by peter e. bortner
A former inmate at State Correctional Institution/Mahanoy must serve an additional life sentence for attacking a corrections officer in December 2010, a three-judge state Superior Court panel has ruled.
In a 10-page opinion filed Friday in Pottsville, the panel ruled that the evidence proves that Anthony Moton committed the assault and that there were no errors in his trial.
"The Commonwealth presented sufficient evidence ... to convict Moton for each of the crimes charged," Judge Anne E. Lazarus wrote. "There was overwhelming evidence that Moton was responsible for the assault."
The panel thereby upheld Moton's Sept. 6 conviction on two counts of aggravated assault and one each of assault by life prisoner, assault by prisoner and recklessly endangering another person, and Judge Charles M. Miller's sentencing of Moton on the same day to a life term consecutive to the one he already was serving.
State police at Frackville charged Moton with punching and kicking Corrections Officer Donald Malick more than 45 times about 6:45 a.m. Dec. 14, 2010, in the day room of the housing unit where Moton was at SCI/Mahanoy. Moton, 39, of Philadelphia, now is an inmate at SCI/Somerset.
"He was badly bruised and I could see a puddle of blood," Corrections Officer Salley Dreher testified about how Malick appeared during the assault.
Malick testified at the trial that Moton broke his right orbital bone and that he had not been able to return to work nine months after the attack.
In her opinion, Lazarus wrote that Miller did not err in allowing Malick to testify about his injuries. That testimony was based on what Malick personally knew, not specialized knowledge outside his competence, she wrote.
Also, prosecutors produced so much evidence against Moton that the verdict was not contrary to law, according to Lazarus.
"There was sufficient evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as verdict winner, for the jury to convict Moton on all charges," she wrote.
Lazarus also rejected Moton's two other claims: that Miller should have held a hearing to determine whether he was able to pay the costs and that prosecutors improperly withheld evidence of a mouth guard that he wore during the assault.
President Judge Correale F. Stevens and Judge David N. Wecht, the other panel members, joined in Lazarus' opinion.Defendant: Anthony Moton
Age: 39
Residence: Philadelphia
Crimes committed: Two counts of aggravated assault and one each of assault by life prisoner, assault by prisoner and recklessly endangering another person
Sentence: Life, consecutive to the life sentence he already was serving