Woolley v. Rednour

• Decision Date: 14 December 2012
• Docket Number: No. 10–3550.,10–3550.
• Citation: 702 F.3d 411
• Parties: Martin M. WOOLLEY, Petitioner–Appellant, v. Dave REDNOUR, Respondent–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

702 F.3d 411

Martin M. WOOLLEY, Petitioner–Appellant,

v.Dave REDNOUR, Respondent–Appellee.

No. 10–3550.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued June 3, 2011.

Decided Dec. 14, 2012.

Amanda J. Hollis (argued), Attorney, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Chicago, IL, for Petitioner–Appellant.

Karl R. Triebel (argued), Attorney, Office of the Attorney General, Chicago, IL, for Respondent–Appellee.

Before EVANS^* and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges, and CONLEY, District Judge.^**

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge.

Martin M. Woolley was charged in Illinois state court with counts of murder, armed violence, armed robbery, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, arising out the fatal shootings of two victims in 1995. After initially confessing, Martin later recanted, claiming he had falsely implicated himself in order to protect his wife, Marcia Woolley, who committed the murders out of jealousy toward one of the victims. The jury convicted the defendant on all counts. In state post-conviction procedures, Martin produced an expert who pointed out flaws in expert evidence introduced by the State at trial. After obtaining no relief and exhausting review in state court, Martin filed a federal habeas corpus petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, claiming that he was deprived of his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. The district court denied Martin relief, but granted a certificate of appealability with respect to his claim that he was prejudiced by ineffective assistance of counsel. Martin appealed. Although Martin's counsel was ineffective, we affirm because we find that Martin was not prejudiced by the error.

I. BACKGROUND

Around 10:00 p.m. on February 20, 1995, the bodies of Rane Baldwin and Dianna “Dee” Turley were found in Phylly's Cue and Brew tavern in Kewanee, Illinois. Nine hours earlier, at 1:00 p.m. on February 20, 1995, Martin Woolley (“Martin”) and his wife, Marcia Woolley (“Marcia”), went to Phylly's Cue to play pool and drink beer with friends. The Woolleys left the tavern around 5:00 p.m. to go home and prepare dinner for Marcia's children. They returned to the tavern around 6:00 p.m. and continued to drink beer and play pool. At approximately 7:00 p.m., Baldwin arrived and began her bartending shift. Turley arrived around 8:00 p.m.

When Turley arrived, Marcia started to drink shots of hard liquor as well as beer. Soon, Marcia and Turley began arguing with each other while sitting at the bar. By approximately 9:30 p.m., everyone had left the tavern except for Turley, Baldwin, Marcia, and Martin.

At 9:45 p.m., Baldwin's boyfriend, Peter Dolieslager, called the tavern and spoke to Baldwin who told Dolieslager that Marcia was getting drunk. According to Dolieslager, Baldwin gave him the impression that Marcia was being difficult.

A few minutes later, Dolieslager drove to the tavern to pick Baldwin up. When he arrived around 10:00 p.m., he discovered the bodies of Turley and Baldwin. An autopsy revealed that Turley had been shot once in the forehead from a distance of three to four feet and that the bullet entered her head at a slightly upward angle. Baldwin had been shot three times in the head. The pathologist concluded that the bullets that struck Baldwin had not been fired at close range.

A. Martin's Initial Confession

The next day, Martin and Marcia voluntarily went to the Kewanee police station for questioning. Martin initially denied any involvement in the murders, but eventually confessed. He told the officers that Marcia and he were both drinking beer and playing pool at the tavern. Around 9:30 p.m., Turley, Marcia, and Martin, in that order from east to west, were sitting on some bar stools along the bar. Martin then decided to rob the tavern. He pulled out a 9–millimeter hand gun he had been carrying in the back of his pants and shot Baldwin, who was standing behind the bar, two or three times in the head. He then shot Turley, whom Martin claimed was standing, while Marcia was still sitting on her barstool. Martin then walked around behind the bar, took the cash from the register as well as two money bags that were located underneath the register. While Martin was taking the money, Baldwin made a noise and Martin shot her again in the head from behind the bar. Martin then grabbed Marcia and dragged her out of the bar.

When the Woolleys got home, Martin burned the money bags and hid the $300 in cash in a hole in the wall of a closet. He put the gun in a freezer located in a friend's garage. The next day, Martin asked his friend to throw the gun into the river, but his friend turned it over to the police. Martin told the police that Marcia did not handle the gun and that she had no knowledge of what he was going to do.

