Alvarez v. Warden, San Quentin State Prison
| Decision Date | 02 April 2019 |
| Docket Number | No. 2:97-cv-1895 KJM KJN P,2:97-cv-1895 KJM KJN P |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California |
| Parties | MANUEL MACHADO ALVAREZ, Petitioner, v. WARDEN, San Quentin State Prison, Respondent. |
Petitioner is a state prisoner under sentence of death. The parties briefed the application of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) to each claim in the operative amended petition. After careful consideration of the parties' briefs and of the state court record, this court concludes that Petitioner has failed to satisfy the requirements of § 2254(d) for all claims in the amended petition, save and except for Claims BB, MM and BBB, which Petitioner has conceded or withdrawn. Accordingly, this court recommends the amended petition be denied.
In November 1986, after serving a prison term for voluntary manslaughter and assaultwith a deadly weapon, Petitioner was released on parole in Los Angeles.
In March of the following year, Petitioner moved from Los Angeles to Sacramento, in violation of the terms of his parole. There, he lived with Leslie Colyer and Neetelfer Hawkins, off and on, and spent the majority of his time seeking and using drugs and alcohol.
On the evening of May 12, 1987, Petitioner was socializing outside an apartment building on Boxwood Avenue near El Camino Avenue and Del Paso Boulevard in Sacramento where Sandra S. lived with her boyfriend and her 11-year-old son. At the time, Sandra worked as a prostitute. Petitioner "came on to" Sandra, but he was refused. He was drunk and weaving, and had thrown up at one point. Sandra eventually returned to her apartment at about 4:00 a.m., and went to bed. Her boyfriend, son and others were also sleeping inside.
At about noon the following day, Sandra woke up alone in the apartment. She had a "real bad feeling." Looking toward the foot of the bed as she began to get up, Sandra saw Petitioner. His fly was down and he was masturbating. She loudly said, "Oh, God, no." Petitioner responded firmly, "Oh, God, yes." After telling Sandra there was no one to hear or help her, Petitioner pinned her down and began to rape her. One of Sandra's friends walked in during that time and asked whether she was "having a date?" She yelled, "No, no[,] no, no, it's not," but Petitioner claimed that it was. Sandra repeated several times that there was no date. As he ran out of the room, her friend said to Petitioner, "Oh, man, don't be doing that."
Afterward, Petitioner kept Sandra in the bathroom until they could hear people coming into the apartment. Sandra then ran toward her friend Tony Simpkins, telling him Petitioner had raped her, and was standing with him in the kitchen when she saw Petitioner taking out and putting into his pants what looked like a large knife. Petitioner then ran out of the apartment.
Nearby, Edwin Glidewell had parked his 1975 Chevrolet Camaro outside his brother's home on Boxwood Avenue. He stood at the front door of the house, trying to hurry his wife along because he was late for a medical appointment. He saw Petitioner walking toward El Camino Avenue. Glidewell was familiar with Petitioner because Glidewell had previously stayed with his brother for about two months and would see Petitioner walking in the area. On this occasion, as Petitioner passed Glidewell's brother's house and the Camaro, Glidewell sawPetitioner jump into the driver's seat of his car. Petitioner started the car with the keys Glidewell had left in the ignition. Glidewell jumped the fence and ran toward Petitioner once he realized what was happening, but he was unable to open the passenger side door of the then-moving vehicle. Glidewell yelled to the others in the house to call 911 and ran after Petitioner who had turned right onto El Camino toward Arden Way. Glidewell missed another opportunity to open the passenger door after seeing Petitioner stopped the wrong way on a one-way street; seeing Glidewell, Petitioner drove over the concrete median and headed west on El Camino.
Eventually, Glidewell recovered the vehicle at the police impound lot. Although his luggage was still in the vehicle, the clothing inside his luggage belonged to Petitioner.
A few days later, on May 15, Petitioner met Ross. She was cashing a welfare check. Thereafter, the two began a days-long binge of using drugs and alcohol. During the course of that binge, they visited Petitioner's friend Neetelfer Hawkins and Ross's friend Gail Patton.
Petitioner asked Ross to drive the Camaro late on the morning of May 17. The two entered a shopping center, and Petitioner directed Ross to the Golden 1 Credit Union. She parked, and he got out of the car. At 11:28 a.m., Allen Birkman, a civilian identification technician for the Sacramento Police Department, withdrew $60 from an account at the credit union's automatic teller machine. Petitioner confronted Birkman and a struggle ensued, wherein Petitioner stabbed Birkman in the heart. Ross and Petitioner then escaped in the Camaro.
