Poyner v. Murray, s. 91-4001

• Citation: 964 F.2d 1404
• Decision Date: 08 May 1992
• Docket Number: Nos. 91-4001,s. 91-4001
• Parties: Syvasky Lafayette POYNER, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Edward W. MURRAY, Director, Virginia Department of Corrections, Respondent-Appellee. (Six Cases) to 91-4006.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

Page 1404

964 F.2d 1404

Syvasky Lafayette POYNER, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Edward W. MURRAY, Director, Virginia Department of

Corrections, Respondent-Appellee. (Six Cases)

Nos. 91-4001 to 91-4006.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued July 31, 1991.

Decided May 8, 1992.

Alexander Hoke Slaughter, McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe, Richmond, Va., argued (Catherine Currin Hammond, Dorothy C. Young, McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe, Harry M. Johnson, III, Hunton & Williams, Richmond, Va., on brief), for petitioner-appellant.

Katherine Baldwin Toone, Asst. Atty. Gen., Office of Atty. Gen., Richmond, Va., argued (Mary Sue Terry, Atty. Gen. of Va., Richard B. Smith, Marla L. Graff, Asst. Attys. Gen., on brief), for respondent-appellee.

Before RUSSELL, WIDENER, and HALL, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

WIDENER, Circuit Judge:

Syvasky Lafayette Poyner challenges the judgments of three Virginia state courts, each sentencing him to death. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia denied each of Poyner's three petitions for writs of habeas corpus. We affirm.

Poyner was convicted of five counts of capital murder after three separate trials in the respective circuit courts of the Cities of Williamsburg, Hampton, and Newport News, Virginia. On June 6, 1984, Poyner was convicted after a jury trial in the Circuit Court of the City of Williamsburg for the capital murder of Clara Louise Paulette and Chestine Brooks. The Williamsburg jury on each count fixed Poyner's penalty at death on the statutory ground that there was a probability that he "would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing serious threat to society." Va.Code Ann. § 19.2-264.2. The Williamsburg court entered judgment on the jury's verdicts and accepted its recommendations of death.

Poyner's second trial took place on June 13, 1984, before the Circuit Court of the City of Hampton sitting without a jury. The Hampton court found Poyner guilty of the capital murder of Carolyn J. Hedrick and Joyce M. Baldwin. The court, after hearing testimony regarding the aggravating and mitigating circumstances surrounding the crimes, sentenced him to death on each count of capital murder. In fixing Poyner's sentence at death the Hampton court found both that he posed a continuous threat to society and that his acts were "outrageously vile, horrible, and inhuman" and "involved depravity of mind and aggravated battery to the victims." Va.Code Ann. § 19.2-264.2.

Poyner's final trial was before a jury in the Circuit Court of the City of Newport News. On July 11, 1984, that jury convicted him of the capital murder of Vicki Ripple. Following the sentencing phase of the trial, the jury found that Poyner's conduct and history indicated a probability that he would pose a continuous serious threat to society. Consequently, the jury fixed Poyner's penalty at death, and the trial court thereafter accepted the jury's recommendation and entered judgment on its verdict.

Poyner appealed all five convictions and death sentences to the Supreme Court of Virginia. That court affirmed each conviction and death sentence, Poyner v. Commonwealth, 229 Va. 401, 329 S.E.2d 815 (1985), and the United States Supreme Court denied his petition for a writ of certiorari. Poyner v. Virginia, 474 U.S. 865, 106 S.Ct. 189, 88 L.Ed.2d 158 (1985).

Poyner then sought collateral review of these convictions in the Virginia state courts. Petitions for writs of habeas corpus were filed on Poyner's behalf in each of the three convicting courts. Each court denied the respective petition after hearing argument but without holding evidentiary hearings, and the Supreme Court of Virginia, finding no error in any of the denials, refused Poyner's petitions for appeal. The United States Supreme Court subsequently denied his second petition for a writ of certiorari. Poyner v. Bair, 488 U.S. 871, 109 S.Ct. 185, 102 L.Ed.2d 154 (1988).

Poyner next sought relief from the federal courts. On January 12, 1989, he filed three separate petitions for writs of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The district court referred these petitions to a United States Magistrate who, in three lengthy and thorough reports, recommended that all of Poyner's petitions be denied and dismissed. Poyner filed objections to the Magistrate's reports. By three final orders dated December 21, 1990, the district court adopted and approved the findings and recommendations in the magistrate's reports, denied Poyner's objections, and dismissed his petitions. Neither the magistrate nor the district court held an evidentiary hearing as Poyner had requested. Poyner then moved the district court to alter or amend those final orders under Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e). The district court denied that motion, and these appeals followed.

