For the second time, a three-judge state Superior Court panel has upheld the conviction and state prison sentence of a Port Carbon man who was convicted of unlawfully possessing several guns in October 2009 in his girlfriend's Pottsville apartment.
Rodolfo Valdez, 31, did not show his lawyer ineffectively represented him, the panel ruled in a five-page opinion filed Thursday in Pottsville.
"His argument contains no citation to legal authorities relevant to his specific claim on appeal," Senior Judge William H. Platt wrote.
As a result, Valdez must serve six to 12 years in a state correctional institution, the sentence imposed June 9, 2010, by Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin, who had presided over the defendant's trial.
Dolbin made the sentence consecutive to the one of three to six years imposed May 24, 2010, by Judge, now Senior Judge, D. Michael Stine on drug-related charges. Valdez is serving his sentences at SCI/Somerset.
In a one-day trial, a jury convicted Valdez on June 4, 2010, of four counts of prohibited possession of firearm and one of possession of a firearm with altered manufacturer number.
Pottsville police had charged Valdez with possessing two rifles, a shotgun and a handgun Oct. 8, 2009, in the closet of his girlfriend's city apartment. The handgun had its serial number defaced, police said.
In his opinion, Platt wrote that a lawyer is presumed to have represented a client effectively, and Valdez offered no evidence to overcome that presumption.
Valdez had alleged that his lawyer should have challenged the legality of the search that revealed the presence of the guns. However, he did not properly develop that argument, thereby waiving it, Platt wrote.
Platt also wrote that even if Valdez had properly presented the argument, it would have failed because the search was lawful. Police had a valid arrest warrant for Valdez and obtained the consent of his girlfriend to search her apartment, Platt wrote.
Judges Mary Jane Bowes and Jacqueline O. Shogan, the other members of the panel, concurred in Platt's opinion.
In 2011, a different three-judge state Superior Court panel denied Valdez's first appeal of his conviction.
