Hardamon v. U.S.
| Decision Date | 14 February 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 01-3909.,01-3909. |
| Parties | Carletos E. HARDAMON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Mark W. Solock (argued), Chicago, IL, for Petitioner-Appellant.
Stephen B. Clark (argued), Robert L. Garrison, Office of the U.S. Atty., Crim. Div., Fairview Heights, IL, for Respondent-Appellee.
Before BAUER, RIPPLE, and KANNE, Circuit Judges.
After a jury found Petitioner Carletos E. Hardamon guilty of conspiracy to distribute cocaine base, the district court sentenced him to life in prison and we affirmed his conviction and sentence in United States v. Hardamon, 188 F.3d 843 (7th Cir.1999). Attorney Russell Prince Arnold represented Hardamon at trial and at the sentencing hearing, but not on appeal. Following his direct appeal, Hardamon filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus alleging ineffective assistance of trial counsel and arguing that Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), applies retroactively on collateral review. The district court denied the writ but granted a Certificate of Appealability with respect to the ineffective assistance claim. This Court later issued a Certificate of Appealability regarding the Apprendi claim. For the following reasons, we affirm the district court's denial of the writ of habeas corpus.
Because Hardamon's ineffective assistance of counsel claim involves primarily testimony elicited from certain government and defense witnesses, a recitation of relevant statements made by those witnesses on direct and cross-examination follows.
Joseph Trotter was a cooperating co-defendant who testified that he made several trips with Hardamon in 1996 from Alton, Illinois, to Chicago in order to obtain crack cocaine for sale in Alton. On one trip, Trotter received $10,000 worth of crack from Hardamon, and Hardamon instructed Trotter to wire the money from the sale to Theodora Overton, another co-defendant. Trotter further testified that Hardamon made at least three trips to Alton to deliver and sell drugs out of Trotter's apartment.
During his testimony, Trotter made several statements to which Hardamon's counsel did not object. First, Trotter testified that he thought Overton "phoned either CJ or Charles Media" claiming that she was calling her supplier for more drugs; "CJ" was the alias Hardamon used in Alton. This testimony was later corroborated by Overton's testimony. Trotter also stated that Hardamon planned to discuss Overton's greediness with her and that Hardamon said he would "take care of it." Trotter's subsequent testimony that Hardamon did in fact talk with Overton was based only on Trotter's knowledge that Hardamon planned to talk with her.
Under cross-examination by Hardamon's attorney, Trotter admitted that he spent seventeen of the last nineteen years in prison. He also acknowledged that if he did not cooperate with the government he could receive a life sentence; as a result of cooperating, he hoped to be sentenced to as few as nine years. Trotter further stated that he supplied drugs to another government witness, Gina Blackmon, and that he lied to police about his involvement in a drug-related shooting. Finally, Hardamon's attorney elicited admissions from Trotter that parts of his testimony regarding amounts of money he gave to Hardamon and amounts Trotter made from dealing drugs may have been inaccurate.
Not all of Trotter's cross-examination, however, was beneficial to Hardamon's case; some questioning by Hardamon's attorney produced damaging evidence. Trotter volunteered on cross-examination that Hardamon had similar drug activities underway in Decatur, Illinois, on the same night Trotter was arrested. Hardamon's counsel also asked Trotter if Hardamon had come to Alton prior to October 1996 and Trotter stated that Hardamon came once before that date "to check out the layout ... see how profitable it was."
Cooperating co-defendant Charles Media testified on direct examination that he drove Hardamon from Chicago to Alton on one occasion and that Hardamon brought two or three ounces of crack to sell in Trotter's apartment on that trip. Media also testified that on occasion he saw Hardamon supply co-defendants Trotter and Overton with cocaine to sell in Alton and that he saw Hardamon accept merchandise in return for cocaine. Media further recalled Hardamon saying that drugs seized from Trotter's apartment in a police raid belonged to him.
On cross-examination, Media admitted to using several aliases and fictitious birth dates throughout his adult life. He also testified that Trotter had been obtaining drugs from another supplier before meeting Hardamon. Media revealed little information to police about his own suppliers but admitted that Trotter provided him with prostitutes. Finally, Media admitted he was willing to accept more money from Trotter than Trotter owed him but denied trying to extort Trotter.