A summary of the conduct for which Poyner was sentenced to death is necessary to the discussion of his claims on appeal. The record reveals that Poyner's actions during an eleven-day period in 1984 left five women from the Tidewater area of Virginia dead, all victims of gunshot wounds to the head. ¹ Poyner's robbery and murder spree began around noon on January 23, 1984, when he was riding around the City of Hampton in an automobile that he had stolen earlier that morning. Poyner entered a hair salon, which he chose "just on impulse," with the apparent intention of robbing the occupants. The clerk, Joyce M. Baldwin, mistook Poyner for a customer and began showing him various hair care products. In response, Poyner pulled a .38 caliber revolver and demanded money. She complied, opening the cash register and placing between forty and sixty dollars in a bag. Poyner then ordered her to walk to the back of the store. Now crying and begging him to spare her life, she turned her back to Poyner and began to walk. At that moment Poyner shot her in the back of the head from a range of approximately four to six feet, mortally wounding her.

Seven days later, around noon on January 30, 1984, Poyner left his home in the City of Newport News, stole another automobile, and drove to the City of Williamsburg. Once in Williamsburg, he selected a motel, again "just on impulse," and again for the apparent purpose of robbing the clerk. There Poyner found an elderly woman, Clara Louise Paulette, the manager of the motel. He pointed his gun at Mrs. Paulette and demanded money. She told Poyner he had "hit her at a bad time," but she gave him what money she had, approximately forty dollars.

While the armed robbery of Mrs. Paulette was in progress, Chestine Brooks, a housekeeper at the motel, walked into an adjacent room and saw what was happening in the motel office. When Poyner saw Mrs. Brooks, he ordered her and Mrs. Paulette into a kitchen area near the office and forced them to turn and face away from him. He then shot both women in the backs of their heads from close range, killing them.

Poyner killed again the next day, January 31, 1984, this time in the City of Newport News. That morning Poyner stole yet another automobile and proceeded to ride around the streets of Newport News. At around noon he passed an ice cream store in which he observed Vicki Ripple working alone. Poyner parked the car and entered the store, where Miss Ripple was cleaning up. He pointed his gun at her and demanded money, causing her to put the money from the cash register into a bag and hand it to him. Miss Ripple then walked into the corner of the store and covered her head. Poyner responded by shooting her in the back of the head and leaving her to die.

Poyner walked from his home in Newport News to Hampton on the morning of February 2, 1984. At around noon that day, he observed Carolyn J. Hedrick emerge from a store and begin to get into her car. He approached Mrs. Hedrick with a gun in his hand and told her that he wanted her money and that she was to get into her car. She screamed and appeared nervous, but she nonetheless complied and got into the passenger seat of her car. Poyner got into her car, began driving, and ordered her to remove her clothing, which she did. Poyner stated that he did this so that she would be less likely to attempt escape by jumping out of the car. He continued driving until they reached a parking lot behind a church, where he proceeded to rape her. After raping her, Poyner shot her in the left side of her head as she sat in the passenger seat of her car, crying and begging him not to shoot her. After taking no more than forty dollars from her pocketbook, Poyner pushed her nude body from the car and drove away. That afternoon Poyner continued driving around the Newport News area in Mrs. Hedrick's car, at one point stopping at a local barber shop, where he attempted to sell some candy that he had found in the Hedrick car.

On February 3, 1984, Newport News police officers discovered the Hedrick car parked in the vicinity of the church parking lot where her body had been found. Poyner's fingerprints were found inside the car, and eyewitnesses reported seeing him driving the car during the afternoon of the Hedrick murder. Poyner was arrested on February 4, 1984 by detectives of the Hampton police department and thereafter was indicted for the capital murder of Carolyn J. Hedrick. Also on February 4, a search warrant for Poyner's home was obtained. The resulting search yielded the keys to Mrs. Hedrick's car and a .38 caliber revolver that forensic analysis later established as the weapon that killed Mrs. Hedrick. Within hours of being taken into custody for the Hedrick murder, Poyner confessed to killing Mesdames Baldwin, Paulette, Brooks, Ripple, and Hedrick.

During the course of his confession on February 4, 1984, Poyner told the interrogating detectives that he chose only women as his victims because women are afraid of guns and are easier to rob than men. Poyner further stated that he killed his victims so that they would be unable...