Blunkall v. Boyd
| Decision Date | 18 January 2022 |
| Docket Number | 1:19-cv-00042 |
| Parties | CHRISTOPHER LEE BLUNKALL #526499, Petitioner, v. BERT C. BOYD, Warden, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Tennessee |
Christopher Lee Blunkall, a pro se state prisoner, filed a petition for the writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Doc No. 1), Respondent filed an Answer (Doc. No. 22), and Petitioner filed a Reply. (Doc. No. 25). The Reply requests the appointment of counsel (id. at 10) and liberally construed, seeks to add two new claims. (Id. at 2-4). For the following reasons, Petitioner is not entitled to relief under Section 2254 and this action will be DISMISSED.
A Marshall County jury convicted Petitioner of rape of a child, and the court sentenced him to 32 years' imprisonment. (Doc. No. 20-1 at 58). The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) affirmed, and the Tennessee Supreme Court denied Petitioner's application for permission to appeal. State v. Blunkall, No. M2014-00084-CCA-R3CD, 2015 WL 500751 (Tenn. Crim. App. Feb. 5, 2015), perm. app. denied, May 15, 2015. Petitioner filed original (Doc. No. 2016 at 4-15) and amended (id. at 50-84) petitions for post-conviction relief. The court held an evidentiary hearing (Doc. Nos. 20-18, 20-19) and denied relief. (Doc. No. 20-16 at 136-53). The TCCA affirmed, and the Tennessee Supreme Court denied discretionary review. Blunkall v. State, No. M2017-01038-CCA-R3-PC, 2019 WL 104136 (Tenn. Crim. App. Jan. 4, 2019), perm. app. denied, Apr. 11, 2019.
As context for Petitioner's claims, the Court sets forth the TCCA's comprehensive summary of the evidence established at trial:
At trial, P.R.1 testified that she lived in Estill Springs with her four minor children: the victim, B.J., who was fourteen years old and was born on May 5, 1999; S.J., who was ten years old; E.J., who was four years old; and A.R., who was five months old.
[FN1 It is the policy of this court to address the minor victims of sexual crimes and their immediate family members by their initials.]
P.R. said that on Monday, April 30, 2012, the victim was twelve years old, was in seventh grade, and was in special education classes. The victim could not tell time, do math, or understand anything but simple words. Additionally, the victim had difficulty understanding complex questions.
P.R. said that on April 30, she woke her children, got ready for work, and got the victim and S.J. ready for school. Around 6:30 a.m., she drove the victim to the house of her maternal grandmother, E.W., in Winchester so the victim could catch the bus for school. The victim was supposed to ride the bus back to E.W.'s house after school. That afternoon, P.R. received a call from E.W., who said that the victim had gotten into a car with someone E.W. did not recognize and was missing. P.R. contacted the victim's father, who said that he had not seen the victim. P.R. went to E.W.'s house and called the police. The police came to E.W.'s house, spoke with the witnesses, then issued a missing child report.
P.R. said that the victim usually carried a deactivated cellular telephone. P.R. called Verizon and had the telephone activated in an attempt to locate the victim. Throughout the night, P.R. and other family members repeatedly called the victim's telephone and sent text messages but to no avail.
P.R. said that the next morning, May 1, 2012, E.W. called and told her that the victim had been found on the side of the road by a neighbor and taken to Southern Tennessee Hospital. When P.R. arrived at the hospital, the victim had a scratch on one eye and a painful knot on top of her head. The victim said that she had been raped. She “told more than one story about how things happened . . . [, and] some of those stories weren't true.” The victim told her mother that she was afraid to reveal the identity of the rapist; however, The victim also said that she and the [Petitioner] went to the Walking Horse Motel. P.R. did not know the [Petitioner] prior to this incident.
P.R. said that the following day, she took the victim to the Children's Advocacy Center in Nashville for an examination. P.R. later learned that the victim and the [Petitioner] had talked on the telephone and sent each other text messages for approximately one year. The [Petitioner] was listed in the contact list on the victim's cellular telephone as “Baby Boy.”
