Blanton v. Quarterman

Decision Date01 June 2007
Docket NumberNo. SA-05-CA-598-OG.,SA-05-CA-598-OG.
PartiesReginald W. BLANTON, TDCJ No. 999395, Petitioner, v. Nathaniel QUARTERMAN, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division, Respondent.
CourtU.S. District Court — Western District of Texas

J. Scott Sullivan, Law Offices of J. Scott Sullivan, San Antonio, TX, John Finbar Carroll, San Antonio, TX, for Petitioner.

Laura Grant Berins, Office of Atty. Gen., Asst. Atty. Gen., Austin, TX, for Respondent.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

ORLANDO L. GARCIA, District Judge.

Petitioner Reginald W. Blanton filed this federal habeas corpus action pursuant to Title 28, United States Code, section 2254, collaterally attacking his otherwise final, August, 2001, Bexar County conviction for capital murder and sentence of death. For the reasons set forth in detail below petitioner is not entitled to federal habeas corpus relief from this Court but is entitled to a Certificate of Appealability limited to one aspect of his multi-faceted claim of ineffective assistance by his trial counsel and one complaint of ineffective assistance by his appellate counsel.

I. Statement of the Case
A. Factual Background

Late on the afternoon of April 9, 2000, a resident of the Stepping Stone Apartments in San Antonio, Texas climbed the stairs to the apartment of Carlos Garza, observed the door to Garza's apartment apparently had been kicked in, and also observed the interior of Garza's apartment appeared to have been ransacked.1 Police were summoned to Garza's apartment.2 They discovered Garza, bereft of the gold jewelry he had worn only hours before, lying mortally wounded in the hallway of his apartment.3 An autopsy later revealed Garza sustained two gunshot wounds to the head a non-fatal wound which entered Garza's left cheek and exited the back of his neck and a fatal, close-range, wound which entered Garza's left temple, transected his brain, and exited his right cheek.4 Garza's neighbor one floor below Garza's apartment reported being awakened from a nap on the afternoon of April 9, 2000 by the sound of someone tripping or falling to the floor directing above his apartment.5

Within minutes of Garza's murder, petitioner pawned several pieces of gold jewelry identified by witnesses who were familiar with same as belonging to Garza.6

Two days later, on April 11, 2000, San Antonio police officers responded to what they believed was an unrelated domestic disturbance involving Latoya Mayberry and Robert Blanton. While refereeing the domestic dispute, police discovered through a routine warrant check that Mayberry, who initially furnished them with a false name, had active warrants outstanding for her arrest.7 After violently resisting arrest, Mayberry volunteered to one of her arresting officers that she had information regarding a murder only days before at the Stepping Stone Apartments.8 After Mayberry spoke with a police detective, she was transported to the office of the San Antonio Police homicide unit, where she gave a detailed written statement identifying petitioner as the person who fatally shot and robbed Garza.9 Later that same date, Mayberry convinced petitioner's fraternal twin brother Robert to speak with police.10 Robert Blanton gave police a written statement which was substantially less inculpatory of his brother than Mayberry's statement but which nonetheless placed petitioner inside Garza's apartment at the time the shots were fired.11

On April 13, 2000, police arrested petitioner without incident.12 At the time of his arrest, petitioner was wearing a distinctive gold, lion's head ring with ruby eyes and a diamond in its mouth and a gold nugget bracelet identified by others as similar to those owned and worn by Garza just prior to his murder.13

B. Indictment

On June 29, 2000, a Bexar County grand jury indicted petitioner in cause no. 2000-CR-3452 in a one-count, two-paragraph, indictment alleging petitioner fatally shot Carlos Garza while in the course of committing and attempting to commit the predicate felonies of burglary and robbery.14

