Inmate’s appeal rejected in home invasion case

Jackson pleaded no contest to robbery, gun charges

The Pennsylvania Superior Court has rejected an argument by a Huntingdon County man who contended his attorney gave him bad advice when he urged him to plead no-contest more than six years ago to robbery and gun charges stemming from a home invasion.

Huntingdon County Judge George N. Zanic sentenced Malakia Anton Jackson, 31, of Mount Union, to 10 to 20 years in state prison after he entered pleas to robbery and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person on June 27, 2017.

A no-contest plea is one in which a defendant does not admit he committed the crime, but agrees that the prosecution has enough evidence to prove its case.

Jackson and another man were charged with a series of offenses that also included burglary, reckless endangerment and three counts of simple assault after they allegedly kicked in the door of an East Pennsylvania Avenue home on the morning of Jan. 29, 2017.

The men were charged with holding the three occupants of the home at gunpoint and with stealing marijuana and money.

Although Jackson initially contended he did not point a gun at the occupants, he did admit during a hearing on the case that the prosecution had sufficient evidence to prove that he carried a firearm during the robbery.

At first he did not appeal his conviction or sentence, but in October 2017, Jackson, representing himself, sent a letter to the court seeking permission to file a post-sentence motion.

That letter was treated as a request to file a post-conviction appeal and was denied by the court on May 14, 2018.

In June 2018, Jackson, represented by a new attorney, filed another appeal contending that his trial attorney was "ineffective" because he advised him to accept a negotiated plea without first reviewing all of the evidence that the prosecution intended to use against him at trial.

That evidence included three videos collected from nearby businesses that allegedly showed the robbers entering the home, various photographs and witness statements.

Jackson and his new attorney argued that because he had not been able to review the evidence, his pleas were not entered "voluntarily, knowingly, understandably or intelligently."

A Superior Court panel that included Judges Mary P. Murray, Megan King and James G. Colins ruled that when Jackson entered his pleas, he was fully aware that the material in question had not been reviewed by the defense attorney.

The three-judge panel also concluded that Jackson, who subsequently had the opportunity to review the evidence in question, "has not shown that this material would have altered his decision to accept the commonwealth's plea offer."

Jackson is an inmate at the State Correctional Institution at Houtzdale.