Commonwealth v. Orr

255 A.3d 589

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee

v.Kameron Edward ORR, Appellant

No. 1195 MDA 2020

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted June 8, 2021

Filed July 01, 2021

Aaron N. Holt, Harrisburg, for appellant.

Kelby S. Carlson, Assistant District Attorney, York, for Commonwealth, appellee.

James E. Zamkotowicz, Assistant District Attorney, York, for Commonwealth, appellee.

BEFORE: LAZARUS, J., STABILE, J., AND MUSMANNO, J.

OPINION BY STABILE, J.:

Appellant, Kameron Edward Orr, appeals from his sentence of life imprisonment following his conviction for first-degree murder. Appellant contends that the trial court erred by admitting four text messages into evidence that were sent from Appellant's cell phone to the victim several nights before her murder. Appellant argues that the Commonwealth failed to authenticate these text messages because it failed to demonstrate that Appellant authored the messages. We hold that the Commonwealth properly authenticated the text messages, and we affirm.

The trial court accurately summarized the evidence adduced during trial as follows:

From July 17, 2017 to July 21, 2017, [Appellant] had a jury trial in this matter. The Commonwealth first presented Brent Reinhart to testify. Reinhart testified that on August 28, 2015, between 12:00 a.m. and 1:00 a.m., while he was getting ready for work at his home on Hartley Street in York, [he] heard more than four gunshots. [A]fter he heard the shots, he looked out the window and saw a male with dark skin wearing a hooded sweatshirt walking away briskly. [Appellant is African-American].

The Commonwealth next called Officer Christopher Husted to testify. Officer Husted was on duty when he responded to a suspicious vehicle call on North Hartley Street at 3:00 a.m. The officer observed an immobile, yet running grey Honda Odyssey minivan, and in the driver[’s] seat was an unresponsive female who had sustained multiple gunshot wounds. The body had no pulse, and was cooler than a regular body, leading the officer to conclude that the female was deceased. The [o]fficer took photos of the van at the crime scene, then turned the investigation over to detectives.

The next witness was Tina Sparks, the mother of the victim, Ruby Mercado. Sparks testified that on the morning of August 28, 2015, she was informed by the police that her daughter had been shot on Hartley Street and was deceased. She then testified that her daughter, the victim, shared a child with [Appellant]. She also testified as to receiving a letter from [Appellant] after the victim's death in which he wrote that the victim "didn't die from jealousy, anger, or aggression, and she didn't suffer." Upon cross-examination, she also testified that at the beginning of that same letter he wrote that he was not guilty of her death.

The Commonwealth next called Dr. Barbara Bollinger, the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy on the victim. Dr. Bollinger testified that the victim had two gunshot wounds to the head, four gunshot wounds to the torso, two gunshot wounds to the right arm, and two gunshot wounds on her left arm. The two gunshot wounds to the victim's head entered the right side of her head and exited on the left side, and both would have been fatal on their own. The gunshot wounds to the head also had powder residue and stippling around them, indicating that the barrel of the gun was held about an inch or two from the victim's skin. The two gunshots to the outside of her right arm were consistent with entry wounds, with power residue and stippling. The projectiles fractured her humerus bone, then exited the inside of her right arm. The two wounds on the right arm lined up with two of the wounds to the victim's torso, which would be consistent with the projectiles passing through the arm and into the torso. There were two other entrance wounds to the torso, and then two exit wounds which lined up with the two wounds to the inside of her left arm. The wounds to the torso would also have been fatal.

Two projectiles were located in her left arm. The doctor testified that in her opinion, after lining up the wounds on the arms and torso, there were six total gun shots suffered by the victim, coming from a shooter to her right.

Following Dr. Bollinger, the Commonwealth called Detective Christopher Perry. Detective Perry testified that he attended the autopsy of the victim, and collected evidence from it, including the victims clothing, hair, nail clippings, and the projectiles found in the victim's body. Detective Perry testified to his processing of the Honda Odyssey in the York City Police vehicle bay on September 1, 2015. Detective Perry found blood and body tissue on the front driver and passenger seats of the van and detected a large amount of suspected gunshot residue over the front dashboard of the car. Detective Perry also testified to taking swabs for DNA from a gun that was found later in the investigation.

