Ayala v. Hatch
| Decision Date | 14 November 2012 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 10–CV–01240 MV/LFG. |
| Citation | 934 F.Supp.2d 1251 |
| Parties | Gabriel AYALA, Petitioner, v. Timothy HATCH, Warden, and Gary K. King, Attorney General for the State of New Mexico, Respondents. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of New Mexico |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Gabriel Ayala, Clayton, NM, pro se.
Margaret E. McLean, Santa Fe, NM, for Respondents.
THIS MATTER comes before the Court on Mr. Ayala's Petition Under 28 U.S.C. Section 2254 for Writ of Habeas Corpus by a Person in State Custody (“Petition”) [Doc. 1], the Magistrate Judge's Findings and Recommended Disposition (“Recommended Disposition”) [Doc. 18], and Mr. Ayala's Appeal to United States District Court on ‘Magistrate Judge's Findings and Recommended Disposition’ and Notice of filing of CD's from State Court (“Objections”) [Doc. 25]. Having reviewed the Petition, considered the Objections to the Recommended Disposition, conducted a de novo review of those portions of the Recommended Disposition to which Mr. Ayala objects, and considered the relevant legal authority and supporting documents, the Court concludes that the objections to the Recommended Disposition are OVERRULED, that the Recommended Disposition is ADOPTED IN PART as modified by this Memorandum Opinion and Order, that the Petition is DENIED, and that this matter is DISMISSED with PREJUDICE.
In 2002, Mr. Ayala was charged with the seven counts of child abuse that give rise to the instant proceedings. According to the medical records, Mr. Ayala's youngest child Alicia sustained multiple fractures, broken ribs, and a broken tibia, all of which occurred between August 27 and September 9, 2002. See Recommended Disposition, ¶ 10. At the hospital, when confronted by officials from the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Family Department, Mr. Ayala admitted that he struck Alicia's head three times and that he may have hugged Alicia too hard. See id. ¶¶ 10, 34; see also State v. Ayala, 140 N.M. 126, 140 P.3d 547, 550 (N.M.Ct.App.2006) (), cert. denied,140 N.M. 279, 142 P.3d 360 (2006).
Mr. Ayala pled guilty on April 1, 2004, to three charges of first-degree child abuse and four charges of third-degree child abuse. See Recommended Disposition, ¶ 12. The plea agreement provided that two of the first degree counts—namely, Counts I and II—could run concurrently or consecutively to one another at the court's discretion, but that all other counts would run concurrently with Counts I and II. See id. On July 15, 2004, the state district court sentenced Mr. Ayala to a total term of 30 years. See id. The court found mitigating circumstances for Count I because Mr. Ayala was suffering from extreme sleep deprivation and reduced the basic sentence from eighteen to twelve years. See id. The court sentenced Mr. Ayala to eighteen years on Count II, with Counts I and II to run consecutively. See id. In addition, the court found each count to be a “serious violent offense” for the purposes of calculating eligibility for good time deductions, as permitted by the New Mexico Earned Meritorious Deductions Act. See id.;N.M. Stat. Ann. § 33–2–34. Mr. Ayala currently is confined at the Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facilityin Clayton, New Mexico. See Recommended Disposition, ¶ 3.
Plaintiff has challenged his conviction and sentence both through direct appeal and habeas corpus review. On direct appeal, in State v. Ayala, 140 P.3d at 550, the New Mexico Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's decision on June 1, 2006, and the New Mexico Supreme Court denied Mr. Ayala's Petition for Writ of Certiorari on July 21, 2006. See id. ¶¶ 18, 20. On habeas review, the state district court granted in part Mr. Ayala's petition for habeas relief on March 2, 2010, finding that Mr. Ayala had received ineffective assistance of counsel at sentencing, and entered an Amended Judgment, Sentence and Commitment (“Amended Sentence”) on April 8, 2010, by which Mr. Ayala received a total term of incarceration of eighteen years. See id. ¶¶ 32, 33. The rest of Mr. Ayala's sentence remained the same. Thereafter, Mr. Ayala appealed the Amended Sentence. The New Mexico Court of Appeals affirmed the state court's sentencing decision on November 2, 2010, and the New Mexico Supreme Court denied Mr. Ayala's Petition for Writ of Certiorari on December 22, 2010.1See id. ¶¶ 43, 45.
