Bell v. True
| Decision Date | 07 February 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 7:04 CV 00752.,7:04 CV 00752. |
| Parties | Edward N. BELL, Petitioner, v. William Page TRUE, Warden, Sussex I State Prison, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Virginia |
Matthew K. Roskoski, Latham & Watkins, L.L.P., Washington, D.C., and James G. Connell, III, Devine & Connell, P.L.C., Fairfax, VA, for Petitioner.
Katherine P. Baldwin, Senior Assistant Attorney General of Virginia, Richmond, VA, for Respondent.
Edward N. Bell was convicted by a Virginia jury of the murder of Winchester police officer Ricky L. Timbrook and sentenced to death. After unsuccessfully challenging his conviction and the imposition of the death penalty both on direct appeal and in state habeas corpus proceedings, Bell now petitions for a writ of habeas corpus from this court.
Through his appointed attorneys, Bell raises a number of constitutional claims. Among other things, he contends that the state knowingly used perjured testimony against him and failed to disclose exculpatory evidence. He argues that one of his attorneys had a conflict of interest that adversely affected the defense. He also asserts that he is mentally retarded and thus cannot legally be executed.
After a very careful review of the record, I find that all of Bell's claims except one are without merit and should be dismissed. However, I will hold an evidentiary hearing on Bell's claim that his lawyers failed to present available mitigating evidence at the sentencing phase of the trial, leaving the jury with no alternative but to fix the death penalty in lieu of life imprisonment without parole. I make no decision on the claim at this point, but I find that Bell is entitled to an opportunity to prove his assertion at a hearing.1
While largely circumstantial, the evidence at trial that Bell murdered police officer Timbrook was very strong, and I am convinced that none of the errors Bell complains of affected the fundamental fairness of his conviction. Nevertheless, at this point, I cannot say that the jury's decision to sentence Bell to death was not unaffected by the alleged errors of his attorneys.
The full reasons for my decisions in this case follow.
In affirming Bell's conviction and sentence on direct appeal, the Supreme Court of Virginia summarized the facts in the light most favorable to the prosecution as follows:
On the evening of October 29, 1999, Sergeant Timbrook and two probation and parole officers were working together in a program known as Community Oriented Probation and Parole Services. One aspect of Sergeant Timbrook's responsibilities was to assist the probation officers in making home visits to individuals on probation or parole. On that particular evening, these three individuals were patrolling in an unmarked car in Winchester and were, among other things, searching for Gerrad Wiley, who was wanted for violating the terms of his probation.
The officers went to Wiley's residence on Woodstock Lane in Winchester several times that evening to no avail. Just before midnight, when they returned to Wiley's residence for the sixth time, they saw an individual standing in a grassy area between a trash dumpster and an apartment building. As one of the probation officers and Sergeant Timbrook exited the vehicle and approached that individual, who was later identified as Daniel Charles Spitler, another person, who had "dipped behind in the shadows," began running away. Sergeant Timbrook pursued that individual while calling for assistance on his radio.
Spitler identified the individual who ran from Sergeant Timbrook as Bell. Spitler testified that, on the evening in question, he was in the area of Woodstock Lane for the purpose of obtaining cocaine from Wiley. After no one answered his knock on the door of Wiley's residence, Spitler started walking down a nearby alley where he encountered Bell. Spitler did not tell Bell that he wanted cocaine, but, according to Spitler, Bell "put his hands on [Spitler] like to pat [him] down to check and see if [Spitler] had a wire on [him]." During that encounter, Sergeant Timbrook and the two probation officers arrived in the unmarked vehicle.
When the vehicle's headlights illuminated Spitler and Bell, Spitler started walking toward the headlights, but Bell stepped into the shadows of a building. Spitler identified Sergeant Timbrook as one of the individuals who emerged from the vehicle. According to Spitler, Bell then started running away and Sergeant Timbrook chased after him, yelling Spitler lost sight of Bell and Sergeant Timbrook when they ran behind a building, but Spitler testified that he heard a shot soon thereafter.
