Boyle v. Dunn

• Docket Number: 4:18-cv-1966-LSC
• Decision Date: 30 March 2022
• Parties: TIMOTHY SCOTT BOYLE, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON DUNN, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. Respondents.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Alabama

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TIMOTHY SCOTT BOYLE, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON DUNN, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. Respondents.

No. 4:18-cv-1966-LSC

United States District Court, N.D. Alabama, Middle Division

March 30, 2022

MEMORANDUM OF OPINION

L Scott Coogler United States District Judge

This is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C § 2254 filed by Petitioner Timothy Scott Boyle (“Boyle”), a death row inmate at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. Boyle challenges the validity of his 2010 convictions on one count of capital murder and one count of possession of a controlled substance and sentence of death in the Circuit Court of Etowah County Alabama. Upon thorough consideration of the entire record and the briefs submitted by the parties, the Court finds that Boyle's petition for habeas relief is due to be denied.

I. FACTS OF THE CRIME

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals (“ACCA”) summarized the facts of this case in its opinion on direct appeal:

The State's evidence tended to show that on October 26, 2005, at around 6:30 a.m. [Timothy Scott] Boyle brought Savannah [White] to the emergency room of the Riverview Regional Medical Center. She was nonresponsive, had bruises on her forehead, had what appeared to be a cigarette burn on her foot, and had red marks around the front of her neck. Dr. James Lauridson, the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Savannah, testified that Savannah died as a result of cerebral edema, or brain swelling, from blunt-force trauma to her head, that Savannah's head injuries spanned the entire circumference of her head and that her brain swelled to such a degree that part of it broke off and pushed down into her spinal cord.

H.D., 1 the nine-year-old sister of the victim, testified that she was five years old at the time of Savannah's death. [FN1: At the time of Boyle's trial the victim's sister had been adopted. To protect the anonymity of this child witness we are using her initials.] About a week before Savannah's death, H.D. said, Boyle hit Savannah's head against the car door when he was putting her in her car seat because he was mad at Savannah. On the night before Savannah's death H.D. was taking a bath and Boyle came in the bathroom, threw her against the wall, and told her to leave.2 [FN2: On cross-examination, H.D. said that these events happened two nights before Savannah's death.] She peeked through the door, H.D. said, and saw Boyle throw Savannah against the wall in the bathtub and dunk her head under the water several times. That night, H.D. said, Savannah cried for a long time and threw up all over the bed that H.D. and Savannah shared. H.D. testified that Boyle would not leave Savannah alone and that he came into their room throughout the night and told Savannah to go to sleep and when she would not he would slap her. The next morning, H.D. said, she was unable to wake Savannah. H.D. further testified that she never saw anyone but Boyle hit Savannah in the head.

Kim Parr testified that at the time of Savannah's death she lived next to the victim and her mother, Melissa White, at Rainbow Apartments in Rainbow City. She said that before White met Boyle, about three months before Savannah's death, White was a good mother but that that changed after Boyle came into her life. Parr said that when Boyle was around, Savannah would scream and that on October 20, 2005, when she was babysitting, she noticed what appeared to be a cigarette burn on Savannah's foot and bruises on her forehead. She asked Boyle how Savannah had been burned, Parr said, and he told her that he was holding Savannah and smoking a cigarette and that he accidentally burned her ankle when Savannah turned her head. Parr photographed Savannah's injuries and reported the injuries to the Department of Human Resources (“DHR”) a few days before Savannah's death. Parr said that she saw Savannah at around 9:00 p.m. on the night before her death and that she had a runny nose but otherwise seemed fine and did not appear to be injured. Parr further testified that early in the morning of October 26, 2005, Boyle telephoned her four times from the emergency room and asked her to remove drugs from the apartment- she declined to do so. The last time he telephoned, Parr said, Boyle was laughing because he told her the police were chasing him around the hospital. Parr testified that Boyle told her that he wanted her to remove the pills because he knew that DHR would investigate and he thought that White might lose her children.

