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NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37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.
HAMEED CAHOON,
Appellant No. 2018 WDA 2014
Appeal from the PCRA Order November 12, 2014
In the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County
Criminal Division at No(s): CP-02-CR-0003460-2007, CP-02-CR-0003463-
2007, CP-02-CR-0004767-2007
BEFORE: SHOGAN, SOLANO, and STRASSBURGER,* JJ.
MEMORANDUM BY SHOGAN, J.: FILED NOVEMBER 04, 2016
Appellant, Hameed Cahoon, appeals from the order denying his
petition filed pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa.C.S.
§§ 9541-9546. We affirm.
In disposing of Appellant’s direct appeal, a prior panel of this Court set
forth the relevant facts and procedural history of this case as follows:
On November 18, 2009, following [a] bench trial, appellant
was convicted of one count of robbery of motor vehicle, and two
counts each of robbery, criminal conspiracy, and access device
fraud. Appellant’s convictions arose from three separate criminal
episodes. On December 22, 2006, Courtney Connolly was in the
passenger seat of her father’s vehicle at an Exxon gas station on
Forbes Avenue in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. While
her father was in the station, appellant opened the driver’s door,
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*
Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.
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displayed a gun, and ordered Connolly out of the car. After
Connolly exited the vehicle, appellant drove off.
On January 2, 2007, Byron Gold was accosted by appellant
and Brandon Williams in the Shadyside neighborhood of
Pittsburgh as Gold was walking to his car after work. Appellant
held a gun to Gold’s chest. Appellant and Williams stole Gold’s
wallet, telephone, and a bag of clothing. Gold specifically
identified both appellant and Williams.
On January 7, 2007, Katie Murt was approached by
appellant and another man on Melwood Avenue in Oakland as
Murt walked to her boyfriend’s apartment. Appellant pointed a
gun at Murt and took her purse from her. The purse contained
cash, a digital camera, and debit and credit cards. The robbers
also took Murt’s cellular telephone which she was using at the
moment of the robbery. Murt specifically identified appellant, but
was not asked to identify the other individual at trial.
The Commonwealth sought mandatory minimum
sentencing at the three robbery convictions. On February 2,
2010, appellant was sentenced to an aggregate term of 23 to 76
years’ imprisonment with all sentences being imposed
consecutively. The sentence was within both the sentencing
guidelines and statutory limits. On February 3, 2010, appellant
filed a post-sentence motion. Therein, appellant conceded that
his sentence was within the court’s discretion, but requested that
his sentences be run concurrently. The motion then listed
various mitigating factors and rehabilitative needs. The motion
also requested an arrest of judgment and a new trial based upon
insufficient evidence. On May 19, 2010, a hearing was held on
the post-sentence motion. At the hearing, appellant requested
that his sentences be run concurrently, specifically suggesting an
aggregate sentence of 15 to 30 years’ imprisonment. Appellant
argued his youthful age (19) at the time of the offenses and the
fact that no victim was harmed as justification for a lesser
sentence. On June 21, 2010, the trial court denied appellant’s
post-sentence motion.
Commonwealth v. Cahoon, 524 WDA 2011, 53 A.3d 930 (Pa. Super. filed
June 12, 2012) (unpublished memorandum at 1-3) (internal footnotes
omitted). Appellant filed an appeal to this Court, and on June 12, 2012, we
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affirmed Appellant’s judgment of sentence. Id. Appellant did not petition
for allowance of appeal with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Therefore,
Appellant’s judgment of sentence became final on July 12, 2012. 42 Pa.C.S.
§ 9545(b)(3) (“[A] judgment becomes final at the conclusion of direct
review, including discretionary review in the Supreme Court of the United
States and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, or at the expiration of time
for seeking the review.”); Pa.R.A.P. 903(a) (the notice of appeal shall be
filed within thirty days after the entry of the order from which the appeal is
taken).
On September 9, 2014, Appellant filed the instant PCRA petition. The
PCRA court appointed counsel, and on September 24, 2014, appointed
counsel filed a motion to withdraw and a Turner/Finley1 “no-merit” letter.
On September 29, 2014, the PCRA court granted counsel’s motion to
withdraw and provided Appellant notice of its intent to dismiss the PCRA
petition without a hearing pursuant to Pa.R.Crim.P. 907. The PCRA court
denied Appellant’s PCRA petition on November 12, 2014. Appellant filed a
timely pro se notice of appeal, and the PCRA court appointed current counsel
to represent Appellant. Both Appellant and the PCRA court have complied
with Pa.R.A.P. 1925.
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1
See Commonwealth v. Turner, 544 A.2d 927 (Pa. 1988), and
Commonwealth v. Finley, 550 A.2d 213 (Pa. Super. 1988) (en banc)
(setting forth the requirements for counsel seeking to withdraw in collateral
proceedings).
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On appeal, Appellant presents the following issues for this Court’s
consideration:
Did the PCRA court err when it dismissed [Appellant’s] petition
for post conviction collateral relief without a hearing, and allowed
PCRA counsel to withdraw, where counsel failed to present
evidence supporting a finding that an exception to the one-year
limitation for filing a PCRA petition applied; and was PCRA
counsel ineffective for filing a Turner/Finley letter where
evidence existed showing that despite exercising due diligence to
the extent that circumstances allowed, [Appellant] did not learn
that the Superior Court had decided his direct appeal until within
sixty days of filing his pro se PCRA petition?
