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NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
PENNSYLVANIA
Appellee
v.
WYATT ELLIS
Appellant No. 1226 EDA 2014
Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence December 6, 2013
In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County
Criminal Division at No(s): CP-51-CR-0006999-2012
BEFORE: BOWES, J., OTT, J., and MUSMANNO, J.
MEMORANDUM BY OTT, J.: FILED AUGUST 21, 2015
Wyatt Ellis appeals from the judgment of sentence entered on
December 6, 2013, in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County
following his conviction by a jury on charges of possession of a prohibited
firearm, carrying a firearm without a license, and carrying a firearm in public
in Philadelphia.1 Ellis received an aggregate sentence of eight to sixteen
years’ incarceration. In this timely appeal, Ellis claims the trial court erred in
denying his motion to suppress. After a thorough review of the submissions
by the parties, relevant law, and the certified record, we affirm.
Initially, we note,
[a]n appellate court's standard of review in addressing a
challenge to a trial court's denial of a suppression motion is
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1
18 Pa.C.S. §§ 6110.2(a), 6106(a)(1), and 6108 respectively.
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limited to determining whether the factual findings are supported
by the record and whether the legal conclusions drawn from
those facts are correct. [Because] the prosecution prevailed in
the suppression court, we may consider only the evidence of the
prosecution and so much of the evidence for the defense as
remains uncontradicted when read in the context of the record
as a whole. Where the record supports the factual findings of the
trial court, we are bound by those facts and may reverse only if
the legal conclusions drawn therefrom are in error.
Commonwealth v. Postie, 110 A.3d 1034, 1039 (Pa. Super. 2015)
(citation omitted).
We adopt the trial court’s recitation of the facts as stated on pages 2-4
of the Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a) opinion, dated 12/11/2014, which we summarize
briefly: In the early morning hours of May 25, 2012, Police Officers Wayne
Stinson and Christopher Warrick were on patrol in an unmarked police car in
the 17th police district. From having spoken to the victim and hearing a
report via police radio, they were on the lookout for a black male, dressed in
all dark clothing who had committed a gunpoint robbery. Approximately one
block away from the robbery site, they saw a black male walking down
Fitzwater Street who was wearing black tactical pants and a black sweater.
The man, later identified as Ellis, noticed the police car and ducked between
two parked cars. The officers stopped their car approximately 20 feet from
where Ellis ducked down and Officer Stinson got out. They did not activate
lights or siren on the car. Officer Stinson identified himself as police. At
that time, Ellis started running away from the officer, holding something in
his front waistband as he fled. The police gave chase, eventually catching
Ellis and discovering a .380 Lorcin semi-automatic handgun on his person.
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The gun was loaded with six live rounds of ammunition. Officer Stinson
testified this took place in a high crime area, noted for gun arrests,
shootings and gun-point robberies.
Against this factual background, Ellis claims the description of a black
male in dark clothing was too vague to provide the police with either a
reasonable suspicion or probable cause to stop him. He asserts because the
police improperly detained him, any evidence obtained from that stop was
fruit of the poisoned tree and should have been suppressed.
There are three levels of interaction between citizens and the police.
These are mere encounter, investigative detention, and custodial detention
(arrest):
A mere encounter can be any formal or informal interaction
between an officer and a citizen, but will normally be an inquiry
by the officer of a citizen. The hallmark of this interaction is that
it carries no official compulsion to stop or respond.
In contrast, an investigative detention, by implication, carries an
official compulsion to stop and respond, but the detention is
temporary, unless it results in the formation of probable cause
for arrest, and does not possess the coercive conditions
consistent with a formal arrest. Since this interaction has
elements of official compulsion it requires reasonable suspicion
of unlawful activity. In further contrast, a custodial detention
occurs when the nature, duration and conditions of an
investigative detention become so coercive as to be, practically
speaking, the functional equivalent of an arrest.
Commonwealth v. Nguyen, ___ A.3d ___, [2015 PA Super 98 at *5] (Pa.
Super. 4/27/2015) (citation omitted).
Also relevant to our analysis,
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To determine whether a mere encounter rises to the level of an
investigatory detention, we must discern whether, as a matter of
law, the police conducted a seizure of the person involved.
To decide whether a seizure has occurred, a court must consider
all the circumstances surrounding the encounter to determine
whether the demeanor and conduct of the police would have
communicated to a reasonable person that he or she was not
free to decline the officer's request or otherwise terminate the
encounter. Thus, the focal point of our inquiry must be whether,
considering the circumstances surrounding the incident, a
reasonable [person] innocent of any crime, would have thought
he was being restrained had he been in the defendant's shoes.