C. Guilt-Innocence Phase of Trial
1. The Prosecution's Evidence

Testimony during the guilt-innocence phase of petitioner's trial commenced on August 13, 2001 with the prosecution calling as its first witness Latoya Mayberry Blanton, who less than a week earlier had become the wife of petitioner's brother Robert. During her trial testimony recounting the events of April 9, 2000, Latoya attempted to recant a number of the most inculpatory aspects of her written statement to police, particularly her detailed account of petitioner's oral recitation of the events surrounding his fatal shooting of Carlos Garza.15 However, she continued to assert that (1) she, Robert, and the petitioner twice visited Carlos' apartment complex on the afternoon of the fatal shooting; (2) when the three of them went to Carlos' third floor apartment on their first visit and knocked, there was no answer, and she returned to their vehicle; (3) shortly thereafter, she heard a pair of loud noises and, after a brief pause, another pair of loud noises, the nature of which she could not identify; (4) Robert and petitioner returned to their vehicle shortly thereafter; (5) they drove a short distance away, only to return to Carlos' apartment complex not long thereafter; (6) on their second visit, petitioner left her and Robert in their vehicle while he returned to Carlos' apartment; and (7) after the petitioner returned to their vehicle laughing, they proceeded to a pawn shop in east San Antonio where petitioner pawned several items of gold jewelry.16

The prosecution then called Robert Blanton, who also attempted to recant the most inculpatory aspects of his previous written statement.17 However, Robert still insisted (1) he had driven petitioner and Latoya Mayberry to Carlos Garza's apartment complex twice on the afternoon of Carlos' murder, (2) on their first visit, he, petitioner, and Latoya went up to Carlos' apartment and knocked on the door, (3) they subsequently left the complex but returned to the apartment complex adjacent to Carlos' complex shortly thereafter the same afternoon, (4) petitioner left their vehicle but returned five minutes later, (5) they then proceeded to an eastside pawn shop because petitioner wanted to sell some jewelry, (6) petitioner sold some jewelry at the pawn shop, and (7) petitioner likes to wear gold jewelry.18

The prosecution also introduced the evidence outlined above which linked both the gold jewelry the petitioner pawned within minutes of Carlos Garza's fatal shooting and the gold jewelry the petitioner was wearing at the time of his arrest to jewelry missing from Garza's person and apartment shortly after the murder. A resident of the Stepping Stone Apartments testified she saw the petitioner angrily banging on Carlos Garza's apartment door a few weeks before Carlos' murder.19 Another Stepping Stone Apartment resident testified about an incident a few weeks before Carlos' murder in which Carlos pulled out and flaunted a roll of cash and petitioner responded by admonishing Carlos "somebody's going to take it from you."20 Petitioner's girlfriend testified that, when petitioner returned to their home on the evening of April 9, 2000, he was wearing several pieces of gold jewelry she had never seen before, including an animal ring with rubies and a gold nugget bracelet.21

A San Antonio Police officer and a civilian police evidence technician each testified and presented crime scene photographs and a videotape recording showing (1) footprints on the broken door of Carlos Garza's apartment, (2) a bullet recovered from inside a closet in Carlos Garza's apartment adjacent to the hallway where his body was found, (3) holes in a mirror and the wall separating the hallway where the body was found from the closet where the bullet was recovered, and (4) a pair of spent shell casings found inside the apartment including one recovered next to Carlos' body.22 A firearms examiner testified both the shell casings found inside Carlos Garza's apartment had been fired from the same weapon and each matched the .380 caliber bullet recovered from the closet.23

Finally, the prosecution presented testimony from petitioner's acquaintance and fellow Bexar County Adult Detention Center ("BCADC") inmate Frank Trujillo that (1) he met petitioner while Trujillo was working at a local hotel, (2) a few days before Trujillo's arrest on April 13, 2000, petitioner asked Trujillo if he wanted to buy a gun and explained "I had to smoke a nigger," (3) on April 13, 2000, after his arrest, Trujillo saw petitioner at the magistrate's office and later spent time in the same holding cell with petitioner, (4) petitioner told Trujillo he had been arrested for capital murder in connection with a shooting next door to the Westwind Apartments, (5) later Trujillo and petitioner were housed in the same unit of the BCADC, and (6) during the. detention, petitioner told Trujillo (a) he, brother Robert, and Latoya Mayberry "went to some guy's house to jack him for some dope, coke," (b) he knocked on the door but no one answered, (c) he knew the guy was home so he kicked the door open, (d) he shot the guy as he jacked him and was going to shot the guy again but his gun jammed, so he re-cocked it and shot the guy a second time as the guy was moaning, and (e) he took some jewelry and pawned some of it while "on camera."24

2. The Defense's Evidence

The defense called Carlos Garza's estranged wife who testified (1) she found photographs while cleaning Carlos' apartment showing the petitioner wearing a bracelet similar to the one she had purchased for Carlos but (2) she had never known Carlos to loan his jewelry to others and Carlos was...

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