Francina Lemons, a nurse at Riverview emergency room, testified that in the early morning hours of October 26, 2005, she observed Boyle outside the emergency room holding Savannah and pacing in front of the door. She said that she and a co-worker, Emily Millican, brought them into the emergency room. Lemons said that Savannah had red marks around the front of her neck, bruises on her forehead, and what appeared to be a cigarette burn on one of her feet. Lemons gave three accounts of what Boyle said about Savannah's injuries: First, Lemons said, Boyle told her that he could not get Savannah to wake up and he may have given her too much Tylenol brand pain reliever; second, Boyle said that he found Savannah hanging over her bed with a sheet wrapped around her neck and he had tried to revive her; and third, she overhead Boyle on the telephone saying that Savannah would not stop crying and he could not get her quiet.

Claude Burk, Savannah's maternal grandfather, testified that he and his wife frequently took care of Savannah and her sister on the weekends and that around a week before Savannah's death he noticed knots on the back of Savannah's head and a burn on her left foot. Burk said that he and his wife confronted Boyle about Savannah's injuries and he told them that he had accidentally hit Savannah's head on the roof of the car when he was putting her in her car seat and that he accidentally burned her foot with a cigarette when he was holding her and she turned.

Cathy Horton, a nurse at Riverview emergency room, testified that Savannah was not responsive when she was admitted, that she had marks on her hands and feet, that she had a bruise on her forehead, and that blood tests showed the presence of amphetamine in her system.

Sgt. Charles Clifton, with the Cherokee County Sheriff's office, testified that he searched the victim's residence after hospital personnel reported Savannah's injuries. He seized the sheets on Savannah's bed, he said, because they were stained with vomit. Sgt. Clifton also testified that he had been informed that Boyle had contacted a neighbor and asked her to remove some pills from the master bedroom, and as a result he seized various pills and a crack pipe from the apartment. Two pills were identified as oxycodone hydrochloride, a Schedule II controlled substance; 4 pills were identified as Clonazepam, a Schedule IV controlled substance; and 25 pills were identified as methylphenidate hydrochloride, a Schedule II controlled substance.

In his defense, Boyle presented the testimony of his cousin, Victoria Miller, who testified that she had been around Boyle and Savannah and that Savannah did not act like she was scared of Boyle. She also said that Boyle had been active in planning Savannah's birthday party just a few days before her death.

Steven Johnson, an Etowah County DHR caseworker, also testified for Boyle. Johnson said that he spoke with H.D. at the hospital immediately after Savannah was brought to the emergency room and that H.D. told him that Boyle threw Savannah in the bathtub and that he drowned her but she did not mention that Boyle had burned Savannah with a cigarette or that Boyle had slapped Savannah.

Boyle v. State, 154 So.3d 171, 183-85 (Ala.Crim.App.2013), overruled in separate part by Towles v. State, 263 So.3d 1076 (Ala.Crim.App.2018) (record citation omitted).

II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On December 20, 2006, Boyle was indicted on one count of capital murder for the death of Savannah White, a child less than fourteen years of age, a violation of section 13A-5-40(a)(15) of the Code of Alabama (1975), and one count of unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a violation of section 13A-12-212(a)(1). He was initially represented by attorneys Mac Downs and Scott Stewart. Downs withdrew prior to trial, and Walt Buttram was appointed to replace him.

Boyle's trial began on November 5, 2009, in the circuit court of Etowah County, Alabama. The State's principal witnesses were H.D., Savannah's nine-year-old sister, who was five at the time of Savannah's death, and the State pathologist, Dr. James Lauridson, who had performed the autopsy on Savannah and attributed the cause of death to blunt force trauma from an unspecified number of open handed blows to the back and side of the head over an unspecified period of time, which he opined could not have been accidental. The State also showed a video taken by Boyle at Savannah's birthday party two days before her death contending that the video showed that Savannah lived in terror of Boyle. Defense counsel showed a video interview of H.D. taken at the Barrie Center for Children shortly after Savannah's death. On November 12, the jury convicted Boyle of both counts as charged. The penalty phase began the following day. Defense counsel called as witnesses for brief examination Boyle's sister, former high school coach, Boyle himself, and a psychologist, Dr. Allen Shealy. At the conclusion of the penalty phase on November 16, the jury unanimously recommended that Boyle be sentenced to death on his capital murder conviction and to ten years' imprisonment on his possession conviction. The jury returned a separate verdict form noting their unanimous finding that the State had proven the...