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NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37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.
DAVON JERMAINE COLLINS
Appellant No. 3267 EDA 2015
Appeal from the PCRA Order September 30, 2015
In the Court of Common Pleas of Monroe County
Criminal Division at No(s): CP-45-CR-0001205-2000
BEFORE: GANTMAN, P.J., LAZARUS, J., and PLATT, J.*
MEMORANDUM BY LAZARUS, J.: FILED SEPTEMBER 22, 2016
Davon Jermaine Collins appeals from the order entered in the Court of
Common Pleas of Monroe County, dismissing his petition filed pursuant to
the Post Conviction Relief Act, 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9541-9546 (“PCRA”). Upon
careful review, we affirm.1
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*
Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.
1
This Court’s standard of review regarding an order dismissing a PCRA
petition is whether the determination of the PCRA court is supported by
evidence of record and is free of legal error. Commonwealth v. Burkett, 5
A.3d 1260, 1267 (Pa. Super. 2010) (citations omitted). In evaluating a
PCRA court’s decision, our scope of review is limited to the findings of the
PCRA court and the evidence of record, viewed in the light most favorable to
the prevailing party at the trial level. Id.
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On November 29, 2001, Collins was convicted in a non-jury trial of
first-degree murder and other offenses. On January 24, 2002, the court
sentenced Collins to a term of life imprisonment for first-degree murder, ten
to twenty years’ imprisonment for kidnapping, and one to two years’
imprisonment for abuse of a corpse, the latter two sentences to run
consecutively to each other, but concurrently with Collins’ life sentence.
On appeal, this Court affirmed his judgment of sentence.
Commonwealth v. Collins, 817 A.2d 1174 (Pa. Super. 2002) (unpublished
memorandum). The Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied Collins’ petition for
allowance of appeal on July 10, 2003. Commonwealth v. Collins, 827
A.2d 429 (Pa. 2003). Collins did not file a petition for writ of certiorari to the
United States Supreme Court. Therefore, his judgment of sentence became
final on or about October 8, 2003, after the ninety-day time period for filing
such a petition expired. See U.S.Sup.Ct.R. 13. Collins had one year from
that date, or until October 8, 2004, to file a timely PCRA petition. See 42
Pa.C.S.A. § 9545(b)(1). The instant petition was filed on August 6, 2015,
nearly twelve years after his judgment of sentence became final.
Accordingly, the PCRA court had no jurisdiction to entertain Collins’ petition
unless he pleaded and offered to prove one of the three statutory exceptions
to the time bar. See 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9545(b).
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Here, Collins invokes the newly-recognized-constitutional-right
exception under section 9545(b)(1)(iii),2 claiming that the decision of the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Hopkins, 117 A.3d 247
(Pa. 2014), in which it applied the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Alleyne
v. U.S., 133 S.Ct. 2151 (2013), renders his life sentence illegal. In
Alleyne, the Supreme Court held that any fact, other than a prior
conviction, that results in the application of a mandatory minimum sentence
must be submitted to the jury and found beyond a reasonable doubt. In
Hopkins, the Pennsylvania high court applied Alleyne to section 6317 of
the Crimes Code, which imposed mandatory minimum sentences for drug
crimes occurring in drug-free school zones, and concluded that the statute
was constitutionally infirm. Collins is entitled to no relief.
Here, Collins was convicted of first-degree murder. The sentence for
that crime is prescribed by 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 1102(a), which provides as
follows:
(1) Except as provided under section 1102.1 (relating to
sentence of persons under the age of 18 for murder, murder of
____________________________________________
2
Section 9545(b)(1)(iii) excepts an untimely filed petition from the one-year
jurisdictional time bar where a petitioner pleads and proves that:
the right asserted is a constitutional right that was recognized by
the Supreme Court of the United States or the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania after the time period provided in this section and
has been held by that court to apply retroactively.
42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9545(b)(1)(iii).
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an unborn child and murder of a law enforcement officer), a
person who has been convicted of a murder of the first degree or
of murder of a law enforcement officer of the first degree shall
be sentenced to death or to a term of life imprisonment in
accordance with 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711 (relating to sentencing
procedure for murder of the first degree).
18 Pa.C.S.A. § 1102(a)(1) (emphasis added).
Notably, section 1102 does not impose a mandatory minimum
sentence triggered by a “sentencing factor” of the type deemed
unconstitutional in Alleyne and Hopkins. Rather, where a defendant is
convicted of first-degree murder, no finding other than the verdict itself,
which is the product of a finding beyond a reasonable doubt, is necessary to
impose the sentence Collins received. Accordingly, Alleyne and Hopkins
are inapplicable to Collins’ claim and he is entitled to no relief.
Order affirmed.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 9/22/2016
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