Bland v. Sirmons

• Decision Date: 03 August 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-6013.,05-6013.
• Citation: 459 F.3d 999
• Parties: Jimmy Dale BLAND, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Marty SIRMONS, Warden, Oklahoma State Penitentiary,<SMALL><SUP>*</SUP></SMALL> Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 999

459 F.3d 999

Jimmy Dale BLAND, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Marty SIRMONS, Warden, Oklahoma State Penitentiary,^* Respondent-Appellee.

No. 05-6013.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

August 3, 2006.

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David Autry, Oklahoma City, OK, for Petitioner-Appellant.

Seth S. Branham, Assistant Attorney General of Oklahoma (W.A. Drew Edmondson, Attorney General of Oklahoma, with him on the briefs), Oklahoma City, OK, for Respondent-Appellee.

Before KELLY, BRISCOE, and McCONNELL, Circuit Judges.

McCONNELL, Circuit Judge.

Jimmy Dale Bland, an inmate on death row in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, appeals the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Mr. Bland was convicted of one count of first-degree malice-aforethought murder. The jury found the existence of two aggravating factors and recommended that he be sentenced to death. The trial court adopted the jury's recommendation, and the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed. Bland v. State, 4 P.3d 702, 709 (Okla.Crim. App.2000). The state courts denied his requests for post-conviction relief. Mr. Bland now appeals the district court's denial of his habeas petition, challenging aspects of both the guilt and sentencing phases of his trial. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the decision of the district court.

I. Background

A. The Crime

On November 14, 1996, Jimmy Dale Bland shot and killed Doyle Windle Rains in Mr. Rains's garage in Manitou, Tillman County, Oklahoma. Bland, 4 P.3d at 709. He had been out of prison less than a year. He had served almost twenty years of a 60-year sentence for killing a man and kidnapping the victim's wife and son. Tr. Jury Trial, Day Seven, at 39-45, 55, 62-64, 107. At trial, Mr. Bland admitted killing Mr. Rains, but defended on the ground that the killing was neither malice-aforethought murder nor felony murder. Bland, 4 P.3d at 710.

According to the government's evidence, Mr. Bland worked for Mr. Rains doing miscellaneous construction and handyman jobs. Id. at 709; Tr. Jury Trial, Day Five, at 33. Mr. Rains was romantically involved with Mr. Bland's mother. Tr. Jury Trial, Day Five, at 26. Although Mr. Bland testified that the two men were "pretty good friends," id. at 27, their financial relations, as well as Mr. Rains's relationship with Mr. Bland's mother, were sources of friction. Mr. Bland was chronically short of money, which he used to feed his drug habit. See id. at 79. Mr. Rains would allocate their earnings between the two of them, usually keeping well more than half for himself. See id. at 35-36. On at least one occasion, Mr. Bland told his girlfriend, Connie Lord, that he planned to kill Mr. Rains, and said that he would dispose of the body by placing it in a well and putting cement on it. Tr. Jury Trial, Day Four, at 68, 73-74.

On November 14, 1996, Mr. Rains lent Mr. Bland his Cadillac so that Mr. Bland could drive to Oklahoma City and visit Ms. Lord. Bland, 4 P.3d at 709. During the visit, Mr. Bland spent nearly all of the cash he brought with him, most of it on drugs, which he and Ms. Lord immediately ingested. Id. Ms. Lord gave Mr. Bland $10.00 so that he could return home. Id. On the way home, Mr. Bland stopped and consumed the remaining drugs he had purchased in Oklahoma City. Tr. Jury Trial, Day Five, at 41. On his return to Manitou, before going home, Mr. Bland drove to Mr. Rains's home to return the Cadillac. Bland, 4 P.3d at 709. He brought a .22-caliber bolt-action rifle, concealed in a roll of coveralls. Id. Angry with Mr. Rains and desperate for cash, Mr. Bland shot Mr. Rains in the back of the head. Id. Mr. Bland then loaded Mr. Rains's body into a pickup truck, washed out the garage area where the killing had occurred, drove to a rural area, and "[d]umped [the] body in a creek and covered it up," hoping that no one would find it. Tr. Jury Trial, Day Five, at 67-68; Bland, 4 P.3d at 709.

Mr. Bland offers a slightly different story. According to his testimony at trial, he had taken the rifle with him on his trip to Oklahoma City, in accordance with his usual practice. Tr. Jury Trial, Day Five, at 53. It was still with him in the Cadillac when he arrived at Mr. Rains's home. Id. Although Mr. Rains had given Mr. Bland the gun to "[s]hoot frogs or snakes or whatever," Mr. Bland did not want Mr. Rains to know that he "was carrying it around driving [Mr. Rains's] car." Id. at 54. To ensure that Mr. Rains did not see the weapon, Mr. Bland removed it from the vehicle, rolled it into a pair of coveralls, and carried it under his arm. Id. at 53-54. The two men got into a fight over a damaged hubcap on the Cadillac. Id. at 60. While in Mr. Rains's garage, Mr. Rains took a swing at Mr. Bland, and Mr. Bland then "leaned back and kicked [Mr. Rains's] leg out from under him," at which point both men fell down. Id. at 62-63; Bland, 4 P.3d at 710. When Mr. Bland fell, "the coveralls fell out from under [his] arm," then "[t]he gun fell out and [he] just picked it up and fired." Tr. Jury Trial, Day Five, at 63; Bland, 4 P.3d at 710.