On December 28, 2010, Mr. Ayala filed his Petition Under 28 U.S.C. Section 2254 for Writ of Habeas Corpus. Respondents filed their Answer to Petition on February 4, 2011, and their Supplemental Brief (per the Magistrate Judge's request) on May 23, 2011. On July 14, 2011, the Magistrate Judge entered his Recommended Disposition and notified the parties that objections were due within fourteen days of service of the Recommended Disposition. After receiving two extensions of time, Mr. Ayala timely filed his Objections to the Recommended Disposition on September 18, 2011.
If a party files objections to a Magistrate Judge's proposed findings and recommended disposition, the district court “shall make a de novo determination of those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or recommendations to which objection is made.” See28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). After conducting a de novo review, the district court may “accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings or recommendations made by the magistrate judge.” Id.
In reviewing the Magistrate Judge's Recommended Disposition de novo, the Court must apply the standard of review that governs a federal habeas petition. The provisions of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”) govern the Court's review. Under AEDPA, the appropriate standard of review depends on whether the claim was decided on the merits in state court. See Cummings v. Sirmons, 506 F.3d 1211, 1221–22 (10th Cir.2007), cert. denied,554 U.S. 907, 128 S.Ct. 2943, 171 L.Ed.2d 872 (2008); see also28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). If the claim was not heard on the merits, a federal district court makes its own findings of fact and conclusions of law. See Cummings, 506 F.3d at 1222. If a claim was “adjudicated on the merits by the state courts, the petitioner will be entitled to federal habeas relief only if he can establish that the state court decision ‘was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States,’ or ‘was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.’ ” Id. (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1) & (2)). Under the AEDPA, “clearly established law” refers to “the holdings, as opposed to the dicta, of th[e Supreme] Court's decisions as of the time of the relevant state-court decision.” Yarborough v. Alvarado, 541 U.S. 652, 653, 124 S.Ct. 2140, 158 L.Ed.2d 938 (2004) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). “As for fact-finding, a federal court must accept facts found by the state court unless the defendant rebuts the finding ‘by clear and convincing evidence.’ ” Black v. Workman, 682 F.3d 880, 892 (10th Cir.2012) (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1)).
“ ‘When reviewing a state court's application of federal law, [a federal court is] precluded from issuing the writ simply because [it] concludes in [its] independent judgment that the state court applied the law erroneously or incorrectly.’ ” Hooks v. Workman, 606 F.3d 715, 721 (10th Cir.2010) (quoting McLuckie v. Abbott, 337 F.3d 1193, 1197 (10th Cir.2003)). “ ‘Rather, [the federal court] must be convinced that the application was also objectively unreasonable.’ ” Id. (quoting McLuckie, 337 F.3d at 1197). “[A]n unreasonable application of federal law is different from an incorrect application of federal law.” Renico v. Lett, 559 U.S. 766, 130 S.Ct. 1855, 1862, 176 L.Ed.2d 678 (2010) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Moreover, a federal court must also consider the specificity of the rule. See Black, 682 F.3d at 892 (citation omitted). “The more general the rule, the more leeway courts have in reaching outcomes in case-by-case determinations.” Yarborough, 541 U.S. at 653, 124 S.Ct. 2140 (citation omitted).
In support of his Petition, Mr. Ayala sets forth four arguments. First, Mr. Ayala contends that the state trial court improperly imposed multiple sentences that violate his right to be free from double jeopardy. See Petition, p. 6. Second, Mr. Ayala maintains that he did not possess the requisite mental state for the charges to have been considered serious violent offenses and that his lawyer was ineffective for failing to pursue this defense. See id. at 7. Third, Mr. Ayala argues that he received ineffective assistance of counsel during the plea process. See id. at 9. Fourth, Mr. Ayala contends that the New Mexico Court of Appeals based its decisions on “[m]isinformation of facts” in violation of Mr. Ayala's rights. See id. at 11.
In the Recommended Disposition, the Magistrate Judge properly determined that Mr. Ayala exhausted his state remedies with respect to his first three claims. See Recommended Disposition, ¶¶ 47–48. The Magistrate Judge further concluded that Mr. Ayala had not exhausted his state court remedies with respect to his fourth claim, but that the court nonetheless could deny the Petition if it was clear that the unexhausted claim was without merit. See id. ¶ 50 (citations omitted); see also Williams v. Jones, 571 F.3d 1086, 1089 (10th Cir.2009) (). The Magistrate Judge based his decision with respect to Mr. Ayala's fourth claim on the assumption that Mr. Ayala was pursuing a prosecutorial misconduct...
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