Sergeant Timbrook chased Bell along several streets and down an alley between two houses located at 301 and 303 Piccadilly Street. These houses were separated by a fence approximately two or three feet in height. As Sergeant Timbrook started to climb over the fence, a shot rang out. A police officer, Robert L. Bower, who had responded to Sergeant Timbrook's radio call for assistance, described the incident in this manner:
[A]s [Sergeant Timbrook] started to cross over, I took my eyes off of him, and directed it toward the subject. I noticed it stopped. And, I saw a, what appeared to be a left shoulder as it stopped. All I could was ... it was like a black material .... As soon as I saw it stop, I looked back at [Sergeant] Timbrook to say something, at which time I heard the shot. And, I saw [Sergeant] Timbrook falling.
Sergeant Timbrook's body was found lying on the ground with his feet close to the fence and his upper torso leaning against a wall. His gun was still in its holster. Sergeant Timbrook was transported to, a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. The cause of death was a single gunshot wound above his right eye, caused by a bullet which was fired from a distance of between six and eighteen inches.
Brad Triplett, one of the probation officers who had been patrolling with Sergeant Timbrook that evening, ran in a parallel direction during part of Sergeant Timbrook's pursuit of Bell. At one street intersection, he saw Sergeant Timbrook running after the "same dark[ly] dressed figure" who had originally fled from Sergeant Timbrook. Triplett described that person's clothing as a "dark black type of jumpsuit, nylon material," with "reflective like stripes on the jacket." Several times during the pursuit, Triplett heard Sergeant Timbrook yelling, He also heard the gunshot.
The police searched the area for the suspect throughout the night by securing a perimeter around the neighborhood where the shooting had occurred and by using a helicopter equipped with a heat-sensitive "Forward Looking Infrared" camera and a spotlight. At one point during the search, Officer Brian King spotted an individual lying on the back steps of a house located at 305 Piccadilly Street.2 King stated that the person was wearing a dark colored jacket with reflective strips on the sleeves that "li[t] up like a Christmas [t]ree" when he shined his flashlight on the individual. The person then stood up and disappeared behind a bush.
2 The shooting occurred in the area between 301 and 303 Piccadilly Street.
Emily Marlene Williams, who lived at 305 Piccadilly Street, testified that she heard the gunshot on the evening in question and about five minutes later heard a "crash" in the basement of her house. After she told the police about the noise in her basement, the police evacuated her and her family from their home. The following morning, the police discovered Bell, a Jamaican national, hiding in a coal bin in the basement of the Williams' residence. He was wearing a "LUGZ" black nylon jacket and a black beret cap with a gold pin. The jacket had reflective stripes on the sleeves. Spitler identified both of these items of clothing as those that Bell had been wearing on the evening when Sergeant Timbrook was shot. Before Bell was transported from the Williams' residence to the police department, a gunshot residue test was administered to Bell's hands and the recovered particles were...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
People v. Stevens
...pretrial publicity and the imposing presence at trial of so many uniformed guards. (Id. at pp. 1459-1460; but see Bell v. True (W.D.Va.2006) 413 F.Supp.2d 657, 721 [pretrial publicity combined with the presence of uniformed officers in the courtroom did not pose unacceptable threat to defen......
-
Hash v. Johnson
...of the fact that “fail[ure] to make a reasonable investigation” renders “an informed tactical decision ... impossible.” Bell v. True, 413 F.Supp.2d 657, 699 (W.D.Va.2006). In Elmore, the Fourth Circuit granted an ineffective assistance of counsel claim based on a failure to investigate. Alt......
-
Powell v. Kelly
...them. 46. See also Barrier v. Warden, Buckingham Correctional Center, 37 F.3d 1492, 1994 WL 545010 (4th Cir.1994); Bell v. True, 413 F.Supp.2d 657, 735 (W.D.Va.2006); Orbe v. True, 233 F.Supp.2d 749, 787 ...
-
Hodges v. Bezio
...sitting in the spectator gallery may signal nothing more tha[n] fraternal support for a fallen officer's family."); Bell v. True, 413 F. Supp. 2d 657, 721 (W.D. Va. 2006) (no unacceptable risk where "the trial judge clearly acknowledged the potential for prejudice created by the presence of......