Williams v. Collins
| Decision Date | 07 March 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 93-8499,93-8499 |
| Citation | 16 F.3d 626 |
| Parties | Walter Key WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. James A. COLLINS, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Robert B. Hirschhorn, Galveston, TX, Joan Cheever, New York City, for petitioner-appellant.
Joan C. Barton, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dan Morales, Atty. Gen., Austin, TX, for respondent-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.
Before DAVIS, JONES, and DUHE, Circuit Judges.
Appellant Walter Williams was convicted of capital murder in Bexar County, Texas and sentenced to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction. See Williams v. State, 668 S.W.2d 692 (Tex.Crim.App.1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 954, 104 S.Ct. 2161, 80 L.Ed.2d 545 (1984). In 1986, Williams filed an application for federal habeas relief. Williams's case was initially referred by the district court to Magistrate Judge Jamie Boyd. Because of Boyd's impending retirement from the bench, the case was subsequently referred to Magistrate Judge Robert O'Connor. Magistrate Judge O'Connor recommended denying relief; his recommendations were adopted by order of then-District Judge Emilio Garza. Williams filed a motion to alter or amend judgment based upon then-recent decisions by the Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit which mandated a re-examination of the district court's decision. Upon reconsideration, both the magistrate judge and District Judge Edward Prado adhered to the earlier decision, and a certificate of probable cause was issued. Williams now appeals.
On the evening of February 9, 1981, Appellant Walter Williams and a friend, Theodore Edwards, went to the home of Williams's parents, where Williams was living at the time. While there, the two men took a .38 revolver belonging to Williams's mother and walked to a nearby gas station. Williams stayed in the parking lot as Edwards proceeded to the store service window, shot twice at the gas station attendant and killed him, reached through the window, and took the money. After Edwards and Williams left the scene, they split the money. At approximately 9:00 p.m. that same evening, the police responded to a call reporting a robbery in progress. Upon their arrival at the gas station, the police discovered the body of the clerk.
Later that same night, Williams and Edwards went for a car ride. While driving around, the two men discussed the fact that they were both short of cash, so they decided to rob a nearby Circle K convenience store at which Williams had previously worked. When they arrived at the Circle K, Williams placed the revolver in the waistband of his trousers and entered the store with Edwards. Williams knew Danny Liepold, the clerk who was working that evening, because Williams had worked with Liepold in that same store before. Williams and Edwards picked up food items and took positions at opposite sides of the counter. When Liepold turned his back to Williams in order to wait on Edwards, Williams fatally shot Liepold in the back. After Liepold fell to the floor, Edwards and Williams went behind the counter to open the two cash registers located in the store. Unable to open the register that he was working on, Williams ran to the car, leaving Edwards inside the store. He yelled at Edwards from the car that they should leave. At that point, Williams saw someone drive by. Becoming scared, he left the scene without Edwards. Williams went home and went to bed. He had been asleep for a half hour before he was awakened by the police.
At approximately 2:00 a.m. on February 10, 1981, Roberto Gutierrez, a friend of Danny Liepold and fellow employee of the Circle K who worked at a different location, drove to the store to talk to Danny. After Gutierrez had visited with Danny at the Circle K, he left to run a quick errand, planning to return shortly. Upon returning approximately 20 minutes later, Gutierrez noticed a car suspiciously parked parallel to the front of the store and two men standing inside the store trying to open the cash registers. Gutierrez recognized one of the men as Walter, an employee of the store. Concerned for Danny, whom he did not see, Gutierrez slowly drove by the store once and turned around to look into the store a second time. Upon driving by the second time, he noticed that one of the men was in the car pulling away, leaving behind the other man who was walking toward the car. Gutierrez followed the car for about 20 minutes and managed to get a description and take down its license plate number.