B. Martin's Trial Testimony Recanting His Confession

During trial, Martin testified in his own defense and recanted his prior confession. He told the jury that around 9:30 p.m., Marcia and Turley were arguing as they had been all evening. Martin decided to leave the women and go to the men's bathroom to smoke marijuana. He stated that he had previously put the gun in his jacket pocket when he had stopped at home to prepare dinner for Marcia's children. He left that jacket on the barstool on his way to the bathroom. While he was away from the bar, he heard raised voices followed by gunshots. He ran out of the bathroom and saw Marcia standing up with a foot propped up on her barstool, leaning over the top of the bar. Martin testified that he then saw Marcia shoot down towards the bartender's side of the bar. Turley was lying next to the barstool. Not knowing what else to do, Martin attempted to make the scene look like a robbery. He walked around the bar and took the cash. He then drove home with Marcia.

Once home, Martin disposed of the gun. The couple agreed that if the police pursued them, both would say that Martin committed the murders. Marcia had three children from a previous marriage, and Martin testified that he thought that he needed to take the blame for the shootings to protect them because the children would “not miss a step-dad as much as a mother.”

C. The State's Expert Crime Scene Investigator

A central component of the prosecution's case was expert testimony to the effect that the shooter must have fired the shots from the bathroom area near the southwest corner of the bar and that Martin's account of the shootings was physically impossible. Martin was represented by Eugene Stockton, a part-time public defender and former State's Attorney. Over two months before trial, Stockton prepared a written statement explaining what Martin had witnessed and his anticipated trial testimony. So the prosecution had advance notice that Martin would testify that he was in the men's restroom area when Marcia fired the first few shots, that Marcia fired the final shot from her barstool, and that Martin went behind the bar to steal the cash from the register.

About a month before trial, the State gave Stockton a crime scene report authored by Michael Ogryzek, the crime scene investigator the State would later call as an expert. The report disclosed Ogryzek's opinion that the shooter was located in the southwest corner of the tavern by the men's restroom when at least one of the shots was fired. This was about 18 feet from Marcia's location in the same area in which Martin would testify that he was located at the time of the shootings. Ogryzek's conclusions were at odds with earlier investigations of the crime scene following the murders. Initially, police investigators had determined that the location of the shots was consistent with Martin's confession that they had been fired from the barstools where Martin and Marcia had been sitting.

At trial, Ogryzek testified that the physical evidence showed that the person who fired the final shot at Baldwin was standing above her on the bartender's side of the bar. Stockton did not learn of that opinion until the day trial began, when the State supplemented its answer to the pretrial order. Stockton knew that the State's disclosure was untimely, and knew the opinion would directly refute Martin's testimony, but he did not request a continuance to address it or make any motion to bar Ogryzek's testimony.

Ogryzek also testified that it would have been physically impossible for a person where Marcia was located to have delivered the final shot to Baldwin from her position in the third barstool in the manner Martin would testify:

[Prosecutor.] Based on your expertise, Officer Ogryzek, could a person with a foot on the bar stool, the third bar stool with their knee on the bar leaning over, have made that shot?

[Ogryzek.] No. It is impossible.

[Prosecutor.] How long would that person's arms have to be, to be in that barstool, a foot on the barstool, a knee up on the bar reaching over ... [for a gun shot to] come in at that angle that that gun shot above Rane Baldwin's ear came in?

[Ogryzek.] Oh, twelve feet.

Stockton cross-examined Ogryzek but did not get concessions of any significance.

D. Other Trial Testimony

Several other witnesses testified for the prosecution. One witness testified that while the group was playing pool at the tavern, she saw the imprint of a gun under Martin's shirt stuck in the back of his pants and that she never saw him move the gun from his pants to his jacket pocket. Another witness testified that on the night of the murders, Martin made a comment saying that he was the type of person who “could walk into McDonald's and just open up on everybody.” A third witness testified that two nights before Martin commented that it would be easy to commit a robbery if you killed the witnesses.

The State also called Donald Tomsha. In March of 1995, Tomsha was in jail and had been charged with burglarizing three businesses. Tomsha later pleaded guilty and received six months in jail and probation. Tomsha testified that Martin confessed to him after the two had begun discussing religion and morality....