Id. at 5-6 (citation omitted).
The gist of Ellis’s argument is that by exiting the police car and
announcing himself as a police officer, Officer Stinson subjected Ellis to an
investigative detention without reasonable suspicion. Accepting for the sake
of argument that the description of a black male dressed in all dark clothing
was too vague to support a reasonable suspicion of any person so described,
we must determine whether Officer Stinson’s action constituted an
investigative detention.
Ellis has provided no case law to support his contention that a police
officer exiting a car and saying the word “Police” equates to the detention of
a citizen.2 Rather, we agree with the able analysis provided by the
Honorable Denis P. Cohen in his Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a) opinion, as follows:
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2
Ellis appears to have made an unsupported conclusion that because the
police had an inkling that the person they saw, dressed in black and
matching the general description of the suspect, could have been involved in
the gunpoint robbery, any contact between the police and Ellis constituted
an improper investigative detention. This conclusion ignores the fact that
(Footnote Continued Next Page)
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To determine whether or not a seizure has occurred, the Court
must consider, based on the totality of the circumstances,
whether an objectively reasonable person would have believed
he was free to leave. Commonwealth v. Lyles, 54 A.3d 76, 79
(Pa. Super. 2012). Evidence that merely indicates that a
uniformed officer approached a citizen for questioning is
insufficient to conclude that a seizure has occurred.
Commonwealth v. Jones, 378 A.2d 835, 839-40 (Pa. 1977).
Instead, in situations where a citizen is neither ordered to stop
nor physically restrained, the Court must consider “all of the
circumstances which may in any way evidence a show of
authority or exercise of force.” Id. After considering the totality
of circumstances evidencing a show of force, the pivotal inquiry
is whether “a reasonable man, innocent of any crime, would
have thought (he was being restrained) had he been in the
defendant’s shoes.” Id.
In the instant case, at the time Officer Stinson announced his
presence by saying the word “Police,” Officers Stinson and
[Warrick] were twenty feet away from [Ellis] and had not
addressed [him] in any other way. See (N.T. 10/09/2013 at 18,
20-21). Though the officers were in uniform, neither officer had
activated their vehicle’s police lights, drawn their weapons,
asked [Ellis] any questions, or requested [Ellis] to stop. (Id. at
10-13, 19-21). Additionally, the announcement of “Police”
occurred after the Officers stepped out of an unmarked police
vehicle at approximately 1:30 a.m., in an area known for
violence, and while the Officers were in the middle of a public
street. (Id. at 13-14, 19-21). Given the totality of the
circumstances, no reasonable man, innocent of any crime, would
have thought that Officers Stinson and [Warrick] were
restraining him by simply announcing their presence in such an
area. See Jones, 378 A.2d at 840. Thus, contrary to [Ellis’s]
contention, Officers Stinson and Warrick had not yet seized
[Ellis] when Officer Stinson announced “Police,” and needed no
justification for their “mere encounter” with [Ellis]. See id.;
Lyles, 54 A.3d at 79 (holding that “mere encounters” need not
be supported by any level of suspicion).
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(Footnote Continued)
the police may always initiate a mere encounter with a citizen. Accordingly,
an inkling or hunch about a person does not prevent a police officer from
contacting that person, but it will not support the detention of that person.
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Rather, as the Commonwealth contends, [Ellis] was initially
seized after he fled and Officers Stinson and [Warrick] started
chasing him. See Commonwealth v. Matos, 672 A.2d 769,
771 (Pa. 1996) (stating that the pursuit of a fleeing defendant
constitutes a seizure). Because [Ellis’s] flight was unprovoked
and in a high-crime area, the Officers had reasonable suspicion
to stop [Ellis] and the initial seizure was lawful. In re D.M., 781
A.2d 1161, 1164 (Pa. 2001), (“[U]nprovoked flight in a high
crime area is sufficient to create a reasonable suspicion to justify
a Terry stop under the Fourth Amendment.”).
Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a) Opinion, 12/11/2014, at 4-5.
Because the police did not improperly detain Ellis, regardless of the
description of the suspected robber, the trial court did not err in denying
Ellis’s motion to suppress. Therefore, there is no basis upon which Ellis is
entitled to relief.
Judgment of sentence affirmed.
Musmanno, J., joins in this memorandum.
Bowes, J., concurs in the result.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 8/21/2015
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