Com. v. Chambers, M., Com. v. Chambers, M. No. 1311 WDA 2016

Background

Chambers and the victim had a prior romantic relationship; after it ended he allegedly sent unwanted communications and on Oct. 7, 2014 forced the victim into her home, removed her pants, and was arrested after police responded to a panic alarm code.
A jury convicted Chambers of multiple offenses including attempted rape, burglary, aggravated indecent assault, stalking, and related counts.
Chambers was represented at trial by private counsel (Mills); post-trial Mills withdrew and public defender entered; Chambers did not file post-sentence motions or a direct appeal.
Chambers filed a timely counseled PCRA petition raising five ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims and an evidentiary hearing was held where Chambers and trial counsel testified.
The PCRA court denied relief, concluding counsel had reasonable strategic bases for her choices (e.g., avoiding opening the door to bad-character evidence, records were reviewed and not helpful, attempted FOIA requests, no investigator needed); Superior Court affirmed.

Issues

Issue	Chambers' Argument	Commonwealth's Argument	Held
1) Failure to call character witnesses	Chambers: counsel refused his request to call character witnesses for him	Counsel: did not identify witnesses; calling them risked Commonwealth cross-examining about prior bad acts; strategic decision	Denied — Chambers failed to identify witnesses or show prejudice; counsel had reasonable strategic basis
2) Failure to obtain/present records of alleged similar prior accusation in Skokie, IL	Chambers: counsel did not subpoena records showing prior inconsistent accusations by victim	Counsel: made FOIA request, received no records; incident was remote and Chambers testified about it at trial	Denied — counsel pursued records; no proof records existed; even if available, Chambers had testified to the incident so no reasonable probability of different outcome
3) Failure to present lay/expert evidence about victim’s mental illness affecting memory	Chambers: should have presented evidence that victim’s bipolar disorder impaired memory/credibility	Counsel: no treating provider or treatment records identified; victim admitted faulty memory at trial	Denied — Chambers produced no corroborating evidence; counsel reasonably declined and victim’s trial testimony already acknowledged memory problems
4) Failure to obtain telephone/text records immediately before incident	Chambers: counsel failed to obtain text/phone records that could help his defense	Counsel: received a large data dump from Commonwealth shortly before trial, reviewed records, found nothing helpful and feared harmful messages; Chambers declined continuance	Denied — counsel obtained and reviewed records; reasonable strategic choice not to introduce them
5) Failure to hire an investigator	Chambers: counsel never used an investigator which could have aided defense	Counsel: no identified witnesses or locations to investigate; necessary statements were already in discovery	Denied — Chambers failed to show an investigator would have produced helpful evidence; counsel’s decision reasonable

Key Cases Cited

Commonwealth v. Ford, 44 A.3d 1190 (Pa. Super. 2012) (standard of review for PCRA denials and deference to PCRA court findings)
Commonwealth v. Johnson, 966 A.2d 523 (Pa. 2009) (three-prong ineffective assistance test)
Commonwealth v. Davido, 106 A.3d 611 (Pa. 2014) (mental disability evidence relevant to witness credibility)
Commonwealth v. O’Bidos, 849 A.2d 243 (Pa. Super. 2004) (requirements to prove prejudice from failure to call witnesses)
Commonwealth v. Pursell, 724 A.2d 293 (Pa. 1999) (no ineffective assistance where additional investigation would not likely have aided defense)