Whatever the precise sequence of events at Mr. Rains's home, Mr. Bland admits that he loaded the body into a pickup truck, drove to a remote area, dumped the body into a creek, and covered it with logs. Bland, 4 P.3d at 710. When he was apprehended by law enforcement several days later, he had over $300 in cash on his person, presumably taken from Mr. Rains. Id. He then returned to Mr. Rains's home and spent the night there. Bland, 4 P.3d at 709. He told his mother the next day that he had gone to work with Mr. Rains. Id.

It was several days before Mr. Bland was apprehended. On a tip from Ms. Lord, conveyed through her sister, Tillman County law enforcement officials visited and searched Mr. Rains's home, discovered that Mr. Rains and his pickup were missing, and observed blood on the garage floor and on a spray washer they found in the garage. Id.; Tr. Jury Trial, Day Three, at 75. They listed Mr. Rains and his pickup on the NCIC register of missing persons. Bland, 4 P.3d at 709-10. On November 16, Mr. Bland drove Mr. Rains's truck off the side of the road between Stroud and Chandler, Oklahoma. Tr. Jury Trial, Day Four, at 29-30. He was arrested for driving under the influence, and released on bond. Bland, 4 P.3d at 710.

At this point, law-enforcement officials had drawn no connection between Mr. Bland and the disappearance of Mr. Rains. Shortly thereafter, however, the sheriff in Chandler contacted the sheriff's office in Tillman County regarding the NCIC listing for the missing truck. Tr. Jury Trial, Day Three, at 81-82. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Mr. Bland for the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Id. at 83. On November 20, law enforcement officials located and arrested Mr. Bland at a friend's home, where he was hiding in a closet. Id. at 116-20. Neither then, nor during his previous encounter with law enforcement in connection with the drunk-driving accident, nor in an earlier conversation with his mother, did Mr. Bland explain the circumstances of Mr. Rains's death.

Mr. Bland was taken to the Tillman County sheriff's office, where he confessed to killing Mr. Rains. Bland, 4 P.3d at 710. Mr. Bland took officers to the creek where he had dumped Mr. Rains's body. Id. Although the body was badly decomposed, an autopsy established that the cause of death was a bullet wound to the back of the head. Id.

B. Judicial Proceedings

At trial, Mr. Bland admitted that he shot Mr. Rains, but claimed that he never intended to kill him. Id. The State argued that Mr. Bland committed the murder with malice aforethought and as part of the commission of a felony, namely robbery. The State's theory was that Mr. Bland killed Mr. Rains to obtain money to purchase drugs, or alternatively that Mr. Bland intended to kill Mr. Rains for several months prior to the actual murder because Mr. Bland was displeased with his employment arrangement and troubled by Mr. Rains's romantic relationship with his mother. Defense counsel stipulated that Mr. Bland was guilty of first-degree heat-of-passion manslaughter. Defense counsel also contended that Mr. Bland was under the influence of drugs when he killed Mr. Rains.

The jury convicted Mr. Bland only of first-degree malice-aforethought murder. Id. at 709; O.R. Vol. II, Doc. 383-84. At the sentencing phase, the Bill of Particulars charged that the crime committed by Mr. Bland should be punished by death due to the existence of three aggravating circumstances: (1) Mr. Bland "was previously convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person"; (2) the "murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution"; and (3) the "existence of a probability that the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society." O.R. Vol. I, Doc. 7.

To establish these aggravating factors, the prosecution presented evidence about the circumstances of Mr. Bland's prior kidnapping and manslaughter convictions. The prosecution showed that Mr. Bland, while intoxicated, arrived at Raymond Prentice's home, waited for Mr. Prentice to appear on the front porch, and shot Mr. Prentice three times. Tr. Jury Trial, Day Seven, at 63-64. Mr. Bland then went inside, found Mrs. Prentice and her three-year old son, and ordered them into a car. Id. at 38, 45, 64. Before they could leave the Prentice home, however, Mrs. Prentice's brother came to the door. Id. at 44. Mr. Bland fired numerous shots at her brother, but did not kill him. Id. Mr. Bland then kidnapped Mrs. Prentice and her son. Id. at 45. The ordeal ended in a shootout between Mr. Bland and the police. Id. at 48. The prosecution also focused on the heinous nature of both crimes and the short...