J-S56020-17
NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE SUPERIOR COURT
OF
PENNSYLVANIA
Appellee
v.
HAKIM JIGGETTS
Appellant No. 3723 EDA 2016
Appeal from the Order entered October 28, 2016
In the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County
Criminal Division at No: CP-39-CR-0005101-2014
BEFORE: BOWES, STABILE, and PLATT*, JJ.
MEMORANDUM BY STABILE, J.: FILED NOVEMBER 09, 2017
Appellant, Hakim Jiggetts, appeals pro se from the October 28, 2016
order entered in the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County, denying his
“Motion to Reinstate/Re-submit PCRA[1] [] under Extraordinary and Mitigating
Circumstances.” Following review, we quash the appeal as untimely filed.
As the PCRA court explained in its December 8, 2016 memorandum
opinion, Appellant entered a guilty plea to various drug-related crimes. On
July 22, 2015, Appellant was sentenced to consecutive terms of state
imprisonment totaling six and one-half to thirteen years in prison. Rule
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* Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.
1 Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9541-9546.
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1925(a) Opinion, 12/8/16, at 1-2. Appellant did not file post-sentence
motions or a direct appeal. Appellant’s judgment of sentence was final on
August 21, 2015.
On July 22, 2016, Appellant filed a timely motion for collateral relief
pursuant to the PCRA. Counsel was appointed and subsequently filed a
motion to withdraw and a “no-merit” letter in accordance with
Turner/Finley.2 The PCRA court conducted an evidentiary hearing on
September 20, 2016. The court granted counsel’s motion to withdraw and
also granted Appellant’s motion to withdraw his PCRA petition. Id. at 2; see
also Notes of Testimony, Evidentiary Hearing, 9/20/16, at 5-6.
On October 27, 2016, Appellant filed a motion to reinstate his PCRA
petition. As noted above, the PCRA court had dismissed the petition five
weeks earlier on Appellant’s own motion. By order entered on October 28,
2016, the PCRA court denied the motion to reinstate. Order, 10/28/16, at 1.
Appellant filed a notice of appeal from the October 28 order. The notice
is signed by Appellant and dated, in handwriting, “11-25 16” (underscoring in
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2Commonwealth v. Turner, 544 A.2d 927 (Pa. 1988); Commonwealth v.
Finley, 550 A.2d 213 (Pa. Super. 1988).
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original).3 However, our Court’s records reflect that the notice of appeal was
received and docketed on December 6, 2016, eight days after the deadline for
filing an appeal.4 Appellant did not provide any official documentation from
the prison or the postal service indicating the date on which actually he placed
the notice in the hands of prison officials or the postal service in order to avail
himself of the “prisoner mailbox rule.” See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Jones,
700 A.2d 423, 426 (Pa. 1997); Thomas v. Elash, 781 A.2d 170, 176 (Pa.
Super. 2001).
In its Rule 1925(a) opinion, the PCRA court observed that Appellant’s
appeal was untimely filed and should be quashed. Rule 1925(a) Opinion,
12/8/16, at 2-3. The court also noted that Appellant voluntarily withdrew his
PCRA motion at the September 20, 2016 hearing. Therefore, his motion to
reinstate the PCRA petition lacked merit and foundation. Id. at 3.
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3 Our review of the record reveals that Appellant’s order for transcript included
the hand-written date “11-25 16” (underscoring in original). Appellant also
signed a proof of service and verification that included hand-written dates of
“11-25 16” and “11-25-16” (underscoring in original). The certificate of
service for the notice of appeal itself is simply dated “-16” (underscoring in
original), with a blank space before the “-16.” In essence, it appears that the
month and day on the notice of appeal, order for transcript, and the proof of
service/verification were altered to reflect “11/25.” As for the certificate of
service for the notice of appeal, the month and day were apparently deleted
but not replaced, leaving only “-16.”
4 The deadline for filing an appeal was Monday, November 28, 2016, in light
of the fact the thirtieth day fell on a Sunday.
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On January 5, 2017, this Court issued a rule upon Appellant to show
cause, within ten days of the order, why the appeal should not be quashed as
untimely. Appellant was advised that failure to respond to the directive could
result in quashal of his appeal without further notice. Appellant did not respond
to the rule to show cause.
Appellant filed his brief with this Court on June 9, 2017, in accordance
with an order from this Court dated April 26, 2017. Notably, Appellant did not
address the untimeliness of his notice of appeal. Appellant’s failure to respond
to our rule to show cause and his failure to address the timeliness issue in his
brief leads us to conclude that Appellant concedes his appeal was untimely
filed. Therefore, we shall quash the appeal.
Appeal quashed.5
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5 Even if we did not quash the appeal as untimely filed, we would not consider
the arguments raised in Appellant’s brief. While Appellant has included
various required elements of an appellate brief, he has not included a
statement of questions involved as required by Pa.R.A.P. 2111(a)(4).
Pa.R.A.P. 2116 provides that “[n]o question will be considered unless it is
stated in the statement of questions involved or is fairly suggested thereby.”
Consequently, there are no issues presented for this Court to consider. See
Thomas v. Elash, 781 A.2d at 176-77 (reiterating that “an appellant must
present all issues on appeal in the Statement of Questions Involved section of
his brief.”).
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Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 11/9/2017
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