury of aggravated assault serious bodily injury, aggravated assault bodily injury with a deadly weapon, and possession of a weapon.^[1] For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

This case arises out of a fight outside a bar on the night of January 31 to February 1, 2020, in which Appellant stabbed a man (Victim) in the neck. On June 12, 2020, Appellant was charged with aggravated assault serious bodily injury, aggravated assault bodily injury with a deadly weapon, possession of a weapon, and attempted murder.

In the first days of its investigation of the assault, the police obtained video footage from the bar's surveillance cameras inside of the bar that showed Appellant and Victim getting into an argument and leaving the bar with two other people before the fight occurred and Victim being brought back into the bar severely injured. The Commonwealth provided these videos to Appellant in pretrial discovery. On March 31, 2021, Appellant filed a motion seeking to compel the Commonwealth to produce video from the bar's outdoor surveillance camera. A hearing was held on this motion at which the bar owner and a police detective testified. The bar owner testified that there was video footage from a camera outside the bar that showed the fight and that she believed that the videos that she gave the police included that footage. N.T., 5/11/21, at 5-8. The police detective testified that when he viewed the videos received from the bar, he saw that they had only footage of the inside of the bar, that he contacted the bar owner to obtain outdoor surveillance video, and that she told him that the only outdoor camera was by the door and the video from this camera was too dark to see anything. Id. at 9-11. He testified that he made further attempts to obtain this outdoor video, but that the bar owner did not turn it over to the police. Id. at 11.

On May 14, 2021, Appellant filed a motion to dismiss the charges pursuant to Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) based on the Commonwealth's failure to provide the outdoor video. The trial court denied this motion on July 14, 2021. Prior to trial, Appellant also moved to exclude the testimony of a trauma surgeon who treated Victim's injuries on the ground that no expert report was provided, and the trial court ordered that this witness could testify to her observations as a lay witness, but could not testify as an expert. N.T. Motion in Limine Hearing, 9/14/21, at 11-17.

The charges against Appellant were tried to a jury on September 14 through 16, 2021. Six witnesses testified for the Commonwealth: Victim, a friend of Victim who went to the bar with him, the trauma surgeon, and three police officers and detectives who investigated the case. The Commonwealth also introduced in evidence and played videos of the inside of the bar showing the argument between Appellant and Victim before the fight and showing Victim being brought back in the bar after he was stabbed and later events. Appellant called the bar owner and a defense investigator as witnesses and testified in his own defense.

Victim testified that on January 31, 2020 he went to the bar with his friend and was drinking and flirting with a woman who sat down next to him when Appellant came up to him and accused him of attacking Appellant's brother a few years earlier. N.T. Trial, 9/14/21, at 38-45. Victim testified that he told Appellant that he didn't know what Appellant was talking about, that Appellant would not leave him alone, and that when he and Appellant were arguing loudly with each other, the bartender told them to "take it outside." Id. at 45-48. Victim testified that he, his friend, and his cousin, who was also at the bar, followed Appellant outside, that he and Appellant continued arguing, and that when he said that he was going back in to drink, Appellant punched him in the face. Id. at 48-51, 64-65, 75. Victim testified that he fought back after Appellant punched him and that as he and Appellant were fighting, they ended up on the ground and he got on top of Appellant. Id. at 51-53, 65. Victim testified that when he got on top of Appellant, he saw Appellant raise a knife and that Appellant stabbed him in the neck. Id. at 37-38, 52-57.

Victim's friend testified that he was with Victim at the bar drinking and Appellant came up to Victim and started arguing with Victim. N.T. Trial, 9/14/21, at 85-89. Victim's friend testified that he, Victim, and Victim's cousin followed Appellant outside and that after they got outside, Appellant began throwing punches at Victim and Victim fought back. Id. at 89-92. Victim's friend testified that Victim and Appellant fell to the ground, that Victim got on top of Appellant, and that he came over to try break up the fight. Id. at 94. Victim's friend testified that when he came over, Appellant grabbed his leg and he saw blood coming out of Victim's neck. Id. at 94-96. Victim's friend testified that he helped bring Victim back into the bar and that after he was back in the bar, he saw blood running down his own leg and found that he had been stabbed twice in the leg. Id. at 95-99, 101-03. Victim's friend also testified that no one other than Appellant was fighting with Victim and that Appellant was the only person who struck him or Victim. Id. at 93-96, 117-18.

The trauma surgeon testified that Victim's trachea was cut, that he needed a tube inserted to assist his breathing, and that the cut was only millimeters from Victim's carotid artery. N.T. Trial, 9/14/21, at 122-28. The police officer who went to the bar in response to the report of a fight and stabbing testified that he called emergency medical services to the scene and that later that night the bar owner showed him both video of the inside of the bar and a video recording from a camera outside of the bar. N.T. Trial, 9/15/21, at 13-14, 20. The officer testified that the outdoor video showed a fight, but that the participants moved away from the camera during the fight and that the video quality was too poor to identify the participants in the fight and who did what in the fight. Id. at 14-15, 32.

The police detective who obtained the videos from the bar a day or two after the incident testified that he requested all of the video footage from the time of the incident and that the bar owner selected and downloaded the videos onto the police thumb drive that he supplied. N.T. Trial, 9/14/21, at 31-33. A second police detective testified that he reviewed the videos right after the thumb drive was brought back and that the only videos were footage of the inside of the bar. N.T. Trial, 9/15/21, at 45. He also testified that he called the bar owner and asked for the outdoor video, that she told him that quality of the outdoor video was poor, and that she did not provide the outdoor video, although he requested it. Id. at 45-46.

Appellant testified that he was working at the bar on the night of January 31, 2020 helping the bartender, that the woman with whom Victim was flirting asked Appellant to tell Victim to leave her alone and that he approached Victim and told him to leave her alone. N.T. Trial, 9/15/21, at 90-92, 96. Appellant testified that Victim walked away, that the woman resumed being friendly with Victim and accepting drinks from him, and that she again asked Appellant to tell Victim to leave her alone. Id. at 96-97, 122-25. Appellant testified that when he approached Victim and told him to leave the woman alone the second time, Victim argued with him, Victim's cousin came over, and Victim's cousin and the bartender told them to go outside. Id. at 98-102. Appellant testified that he, Victim, Victim's friend, and Victim's cousin went outside and that after they got outside, Victim punched him and he punched back. Id. at 102-05. Appellant testified that another person who had been in the bar then grabbed him from behind and got on top of him and that while he was fighting the person on top of him, Victim's friend came over and punched him and other people outside the bar attacked him. Id. at 105-06. He testified that he got away, but came back when the person who had been on top of him called out that Appellant "owe[d] him a fair fight" and fought one-on-one with him. Id. at 106-07. Appellant testified that he ran off again, but that Victim caught up to him, that they wound up on the ground with Victim on top of him, that he got away a third time and went home after someone yelled "police" and pulled Victim off of him. Id. at 107-09. Appellant denied that he had a knife or stabbed anyone and testified that he did not know how Victim and Victim's friend were stabbed. Id. at 110, 143-44, 163-65. Appellant admitted that he did not call the police after the fight. Id. at 146-48.

The bar owner testified that she believed that she provided the outdoor video to the police in addition to the footage of the inside of the bar when the police initially came to get the video. N.T. Trial, 9/15/21, at 67-68. The bar owner further testified that she viewed the outdoor video with police on the night of the incident and that the outdoor video showed a fight that began near the door and moved away from the camera into the parking lot. Id...