Gina Blackmon testified that she sold drugs for Hardamon and that the two had a romantic relationship from time to time. On one occasion, Trotter gave her $1000 in drug proceeds to deliver to Hardamon in Chicago. Blackmon also testified to statements Hardamon made that reflected his control over two sellers, known as "Tone" and "Echo," and that he "would take care of them" if they ever tried to take over. Finally, Blackmon testified on direct examination, without objection, that she told police Hardamon was one of Trotter's main drug suppliers, basing this knowledge on statements made by Overton.
On cross-examination, Hardamon's attorney elicited testimony about Trotter's use of teenagers to sell drugs and about an occasion when she hid a gun that Trotter had used in a shooting. Blackmon also admitted that she believed Charles Media another government witness, "killed some people and got off easy." When asked, however, if she had ever seen Hardamon with a controlled substance, Blackmon testified that she had. This testimony allowed the prosecution to introduce further testimony from Blackmon about a specific instance when she saw Hardamon with crack cocaine. Finally, Hardamon's attorney attempted to discredit Blackmon's testimony by establishing that the government gave her immunity from prosecution and that she had never actually seen Hardamon sell drugs.
Richard Smith admitted on direct examination to heavy drug use and to accompanying Trotter on drug runs to Chicago. On those trips, Smith saw Hardamon supply Trotter with drugs and witnessed Trotter pay Hardamon for the drugs with cash and merchandise, such as small electronic items, that Trotter had received from drug sales in Alton. As with previous witnesses, Smith's testimony included statements to which Hardamon's attorney did not object. For example, Smith testified that he knew Hardamon was supplying Trotter with drugs "because [Smith] was present and [through] word of mouth." He also stated that he saw Hardamon involved in a drug transaction on a particular occasion because it was his "understanding that was the only purpose of [Hardamon] being there." Finally, Smith testified, without objection, that Hardamon "was doing the same types of things in Decatur that he was doing in Alton."
On cross-examination, however, Smith testified that he saw Charles Media supply "Tone" and "Echo" with drugs and that he feared Media might kill him. Smith acknowledged that he saw Media, but not Hardamon, trade crack for guns, and he also testified that he saw Hardamon delivering drugs in Alton. Finally, Smith admitted that he received immunity for his testimony and that Joseph Trotter had local drug sources long before Trotter met Hardamon.
Cooperating co-defendant Theodora Overton testified on direct examination that on four separate occasions Hardamon supplied her with as much as five ounces of drugs to sell. She also testified that Hardamon made at least six trips to Alton in order to sell drugs himself. Without objection, Overton further stated that she believed Hardamon had been dealing drugs for nine or ten years in Chicago prior to doing so in Alton in 1996.
Hardamon's attorney, however, brought out the admission that she would have been facing life in prison absent her cooperation with the government, but because of her cooperation, she hoped for a prison sentence of eighteen years. Overton also admitted to having drug suppliers prior to meeting Hardamon and that she started working with him in September or October 1996, and not nine years earlier as she testified on direct examination. Finally, Overton admitted that Hardamon supplied her with drugs on only two of the four trips mentioned above and that, short of her dealings with him, her knowledge of Hardamon's drug activity came from street conversations.
During Hardamon's case-in-chief, defense counsel called four police witnesses to the stand; two of which are relevant to this appeal. First, DEA Special Agent Ralph Moore testified that he did not mention Hardamon as one of Trotter's drug suppliers or mention Hardamon moving cocaine from Chicago to Alton when testifying before the grand jury. Moore also admitted that witnesses interviewed by police were unable to establish specific dates for Hardamon's trips to Alton, but that police believed Hardamon brought five ounces of crack to Alton from Chicago on December 29, 1996. Moore further testified that Hardamon "had been convicted of crack cocaine" in Decatur; defense counsel's objection to this testimony was overruled.
Second, DEA Special Agent Paul Robinson admitted that, prior to Trotter's arrest, police reports did not link Hardamon to drug dealing in Alton and that Trotter was the first to identify Hardamon as a ...
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