Carter v. Bradshaw

• Decision Date: 30 September 2015
• Docket Number: CASE NO. 3:02CV524
• Parties: SEAN CARTER, Petitioner, v. MARGARET BRADSHAW, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

SEAN CARTER, Petitioner, v. MARGARET BRADSHAW, Respondent.

CASE NO. 3:02CV524

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO EASTERN DIVISION

September 30, 2015

PEARSON, J.

JUDGE BENITA Y. PEARSON

ORDER

[Resolving ECF No. 129]

Before the Court is Petitioner Sean Carter's amended petition for writ of habeas corpus, filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254.¹ Through this petition, Carter challenges the constitutionality of his convictions and death sentence, rendered by an Ohio court. ECF No. 129. Respondent Margaret Bradshaw² ("the State") filed an amended return of writ. ECF No. 138. Carter then filed an amended traverse. ECF No. 226. For the following reasons, the Court denies Carter's amended petition for writ of habeas corpus.

FACTUAL HISTORY

On September 25, 1997, an Ohio county grand jury indicted Carter for the aggravated murder and rape of his adoptive grandmother, Veader Prince. The Ohio Supreme Court set outthe following account of Carter's crime upon considering Carter's direct appeal of his conviction and sentence:

Evely Prince Carter adopted Sean Carter when he was ten years old. Carter had been taken from his birth mother in 1981, due to neglect and abuse. Evely Carter lived in close proximity to her mother, Veader Prince ("Prince"), the victim in this case. In February 1997, Carter had been thrown out of Evely Carter's house and began living with Prince, his adoptive grandmother. He stayed there until July 1997, when he was incarcerated at the Geauga County Jail for theft.

On Saturday, September 13, 1997, Vernon Prince, Prince's son, stopped by to see his mother and noticed Carter sleeping in her house. Prince was not there. As Vernon Prince was leaving, Prince pulled in the driveway and upon being questioned, told Vernon Prince that she did not know that Carter was there. Prince and Vernon Prince went inside the house and Prince talked to Carter. When she came out of the room where Carter had been sleeping, Prince asked Vernon Prince to give Carter the keys and title to his car (blue 1984 Chevette) so that Carter could leave. Vernon Prince complied with this request. Vernon Prince also gave his mother some money ($250) before he left. At that time, Carter was still in Prince's house.

That same day, Evely Carter worked from 2:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. During her shift, she received a telephone call from her husband, informing her that Carter had been released from jail. She stopped at Prince's house after she got off work, arriving at 10:45 p.m. She tried to enter the door and found that it was locked, something her mother had never done. She knocked on her mother's window and then her mother opened the door.

Prince explained to Evely Carter that the door was locked because she "told that boy [Carter] that he wasn't allowed to come back here." When Evely Carter saw her mother that night, Prince was wearing a white turban with a long john top underneath a white T-shirt and long john bottoms.

Evely Carter went to work the next day, Sunday, September 14, and did not get off work until 11:00 p.m. Her husband called her at work and told her that she should check on her mother because no one could find her. Evely Carter went to Prince's house. She entered and called out for her mother. There was no answer. She left Prince's house to get her husband and returned with him to Prince's house. At that time it was midnight.

Also on Sunday, another of Prince's sons, Travis Prince, had gone to Prince's house around 10:00 a.m. He had walked into her bedroom and heardwater running in the bathroom. Though the door to the bathroom was closed, he could tell the light was on. He went into the kitchen of the house and saw chicken in a pot on the stove, simmering. Travis Prince left the house.

When he returned later in the day, he saw the same scene. This time, he opened the bathroom door, and upon discovering that it was empty, he turned the water off. He yelled for his mother and, getting no answer, became alarmed. He returned to the kitchen to turn off the stove and then began going through each room calling for his mother.

After searching the house and yard, he returned to the kitchen and noticed a note on the table that said, "Took Sean to the hospital." At that point he had not noticed any blood in the house. He did not think it was Carter, because he believed that Carter was still in the county jail. Since he could not find her, her purse, or her keys, he decided that his mother must have given a ride to someone, and ceased being concerned. Travis Prince left the house around 7:00 p.m., and returned to his apartment.