The Commonwealth then called Darren Stephens, who knew both the victim and [Appellant]. Stephens testified that on the night of the incident, he saw the victim driving her van with [Appellant] in the passenger seat twice. The first observation was at about 10:30 p.m., and the second at about 12:00 a.m. The second time he saw them, the van turned on to Hartley Street, before he lost sight of the van. Hartley Street is where Mercado was murdered.

The Commonwealth's next witness was Michael Gorski, a forensic scientist and expert in gunshot residue. Gorski testified that he analyzed the samples taken from the Honda by Detective Perry for gunshot residue. The results of the analysis were that the sample from the passenger center console recorded the highest concentration of gunshot residue. The samples from the steering wheel and the dashboard also contained gunshot residue, but the sample from outside the front passenger door contained no gunshot residue.

The Commonwealth then called Detective Anthony Fetrow. Detective Fetrow testified that on the morning of August 29, 2015, he was with the officers who went to Tina Sparks’ home to inform her that her daughter was deceased, and at that time took into evidence the victim's cell phone from Sparks.

Detective Fetrow then testified as to the search of a house in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at which [Appellant] was apprehended, and in which the police found [Appellant]’s clothing and a backpack. Inside the backpack was a ZTE cellphone charger and a .357 Smith and Wesson six shot revolver pistol with 6 loose, live rounds.

The Commonwealth next called Trooper Todd Neumyer, a firearms and tool marks expert, who testified that the firearm recovered from the backpack was functional, and that two of the bullets recovered from the victim's body were discharged by that firearm. A comparison for the other two bullets was unable to be made as they were too mutilated. This placed the murder weapon in the possession of [Appellant].

Next, the Commonwealth elicited testimony from Thomas Walsh, a forensic biologist who performed DNA analysis in this case. Walsh testified that he received two reference samples, one from the victim and one from [Appellant]. Walsh compared these to samples received from various items, including: the grip of the firearm, the trigger and hammer of the firearm, the cylinder of the firearm, a hat left in the victim's vehicle, the victim's fingernail clippings; and a ZTE cell phone left in the Honda. Walsh testified that for all the parts of the gun, DNA from both the victim and [Appellant] was detected. DNA from [Appellant] was found on the hat discovered by the police on the floor of the victim's vehicle. As to the fingernail clippings of the victim, no conclusions could be drawn for whether or not [Appellant]’s DNA was present. Finally, for the ZTE cell phone found in the Honda, the major source contributor of DNA was [Appellant]. This evidence, consistent with Stephens’ eyewitness testimony, placed [Appellant] in the victim's vehicle immediately before she was murdered.

The Commonwealth next called Don Rau to testify. Rau was the operations manager at Precision Components the night of the incident, a business which was located on Hartley Street in York, and which was outfitted with security cameras. The cameras picked up a vehicle with its lights on appearing on North Harley Street at around midnight of the night of the incident, which was not present on the security cameras at 11:45 PM.

Following Rau, the Commonwealth called Officer Sean Rosier. Officer Rosier assisted in the processing of the crime scene on the morning of August 29, 2015. Officer Rosier took photos of the scene and vehicle, and noticed a hat and a ZTE cell phone on the front passenger seat floor, which he left to be collected by the officers who processed the Honda at the secure vehicle garage.

Next, the Commonwealth called Detective Kyle Hower. On August 29, 2015, Detective Hower went to the police substation where the Honda van was towed, retrieved the ZTE cell phone located on the passenger floorboard of the Honda, and swabbed that cell phone for DNA. Detective Hower during the course of the investigation also obtained a DNA sample from [Appellant].

Deputy Marshal Phillip Lewis of the U.S. Marshal Service was called next to testify. Deputy Marshal Lewis testified that his office assisted in the apprehension of [Appellant]. He further testified that he apprehended [Appellant] in a house in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where a relative of [Appellant] resided. After entering the house, the police called [Appellant] to come downstairs several times before he finally came downstairs from the second floor. Deputy Marshal Lewis stated that when calling for him to come down, they heard shuffling sounds on the second floor.

The Commonwealth then called the affiant, Detective George Ripley, to testify. Detective Ripley testified that when examining the ZTE cell phone that was located on the front passenger floor of the van, he was unable to access the phone, as it was

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