Monroe v. Davis

• Decision Date: 04 April 2013
• Docket Number: No. 10–3407.,10–3407.
• Parties: Solomon MONROE, Petitioner–Appellant, v. Randy J. DAVIS, Warden, Respondent–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

712 F.3d 1106

Solomon MONROE, Petitioner–Appellant,

v.Randy J. DAVIS, Warden, Respondent–Appellee.

No. 10–3407.

United States Court of Appeals,Seventh Circuit.

Argued April 10, 2012.

Decided April 4, 2013.

John J. Korzen, Caroline Trapeni (argued), Attorneys, Wake Forest University School of Law, Winston–Salem, NC, for Petitioner–Appellant.

Erin O'Connell (argued), Attorney, Office of the Attorney General, Chicago, IL, for Respondent–Appellee.

Before POSNER, ROVNER and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

Solomon Monroe appeals the district court's decision to deny his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Monroe v. Zimmerman, 2010 WL 3307081 (N.D.Ill. Aug. 18, 2010); see28 U.S.C. § 2254. Monroe was convicted of first-degree murder on an accountability theory in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, and sentenced to a term of 40 years. Monroe contends that his federal constitutional rights were violated in three respects: he was arrested without probable cause, in violation of the Fourth Amendment; his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to call his brother and sister-in-law as witnesses at trial and in support of his motion to suppress his post-arrest statements, in violation of his Sixth Amendment right to effective legal representation; and finally that the State presented insufficient evidence to support his conviction on an accountability theory, in violation of his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process. Finding no merit in any of these arguments, we affirm the denial of his habeas petition.

I.

In the early morning hours of November 23, 1996, Keith Stalker was fatally bludgeoned and stabbed in the aftermath of a drug sale gone wrong. Witnesses to the attack on Stalker led Chicago police to Monroe and three fellow members of the Black P–Stone Nation street gang: Michael Thomas, Tyrone Curry, and Tory Jackson. It turned out that these four men had been making street sales of crack cocaine and Stalker, a member of another gang, had been helping to recruit customers for them. Stalker incurred the wrath of the other men after two members of Stalker's gang drove up to make a purchase but then sped off without paying for the cocaine they had been given. He was beaten by Monroe and Curry, and then stabbed by Thomas. Monroe would later acknowledge that he did strike Stalker but denied any foreknowledge that Thomas would stab him. Monroe pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder and proceeded to trial, contending that he harbored no knowledge or intent that Stalker would be killed.

Jackson, after himself being acquitted on a murder charge, opted to cooperate with the authorities and was a key witness against Monroe at trial. Jackson explained that on the evening of November 22–23, 1996, he, Thomas, Curry, and Monroe were selling crack cocaine on the 4500 block of North Magnolia Avenue, in the heart of Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. Each of the men played a different role in the operation of their “drug spot”: Thomas, a ranking member of the gang, was responsible for supplying the cocaine and supervising and enforcing discipline among the others. Jackson took care of the retail end of the operation, locating customers and making hand-to-hand sales. Monroe kept the stash of cocaine hidden and supplied retail-quantity packets of cocaine to Jackson as needed. Curry handled security, keeping one eye on the cocaine supply and another on Jackson, to make sure that he was not “stuck up” by a customer. R. 31–3 at 11. Stalker, who was a member of the Gaylord Nation street gang, helped Jackson recruit customers. Stalker was a cocaine addict and a frequent customer of Jackson's, and on occasion he helped out Jackson in exchange for cocaine when he lacked the money to support his habit. Their role in fielding customers required Jackson and Stalker to station themselves on the street, while the others largely kept themselves out of view in nearby gangways and shrubbery.

Jackson recalled that sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. on November 23, a red Chevy Blazer drove up. A passenger exited the vehicle and spoke briefly with Stalker. The man had the letters “GLN” tattooed across his forehead. GLN is an abbreviation for Gaylord Nation, the gang to which Stalker belonged; and Stalker appeared to know the man. He was interested in making a drug purchase, so Stalker steered him to Jackson. The man asked Jackson what $150 would buy him; the answer was an “eight ball” (about 3.5 grams) of crack cocaine. Jackson did not have that quantity on his person, so he directed the Blazer to drive around the block while he obtained the cocaine from Monroe. When the vehicle returned, Jackson handed the cocaine to the passenger through the open car window. Immediately after Jackson handed the cocaine over, the Blazer sped away. Jackson, who had not been paid, grabbed the door frame and managed to hold onto the speeding vehicle for a couple of blocks, until the driver deliberately brushed the Blazer against an El viaduct, knocking Jackson to the ground unconscious. Another customer of Jackson's, who happened to witness the incident, roused him back to consciousness, and Jackson made his way back to the drug spot.

