Com. v. Fuentes, F., 1858 MDA 2016

Fuentes confessed to following his neighbor into her home on June 10, 2005, disarming her and stabbing her 37 times; the victim died.
On March 17, 2006, Fuentes pled guilty (with counsel and an interpreter) to criminal homicide, criminal trespass, and two counts of aggravated assault; a degree-of-guilt hearing found first-degree murder.
Sentenced June 26, 2006 to life without parole plus 3–7 years; direct appeal was affirmed October 10, 2007 and no further review was sought.
Fuentes filed a pro se PCRA petition January 25, 2008; counsel later filed an amended petition and a Turner/Finley no-merit letter; counsel withdrew in 2010 and the court did not resolve the petition then.
Fuentes filed another pro se amended PCRA petition July 1, 2016; the PCRA court issued Rule 907 notice and dismissed the petition October 4, 2016; Fuentes appealed pro se.
On appeal Fuentes argued PCRA counsel was ineffective for not raising direct-appeal counsel’s alleged ineffectiveness for failing to challenge that the guilty plea was unlawfully induced.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether PCRA counsel was ineffective for failing to raise direct-appeal counsel’s ineffectiveness for not challenging that the guilty plea was unlawfully induced	Fuentes: PCRA counsel should have raised a claim that direct-appeal counsel was ineffective for not arguing the plea was unlawfully induced	Commonwealth: Issue was not raised below in any PCRA petition or Rule 1925(b) statement and therefore waived	Waived — appellate court declined to consider the claim because it was not presented to the PCRA court and not preserved in the Rule 1925(b) statement; court also noted plea colloquy showed counsel and interpreter present and plea was voluntary

Commonwealth v. Turner, 544 A.2d 927 (Pa. 1988) (procedural framework for counsel withdrawal via no‑merit letter)
Commonwealth v. Finley, 550 A.2d 213 (Pa. Super. 1988) (procedural framework for counsel withdrawal via no‑merit letter)
Commonwealth v. Patterson, 931 A.2d 710 (Pa. Super. 2007) (mailing rule for incarcerated appellants)
Commonwealth v. Castillo, 888 A.2d 775 (Pa. 2005) (issues not raised in Rule 1925(b) statement are waived)
Commonwealth v. Jones, 912 A.2d 268 (Pa. 2006) (issues not raised below are waived on appeal)
Commonwealth v. Lyons, 833 A.2d 245 (Pa. Super. 2003) (pro se litigants must follow procedural rules)
Commonwealth v. Kenney, 732 A.2d 1161 (Pa. 1999) (appellate court limited to review of lower court record)
Commonwealth v. Wanner, 158 A.3d 714 (Pa. Super. 2017) (waiver principles under PCRA and Rule 302)