Com. v. Tootle, B., 3030 EDA 2014

On July 27, 2012, multiple shooters in a dark green van opened fire on Gerald Jones and Nafis (Sharon) Armstead on East Sharpnack Street; Armstead died and Jones was wounded.
Witnesses placed a green van at the scene; police followed radio descriptions, located a matching van, and arrested Brian Tootle (who gave a false name) near the vehicle.
Officers recovered a loaded .40 cal Glock (in the van) and a .357 revolver (nearwhere Tootle was arrested); Tootle’s fingerprints were found on the Glock and on a cell phone recovered from the van.
Ballistics tied the revolver to a head wound and the Glock to other wounds and to eighteen .40 caliber spent casings from the scene; gunshot residue was on Tootle’s clothing.
Tootle was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and related firearm/offense counts and sentenced to life without parole plus additional years; after procedural issues with appellate counsel, the trial court issued a supplemental Rule 1925(a) opinion and the Superior Court affirmed.

Issue	Commonwealth's Argument	Tootle's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence for first-degree murder	Physical evidence, ballistics, eyewitness ID, GSR and fingerprints support that Tootle shot and intended to kill	Evidence insufficient to prove Tootle committed the killing or had specific intent	Affirmed — evidence (circumstantial + direct) was sufficient to prove killing and specific intent
Weight of the evidence	Guilty verdict supported by overwhelming, corroborated evidence	Verdict against weight; eyewitness testimony was corrupted/polluted	Claim waived for failure to file post-sentence motion; meritless in any event
Excusal of Juror No. 8	Court exercised discretion after juror reported prosecutor’s distracting facial expressions and demonstrated demeanor concerns	Excusal improper despite juror’s assurances of fairness; punitive to juror for criticizing prosecutor	Affirmed — trial court did not abuse discretion in dismissing juror based on credibility/demeanor findings
Mistrial / Reopening Commonwealth’s case to call latent-print witness	Reopening justified by a dispute about the scope of a stipulation as to fingerprint testimony; limited testimony presented with minimal disruption	Mistrial sought over alleged chain-of-custody defects for the cell phone; reopening and admission prejudiced defendant	Denied — mistrial unnecessary; reopening was within court’s discretion to prevent miscarriage of justice and caused minimal prejudice

Walsh v. Commonwealth, 36 A.3d 613 (discussing sufficiency review standard)
Brumbaugh v. Commonwealth, 932 A.2d 108 (sufficiency standard and inferences)
Ramtahal v. Commonwealth, 33 A.3d 602 (circumstantial evidence can sustain conviction)
Montini v. Commonwealth, 712 A.2d 761 (conflicting testimony does not render evidence insufficient)
Adams v. Commonwealth, 882 A.2d 496 (verdict support standard)
Burns v. Commonwealth, 765 A.2d 1144 (verdict support standard)
Edwards v. Commonwealth, 903 A.2d 1139 (elements of first-degree murder and intent)
Hughes v. Commonwealth, 865 A.2d 761 (specific intent inferred from multiple gunshot wounds)
Robertson v. Commonwealth, 874 A.2d 1200 (inference of intent from use of deadly weapon on vital part)
Carter v. Commonwealth, 643 A.2d 61 (trial court discretion to discharge juror)
Bruckshaw v. Frankford Hosp., 58 A.3d 102 (juror removal for impaired ability to serve)
Baldwin v. Commonwealth, 58 A.3d 754 (reopening case to prevent miscarriage of justice)
Chambers v. Commonwealth, 685 A.2d 96 (reopening and trial discretion)
Tharp v. Commonwealth, 575 A.2d 557 (reopening to allow proof of essential element)
Manley v. Commonwealth, 985 A.2d 256 (mistrial as extreme remedy)
Grin v. Commonwealth, 65 A.3d 932 (preservation rule for weight claims)