Pennsylvania v. Spotz (majority)
Annotate this CaseThe Commonwealth appealed a Superior Court order which reversed an order denying Appellee’s petition pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA), vacated his judgment of sentence, and remanded for a new trial. Appellee, who was on parole for a robbery conviction at the time, and his brother, Dustin Spotz, got into an argument. The argument began when Dustin’s fiancee's teenage son placed a pet gerbil in front of Appellee’s face while he was watching television, resulting in Appellee yelling at the child and threatening to physically harm him. This angered Dustin, and the argument escalated into a physical confrontation, during which Dustin stabbed Appellee twice in the upper back with a butter knife, slightly wounding him. In response, Appellee threatened to kill Dustin, and he proceeded upstairs, returning with a handgun. Appellee fired eight shots at Dustin, two of which fatally struck Dustin in the chest. Appellee was charged with first degree murder, third degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, carrying a firearm without a license, and former convict not to own a firearm. Appellee took the stand at trial, claiming self-defense and defense of others, seeking an outright acquittal of the non-firearms charges. The jury acquitted Appellee of first and third degree murder, but convicted him of voluntary manslaughter (heat of passion), aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, and the firearms offenses. No timely direct appeal followed. However, in early 1996, Appellee filed a timely petition for PCRA relief in which he claimed ineffective assistance of trial counsel for failing to file a timely appeal from his judgment of sentence and seeking the restoration of his direct appeal rights nunc pro tunc. Following a hearing, the PCRA court granted Appellee relief, and he later filed a timely nunc pro tunc appeal. The Commonwealth subsequently filed a petition for allowance of appeal challenging the Superior Court’s summary finding trial counsel was ineffective. Appellee filed a protective cross-petition alleging the Superior Court erred in failing to address and resolve his additional ineffective assistance of counsel claims. Upon review, the Supreme Court concluded the Superior Court erred in vacating Appellee’s judgment of sentence and awarding him a new trial due to trial counsel’s ineffectiveness.
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