Appellant’s Brief at 6 (bold type and full capitalization omitted).
Our standard of review of an order denying relief under the PCRA
requires us to determine whether the decision of the PCRA court is
supported by the evidence of record and is free of legal error.
Commonwealth v. Perez, 103 A.3d 344, 347 (Pa. Super. 2014). “The
PCRA court’s findings will not be disturbed unless there is no support for the
findings in the certified record.” Commonwealth v. Lippert, 85 A.3d 1095,
1100 (Pa. Super. 2014).
A PCRA petition must be filed within one year of the date that the
judgment of sentence becomes final. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9545(b)(1). This time
requirement is mandatory and jurisdictional in nature, and may not be
ignored in order to reach the merits of the petition. Commonwealth v.
Jones, 54 A.3d 14, 16 (Pa. 2012). A judgment of sentence “becomes final
at the conclusion of direct review, including discretionary review in the
Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,
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or at the expiration of time for seeking the review.” 42 Pa.C.S. §
9545(b)(3).
As noted above, Appellant’s judgment of sentence became final on July
12, 2012; therefore, Appellant had until July 12, 2013, to file a timely PCRA
petition. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9545(b)(1). Appellant did not file his PCRA petition
until September 9, 2014, rendering Appellant’s petition patently untimely.
However, an untimely PCRA petition may be received when the
petition alleges, and the petitioner proves, that any of the three limited
exceptions to the time for filing the petition, set forth at 42 Pa.C.S. §
9545(b)(1)(i), (ii), and (iii), is met.2 A petition invoking one of these
exceptions must be filed within sixty days of the date the claim could first
have been presented. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9545(b)(2). In order to be entitled to
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2
The exceptions to the timeliness requirement are:
(i) the failure to raise the claim previously was the result of
interference by government officials with the presentation of the
claim in violation of the Constitution or laws of this
Commonwealth or the Constitution or laws of the United States;
(ii) the facts upon which the claim is predicated were unknown
to the petitioner and could not have been ascertained by the
exercise of due diligence; or
(iii) 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. § 9545(b)(1)(i), (ii), and (iii).
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the exceptions to the PCRA’s one-year filing deadline, “the petitioner must
plead and prove specific facts that demonstrate his claim was raised within
the sixty-day time frame” under section 9545(b)(2). Commonwealth v.
Carr, 768 A.2d 1164, 1167 (Pa. Super 2001).
Appellant claims that he failed to file a timely PCRA petition because
he was unaware that this Court affirmed his judgment of sentence on June
12, 2012, even though he allegedly wrote to counsel requesting information
on his appeal. Appellant’s Brief at 14-15.3 Appellant avers that he first
learned of the June 12, 2012 decision on August 28, 2014, after he wrote to
this Court’s Office of the Prothonotary. Id. at 14-15. Appellant argues that
he acted with due diligence and filed his PCRA petition within sixty days of
learning that his judgment of sentence had been affirmed. Id. at 15.
As noted above, the timing requirements of the PCRA are
jurisdictional. Jones, 54 A.3d at 16. Moreover, the sixty-day after-
discovered facts exception applies only where the facts could not have been
ascertained through due diligence. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9545(b)(1)(ii).
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3
Attached to Appellant’s Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement are copies of letters
Appellant allegedly sent to counsel between 2012 and 2014 requesting
information on the status of his direct appeal. Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement,
9/29/15, at Exhibits 1-6. These letters bear no date stamps or indication of
the dates the documents were drafted other than the dates Appellant
assigned to them. Curiously, contained within the text of the documents are
exhibit numbers. These exhibit numbers correspond sequentially with the
exhibit numbers later placed on the attachments to Appellant’s Pa.R.A.P.
1925(b) statement, despite these documents being allegedly created more
than two years before the Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement was drafted.
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In its Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a) opinion, the PCRA court notes that Appellant’s
PCRA petition is untimely, and addressed this issue as follows:
Appellate counsel argues, yet fails to specify or plead which
exception is applicable to the time bar limitations. The record
does not disclose any governmental interference. Second, there
are no facts unknown to [Appellant] which could not have been
ascertained by the exercise of due diligence. Finally, there is no
allegation of a constitutional right which was recognized by
either the U.S. or Pennsylvania Supreme Court after the time
limit which has been held by such court to apply retroactively.
[Appellant’s] argument that his attorney failed to notify him of
the dismissal of his Superior Court Appeal could have be[e]n
discovered[,] just as he ultimately [did] with so much as a
phone call or letter to his attorney or prothonotary much sooner
than the date of his eventual discovery of this fact.
PCRA Court Opinion, 12/4/15, at 4.
We agree with the PCRA court that Appellant failed to satisfy the after-
discovered-facts exception to the PCRA time-bar. Had Appellant exercised
due diligence, after counsel allegedly failed to respond to his inquiries
regarding the status of his appeal in 2012, he could have, as the PCRA court
concluded, contacted this Court much sooner than he eventually did. If
Appellant had acted with this reasonable level of diligence, he would have
discovered that this Court affirmed his judgement of sentence more than
two years before he filed his September 9, 2014 PCRA petition. Because the
PCRA court’s decision is supported by the record, we affirm.
Order affirmed.
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Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 11/4/2016
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