Bomar v. Wetzel

• Decision Date: 31 March 2023
• Docket Number: Civil Action 04-1730
• Parties: ARTHUR BOMAR v. JOHN E. WETZEL, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

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ARTHUR BOMAR v. JOHN E. WETZEL, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, et al.

Civil Action No. 04-1730

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania

March 31, 2023

THIS IS A CAPITAL CASE

MEMORANDUM

Juan R. Sanchez, C.J.

In October 1998, after a jury trial in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, Petitioner Arthur Bomar was convicted of the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Aimee Willard and was sentenced to death. After exhausting his appeals and state post-conviction remedies, Bomar filed the instant petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 seeking relief from his conviction and death sentence. He asserts nine claims for relief. For the reasons set forth below, the petition will be denied.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The facts underlying Bomar's conviction, as summarized by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on direct appeal, Commonwealth v. Bomar, 826 A.2d 831 (Pa. 2003) (Bomar I) and on appeal from the denial of his petition for collateral relief under Pennsylvania's Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA), 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. §§ 9541 et seq. Commonwealth v. Bomar, 104 A.3d 1179 (Pa. 2014) (Bomar II), are as follows:

At approximately 10:30 p.m. on the evening of June 19, 1996 the victim, 22-year-old Aimee Willard, met several of her high school friends at a bar located on Lancaster Avenue in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Later that night, at approximately 1:25 a.m., Ms. Willard left the bar alone. She would not make it home.

At approximately 2:00 a.m., on June 20, 1996, the victim's car, a blue Honda Civic, was discovered on the southbound off-ramp of the Springfield-Lima Exit of Interstate 476 in Delaware County. The car's engine was still running, the driver's side door was open, the radio was playing and the interior lights and headlights were on. There was a rough abrasion on the back bumper of the victim's car. There was a pool of blood on the ground in front of the vehicle with drops of blood leading away from it. A tire iron was located near the pool of blood. Later that morning, police discovered a pair of sneakers and a pair of female underpants with a sanitary pad near the abandoned car. The sneakers were later identified as belonging to the victim and the underpants were later identified as the size worn by the victim. Hairs found on the sanitary pad were consistent with the pubic hairs of the victim. The police also obtained tire impressions from the scene.

At approximately 5:00 p.m., on June 20, 1996, Aimee Willard's body was found naked, positioned face down, with two plastic bags covering her head, in a vacant lot at 16th Street and Indiana Avenue in Philadelphia. The victim's injuries included multiple blunt force injuries to her head, brain and face; an abraded contusion on her left shoulder and upper chest; a rectangular shaped contusion beneath her left breast; a patterned, angular thermal injury resembling a flower petal on her right lower chest and upper abdomen; numerous fractures in her neck; bruises on her left and right thighs; and defensive wounds on her left and right forearms. There was intact degenerate sperm found in the victim's vaginal cavity. In addition, a tree branch had been forced into her vagina. There was no blood surrounding or beneath the body or leading up to or away from the body, indicating that the victim was not killed at the site but rather had been killed elsewhere and then moved to this location.

Several hours after the discovery of Aimee Willard's body, at approximately 11:25 p.m., on June 20, 1996, [Petitioner] was coincidentally stopped by the police at the intersection of 20th Street and Erie Avenue in Philadelphia, eight blocks from where the victim's body had been found. [Petitioner] was driving a green 1993 Ford Escort. The police did not arrest [Petitioner] at that time.

Nearly a year later, on June 5, 1997, [Petitioner] was arrested in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, on an outstanding warrant for violating his parole from a conviction for second degree murder that occurred in Las Vegas, Nevada, and for an unrelated criminal trespass.^[1] That evening, investigators from the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division (CID) questioned [Petitioner] concerning the Willard murder. [Petitioner] told the investigators, among other things, that he drove a 1993 Ford Escort until March of 1997, that he had been to the same bar that the victim had been to on the night of June 19, 1996, previously with a former girlfriend, and that he routinely traveled on Interstate 476.