As Police Officer Thomas Estrada drove toward the Circle K at approximately 2:30 a.m. to make a routine check, he noticed a man walking away from the store. Unable to see the clerk inside the store, Officer Estrada parked his car and entered the store. He discovered Liepold lying beneath the counter in a pool of blood. Estrada immediately notified the dispatcher and described the man he had seen walking away just moments before. Gutierrez then returned to the store with a description of the car and its license plate number. Gutierrez told the police that he saw two men and recognized one of the men as an attendant named Walter who worked at that store on weekends.
Shortly thereafter, Police Officer Heim arrested Ted Edwards about a mile away. Following his arrest, Officer Estrada and Gutierrez positively identified Edwards as the man they had seen earlier at the store. After being advised of his rights, Edwards denied having had anything to do with the robbery and shooting. However, when it was discovered that he had a package of cigarettes which, based on the stamp on the bottom of the package, came from that Circle K, Edwards admitted his involvement in the shooting and robbery.
Officer Roy Thomas arrived at the scene at approximately 3:30 a.m. and read Edwards his rights again. Edwards identified Williams as the other person involved in the shooting and told Officer Thomas where Williams lived. Relying on Edwards's directions, several officers drove to Williams's house, where they discovered a car matching the description and license plate number provided by Gutierrez. Lucian Williams, Williams's father, answered the door and, after having the situation explained to him, let the officers in to look for his son.
As the officers entered Williams's bedroom, they saw Williams asleep on the bed with a revolver in plain view on the nightstand. The jury was not informed that the officers also saw on the nightstand a birthday card given to Williams by Danny Liepold, the man Williams had just killed. Officer Thomas woke Williams and read him his rights. Williams was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of his arrest. A .38 caliber copper-jacketed bullet recovered from Liepold's body was positively identified as having been fired from the revolver recovered from atop Williams's nightstand. An additional .38 caliber bullet was recovered from the car, parked in front of the house, that matched the vehicle and license plate number that Gutierrez had described.
Upon arrival at the police station, Williams was again advised of his rights, and he made a written, signed voluntary statement regarding the robbery. The following morning, Williams asked that he be allowed to amend the written statement. Detective Abel Juarez read him his rights for the third time, and Williams gave a new statement, again indicating his involvement in the robbery, but admitting, contrary to his first statement, that it was he, not Edwards, who had shot the clerk in the Circle K. Additionally, after being advised of his rights still one more time, Williams told Officer Michael Akeroyd of his involvement in the shooting at the gas station the night before. Williams was convicted of capital murder for the robbery and shooting at the Circle K.
In reviewing requests for federal habeas corpus relief, this court reviews the district court's findings of fact for clear error, but reviews issues of law de novo. See Barnard v. Collins, 958 F.2d 634, 636 (5th Cir.1992), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 990, 122 L.Ed.2d 142 (1993). A finding of fact made by the district court is clearly erroneous only when the reviewing court, after reviewing the entire evidence, is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. See Self v. Collins, 973 F.2d 1198, 1203 n. 12 (5th Cir.1992) (citing Anderson v. City of Bessemer, 470 U.S. 564, 573, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1511, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985)), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1613, 123 L.Ed.2d 173 (1993).
Williams complains that the federal district court incorrectly presumed the state court factual findings to be correct. Williams improperly relies on a footnote that appeared in the original opinion of Spriggs v. Collins, 993 F.2d 85 (5th Cir.1993), and was deleted prior to publication. However, as it was not part of the final published opinion, that footnote is of no significance. Moreover, this court has held, in accordance with the language of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254(d) and Supreme Court rulings, that a federal court is to accord a presumption of correctness to findings of state court proceedings unless particular statutory exceptions to Sec. 2254(d) are implicated. See Sumner v. Mata, 449 U.S. 539, 547, 101 S.Ct. 764, 769, 66 L.Ed.2d 722 (1981); Loyd v. Smith, 899 F.2d 1416, 1425 (5th Cir.1990). Williams has not contended that any of the Sec. 2254(d) exceptions are applicable to his case, nor have we noticed any defects in the state procedures. Consequently, the presumption of correctness was properly invoked here.
Williams complains that he received ineffective assistance of counsel in violation of the sixth amendment because trial counsel failed (1) to prepare and...
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