On cross-examination, P.R. said that the victim spent a lot of time with E.W. P.R. got the victim a prepaid cellular telephone for emergencies, believing the victim would be responsible with it. The victim did not use the telephone responsibly; therefore, about two months prior to April 30, P.R. had the telephone service changed so that the victim could not make or receive calls or send text messages. Nevertheless, the victim contacted the [Petitioner] by using other people's telephones without P.R.'s knowledge. When P.R. examined the contact list on the victim's telephone, she found the names of several boys and girls who the victim said were friends from school. P.R. denied that the victim was “boy crazy.” P.R. did not know whether the victim sent text messages to boys.
E.W. testified that she lived in a small neighborhood on Cotton Street. A church, a graveyard, and a liquor store were all within walking distance of her house. On April 30, 2012, the victim rode the bus to E.W.'s house after school, arriving at approximately 4:10 p.m. Afterward, the victim used E.W.'s cellular telephone, purportedly to call her father.
After the call, the victim went outside with her cousin Austin to play. Around 5:00 p.m., Austin returned to E.W.'s house, but the victim did not. At that time, E.W.'s niece, Rosa Burks, called and said that the victim had been at the church nearby, that she had gotten into a green car, and that she had left. Burks asked if the victim had permission to leave, and E.W. replied that she did not. E.W. got into her van and tried to locate the green car, but she could not. E.W. then called P.R. to report that the victim was missing. Thereafter, they reported the victim's disappearance to the police. The victim's family drove around all night looking for her. When E.W. checked her cellular telephone, she learned that the text messages the victim had sent immediately prior to her disappearance had been deleted.
E.W. said that at approximately 8:00 a.m. on May 1, 2012, she was driving down Cotton Street and met her neighbor, Linda Joyce Johnson. Johnson stopped her vehicle, and E.W. saw that the victim was with Johnson. The victim told E.W. that she had been raped, and E.W. took her to the emergency room (ER) at Southern Medical Center. E.W. notified P.R. and the police that the victim had been found.
On cross-examination, E.W. said that the victim spent a lot of time with her. She did not know the victim was using her telephone to contact boys, but she later learned the victim had contacted the [Petitioner] with her telephone on the day of her disappearance.
The victim testified that her date of birth was May 5, 1999, and that she lived with her mother, stepfather, and siblings. On April 30, 2012, the victim was twelve years old and in the seventh grade. Approximately one year earlier, she got the [Petitioner's] telephone number from the contact list on her older cousin Misty's telephone. She began “sneaking” and exchanging text messages with the [Petitioner]. She told him her name, age, and the name of her school. The [Petitioner] said that his name was “Chris Moore, ” that he was in his 20s, and that he was employed. The [Petitioner] sent the victim photographs of his face and his penis. The victim sent the [Petitioner] photographs of her face. He asked her to send photographs of her vagina, but she refused.
The victim said that she and the [Petitioner] decided to meet each other. The victim told the [Petitioner] that she loved him, and he responded in kind. She said they referred to each other by the nickname “Baby.” The [Petitioner] also offered to buy the victim a necklace. They first saw each other at a movie theater in Winchester. They did not speak because Misty was there. Later, they made plans for the [Petitioner] to come to Winchester and “take [the victim] away from there.” The victim thought that she and the [Petitioner] would “be together from that point on” and that they “would start a life together.”
The victim said that on the morning of April 30, she went to E.W.'s house then rode the bus to school. While she was at school, she used a cellular telephone she had stolen from her cousin Austin to exchange text messages with the [Petitioner] about his coming to school to get her. However, when the [Petitioner] sent a message saying he was at the school, the victim could not leave because teachers were outside watching. At the end of the school day, the victim rode the bus to E.W.'s house. She used E.W.'s telephone to send text messages to the [Petitioner], and they ultimately arranged for him to meet her at the nearby church. The victim erased the text messages before returning the telephone to E.W. Afterward, the victim told E.W. that she was going for a walk. She took with her a bag containing some clothes and her deactivated cellular telephone.
The victim said that after she met the [Petitioner] at the church, he went to a “drive-thru” of a bank to obtain money. Later, they went to a Burger King restaurant before ending up at a motel, the “Horse Lodge, ” in Lewisburg. The [Petitioner] paid cash for the...
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