On July 10, 1997, two Pennsylvania State Police troopers met with [Petitioner's] then-girlfriend, Mary Rumer. Rumer told the troopers that [Petitioner] had confessed to her that he murdered Aimee Willard. She told police that [Petitioner] related the following events to her: [Petitioner] observed Aimee leave the bar, get into her car, and begin to drive away. He followed in his own car. [Petitioner] stopped Aimee's car on Interstate 476 and flashed a fake police badge. When Aimee asked why she was being stopped, [Petitioner] told her that she was swerving on the road. Aimee then became angry, at which point [Petitioner] punched her, knocking her unconscious. After placing the victim in his car, [Petitioner] drove to an abandoned building. [Petitioner] took the victim's clothes, placed them in a trash bag and threw them away. [Petitioner] hit the victim's head with a hard object and killed her. He also admitted raping the victim to Rumer.

Rumer also told the troopers that [Petitioner] had shown her the location on Interstate 476 where Aimee Willard's car was abandoned as well as the vacant lot where her body was recovered.

On July 11, 1997, the police conducted a search of [Petitioner's] 1993 Ford Escort pursuant to a search warrant. The police seized and removed the following articles: the left front tire of the vehicle, a Firestone FR440 P17570R13; the oil pan from the undercarriage of the vehicle; and the right front door panel, which contained several brownish spots that later tested positive for blood. The tire taken from [Petitioner's] car was consistent in tread design, size, and wear pattern with the tire impressions taken from the area where the victim's car was found abandoned. The repeating cross-rectangle shape features, the vertical lines, and the machined edge present on the oil pan taken from [Petitioner's] vehicle matched the pattern injury on the right side of the victim's body. Most significantly, deoxyribonucleic acid (“DNA”) testing of the bloodstains on the door panel indicated that Aimee Willard was a contributor to the stains.

On July 13, 1997, the police executed a search warrant for samples of [Petitioner's] blood. DNA testing of the blood samples established that [Petitioner's] DNA profile matched the DNA profile of the male fraction developed from vaginal swabs taken from Aimee Willard. There was but a one in 500 million chance that someone other than [Petitioner] was the source of the genetic material taken from the victim.

Also in July of 1997, David O'Donald, [Petitioner's] ex-brother-in-law, who was incarcerated in a federal prison for unrelated offenses, met with law enforcement officials to offer his assistance in the ongoing investigation of [Petitioner's] involvement in the Willard murder. Pursuant to those discussions, O'Donald was transferred to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility where [Petitioner] was being held. O'Donald was placed on the same cellblock as [Petitioner] for approximately two weeks in July. On July 17, 1997, while [Petitioner] was in O'Donald's cell, [Petitioner] told him, “if I had disposed of the body, there would be no problem,” and “no body, no Grand Jury indictment.” In addition, [Petitioner] stated that, “if everyone does what I tell them, I'll be alright.” Later that day, while O'Donald was in [Petitioner's] cell, [Petitioner] stated, “I grabbed the bitch and she said please don't do this.” He told O'Donald that he then said to the victim, “I'll do whatever the fuck I want, just shut up,” to which she replied, “just don't kill me, I'll do anything.” [Petitioner] told O'Donald that at that point, “we did whatever we wanted with her, she did whatever we told, and when we were done, I almost took her head off, and we crammed a tree branch up her cunt.”^[2]

Bomar 1, 826 A.2d at 840-42. In addition, “Quincy Jamal Williams, another inmate incarcerated with [Petitioner] in Montgomery County, also reported to police that [Petitioner] confessed to murdering the victim.” Bomar II, 104 A.3d at 1186.

On December 10, 1997, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, authorities charged Bomar by criminal complaint with kidnapping, raping and murdering Aimee Willard and abusing her corpse. See Resp'ts' Ex. C, ECF No. 47-7. A few weeks later, upon learning that Bomar had reportedly attempted suicide in prison, defense counsel, Mark P. Much, Esquire,^[3] requested a competency examination. Resp'ts' Ex. E, ECF No. 47-7. After a hearing on the motion, the court^[4] granted counsel's request and appointed Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., a psychiatrist, to conduct an examination of Bomar to determine his competency to stand trial.^[5] Resp'ts' Exs. F, G, ECF No. 47-9. Dr. Sadoff performed the examination on January 10, 1998, and issued a report two days later, on January 12, 1998, concluding that Bomar was competent. Sadoff Report, Jan. 12, 1998. The parties then appeared in court for a competency hearing on January 16, 1998. At the outset of the hearing, Bomar's counsel advised the court that the defense “d[id] not have a substantial objection to the conclusions reached by Dr. Sadoff,” was not requesting funds for a defense competency expert, and was waiving Dr. Sadoff's presence at the hearing and the right to cross-examine him. N.T. 1/16/98 at...