Meanwhile, Birkman called for help. Within seconds, a passerby named Charles Kosobud came to his aid. Birkman was holding his right hand to his chest, and blood was flowing through his fingers. He held a wallet in his left hand. Steadying Birkman, Kosobud asked if they had robbed him; Birkman responded, "No, but they tried." Kosobud asked after the robber's identities, and Birkman responded, "Two blacks." Birkman soon collapsed.
When Officer Calvin Lim of the Sacramento Police Department arrived at the scene, Birkman was receiving emergency medical aid. Within several minutes, he was placed in an ambulance for transport to a hospital and Lim rode along. Birkman had difficulty breathing, andappeared to be in pain; he said he felt numbness or tingling in his body. When Lim asked Birkman if he knew who had attacked him, he responded, "[a] male black, approximately six foot tall" who escaped in "a Camaro."
Sometime before noon, Ross and Petitioner arrived at Gail Patton's apartment, located not far from the Golden 1 Credit Union. Ross parked the Camaro nearby. When Ross entered the apartment with a long knife in a sheath, Ross appeared frightened. Ross went into the kitchen with the knife, and returned, telling Patton to give it to Petitioner. Petitioner then entered a few minutes later, appearing normal. Patton gave him the long knife and the sheath. When police officers approached Patton's apartment shortly thereafter, either petitioner or Ross, maybe both, directed Patton not to say anything. At the door to the apartment, the officers told Patton that they were investigating the incident at the Golden 1 Credit Union. They asked whether she knew anything about the Camaro parked nearby and she said she did not. When the officers left, Patton told Petitioner to leave and he did so, leaving behind the long knife and sheath and some clothing, as well as the Camaro.
On that same date, at about 1:30 p.m., 78-year-old Greta Slatten drove her new 1987 Ford Taurus to a convenience store located about two-thirds of a mile from Patton's apartment. No other vehicles were in the lot at the time. Slatten saw Petitioner, the only other person present, walking across the parking lot. She stayed in her vehicle for a few minutes, and when Petitioner crossed to use a nearby public telephone, Slatten exited with her purse and keys, entering the store. After leaving the store to return to her vehicle, and having passed Petitioner who was still using the phone, the next thing Slatten recalled was being in the hospital. She suffered an injury that required 20 stitches on her face that prevented her from opening her mouth, and dark bruising on the left side of her face from her hairline down through her neck and jaw. Slatten learned later that Petitioner had taken her purse, keys and car.
Allen Birkman died on May 18, 1987, as a result of the stab wound to his heart. The wound could have been inflicted by the long knife that Petitioner left at Patton's apartment. That day or soon thereafter, Leslie Colyer spoke with Petitioner over the telephone after Colyer was approached by police. The officers had inquired into Petitioner's whereabouts and advisedColyer they were seeking him in connection with a homicide. When speaking with Petitioner, Colyer told him that the victim was a police officer.
On May 27, 1987, Petitioner was arrested in Mississippi and jailed, having been apprehended behind the wheel of Slatten's Taurus. A second long knife in a sheath was found in the car. The next day, Charles Robinson - Petitioner's passenger and a hitchhiker - was also arrested and jailed. While the two shared a cell, Petitioner told Robinson that "he had killed a police officer in California."
Petitioner told another story. Testifying on his own behalf and introducing other evidence, Petitioner denied raping Sandra S. He said she had consented, at least in part in order to obtain some cocaine he offered. He denied stealing Glidewell's Camaro, indicating Glidewell had given it to him as security for a drug debt. Petitioner also denied robbing or murdering Birkman, claiming he was elsewhere at the time of the attack, and was instead the victim of mistaken identity. Further, Petitioner denied robbing Slatten, again asserting an alibi and misidentification. In acknowledging possession of Slatten's Taurus, Petitioner claimed to have traded cocaine for the vehicle with a young man who called himself "J.R." He generally denied ever possessing a knife.
Ross told yet another story. Testifying on her own behalf and introducing other evidence, she did not deny that Petitioner robbed or murdered Birkman. Instead, Ross claimed she did not have the requisite mental state — she said she did not even suspect what Petitioner had evidently intended - but had accompanied him out of fear.
For the penalty of death, the...
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