Jackson found Thomas in a gangway. Thomas was furious about the loss of the cocaine, and he knocked Jackson to the ground with a punch to the eye. As Jackson picked himself up, he saw that Thomas was angrily stabbing the ground with a 12–inch long “Rambo” hunting knife. Thomas grumbled that Jackson was “always fucking up.” R. 31–3 at 30. As the two men were talking, they heard Curry whistle twice, which they recognized as a signal for the gang members to show themselves. Jackson and Thomas walked out of the gangway onto Magnolia Avenue, where they saw that Curry and Monroe were down the block, escorting Stalker, shoulder to shoulder, toward them. According to Jackson, as he and Thomas emerged from the gangway, Monroe struck Stalker in the face, causing him to fall to the ground. Monroe, joined by Curry, continued to punch Stalker. Then Monroe ran over to a nearby construction dumpster and retrieved a two-by-four piece of wood, which he used to strike Stalker twice. Curry then took the board from Monroe and began to strike Stalker with it himself. Jackson estimated that the two men hit Stalker with the board a total of five to seven times.

At this point, Thomas left Jackson and ran over to the other men. As Thomas approached, Monroe backed away from Stalker by about a foot. Without any forewarning, Thomas produced his knife and stabbed Stalker in the stomach. After Thomas removed the knife from Stalker's abdomen, he along with Jackson, Curry, and Monroe fled the scene in Monroe's car. They drove to an apartment belonging to friends of Thomas's on the south side of the city, where they spent the night.

Stalker was taken to Illinois Masonic Hospital, where he died later that day. An autopsy would reveal lacerations to the upper back portion of Stalker's head and to his shin and lower leg, abrasions on the front and side of his head, and contusions on his cheeks and lips—all consistent with being struck by a blunt object (including a fist and a two-by-four)—as well as a nine-inch, jagged wound to his upper abdomen. The assistant medical examiner found evidence of swelling of the brain resulting from the blows to Stalker's head. The examiner concluded that Stalker died as a result of the stab wound to his abdomen, and that the trauma inflicted on Stalker's head was a significant contributing factor to his death.

Preliminary investigation led the police to Jackson, who told them what had happened and gave them Monroe's address. The police took custody of Monroe at his home and took him to a police station for questioning. There, Monroe orally acknowledged, first to a detective and later to a prosecutor, that he had participated in the beating of Stalker and had struck him twice with the two-by-four. In a final, corrected written statement, Monroe indicated that he and Curry had completed their attack on Stalker before Thomas approached with the knife; earlier, he had indicated that the beating was still in progress when Thomas ran up and stabbed Stalker.

Monroe was charged with murder on an accountability theory. Before trial, Monroe moved to quash his arrest (along with the fruits of the arrest, including his post-arrest statements), contending that the police lacked probable cause to believe he was involved in Stalker's murder as of the time they took him into custody at his home. Separately, Monroe moved to suppress the oral and written statements he made at the police station on the ground that they were the product of coercion, alleging that he was improperly isolated, denied access to an attorney, and physically abused by the detectives who questioned him. The trial judge denied both motions after a hearing. In denying the motion to quash the arrest, the trial court rejected Monroe's contention that he was arrested at his home. The court instead found that Monroe had accompanied the police voluntarily to the police station and was placed under arrest there at a later time, by which point the police had ample evidence confirming his involvement with Stalker's death.

Monroe testified in his own defense at trial. Monroe again acknowledged that he struck Stalker with the two-by-four. Monroe testified that he did so after Stalker first picked up the two-by-four and swung at him (Monroe) without provocation, striking him in the hand as he was attempting to shield his head from the blow. At that point, Curry punched Stalker, knocking him to the ground. Monroe, angry with Stalker over the unprovoked assault, picked up the board and struck Stalker, but only twice and in the legs. Then Curry snatched the two-by-four away from Monroe, and Monroe began to walk away. He saw and heard Curry inflict one or two blows on Stalker with the board. Curry then caught up with Monroe as he continued to walk away from...