When he arrived home, he called his brother-in-law, Jerry Carter (Evely Carter's husband), and asked if he had seen Prince, but he had not. Jerry Carter went to Prince's house and could not find Prince. He told Travis Prince that Evely Carter would check again at 11:00 p.m., after she got off work. Travis Prince met the Carters at his mother's house around 11:15 p.m., and talked to neighbors to see if they knew anything about Prince's absence. Jerry and Evely Carter and their nephew, James Shoper, began to search the area.

They searched the garage and the cars in the driveway. Evely Carter noticed a garbage bag with clothes in one of the vans. They went back into the house, and then down into the basement. Evely Carter noticed a chair that had blood on it. As they continued searching the basement, they saw Prince's feet sticking out of a pile of clothes on the basement floor. They called the police immediately.

Once the clothes were removed, Prince was found lying face down on the basement floor. She was wearing only a white T-shirt, which was covered with blood and had holes. Her glasses were pushed up on her head and one of the lenses was missing, found later on the floor of the basement. Her dentures were discovered in the master bedroom. Prince's body appeared to have lacerations on her hands and face. Police found significant bloodstains on the carpet in the master bedroom, on a couch, and on the mattress. They also found droplets and stains of blood on the stairs and the walls leading to the basement.

An autopsy revealed that Prince had suffered eighteen stab wounds, a subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by blunt trauma, abrasions, and contusions to her right thigh. The left side of her face was swollen, indicating blunt trauma. One stab wound nicked the aorta, which was the immediate cause of death. Other forensic testing revealed the presence of sperm, located on a swab taken from the rectum of the victim. The swabs taken of the mouth and vagina were negative. DNA testing matched the rectal swab to Carter.

After talking to the family during the investigation, the police placed a "pick-up and hold" order on Carter. They learned that another of Prince's sons had been in jail with Carter, and that Carter had made a remark to him about not getting along with his grandmother.

On September 15, 1997, Daniel Hepler, a police officer with the Chippewa Township Police in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, was on patrol when he noticed a vehicle backed in among some small trees. The car had Ohio plates and he called the dispatcher to run the plate number. Hepler approached the vehicle and noticed a person (Carter) sleeping in the back seat. He knocked on the window and asked Carter to get out of the car. Carter had no identification or registration information for the vehicle. Carter told Hepler his name was "Bill Carl" and gave him a date of birth; a computer search revealed that no such person existed. The license plate information came back as registered to a Chrysler vehicle, even though the vehicle was a Chevrolet. Because the name and date of birth provided by Carter were false and the car's registration was fraudulent, Hepler told Carter that he was going to issue a citation and tow the car.

While waiting for the tow truck to arrive, Hepler did a plain view inspection of the car for personal effects. Carter stated he did not want anything from the car. Hepler found two sets of keys and some money, which he gave to Carter. When the tow truck arrived, Hepler transported Carter to the police department. Carter appeared confused and kept asking Hepler where he was.

When the vehicle registration came back as not matching the vehicle, Hepler obtained the vehicle identification number (VIN) and ran it through the computer. The car was registered to Vernon Prince. Hepler obtained a phone number and telephoned the Prince residence. The woman who answered the phone informed Hepler that the man he had in custody was wanted for murder.

Hepler contacted the Trumbull County Sheriff's Department and verified that Carter was wanted for questioning relating to a murder. Carter was placed in a holding cell while detectives from the sheriff's department traveled to Pennsylvania.

Major James Phillips, Sergeant Hyde, and Lieutenant Borger traveled to Chippewa Township to question Carter. After giving Carter his Miranda warnings and obtaining a waiver of his rights, Phillips and Hyde obtained an audio and video confession to the murder of Veader Prince.

According to Carter's confession, after he obtained the car keys from Vernon Prince, he left Prince's house and drove around for a while. He attempted to stay at his aunt's house, but could not. He returned to Prince's house and, since the door was locked, climbed through the bedroom window. He had called out to Prince, hoping to convince her to allow him to stay there for a week. They got into an argument and Prince told him to leave. He kept telling her that he had nowhere to go.

She tried to push him out the door and he started to beat her. At some point, he got a knife from the kitchen and started stabbing her. He described it as just "going off" and could not provide exact details of what happened during the assault, although he did remember hitting her in the face and stabbing her in the neck.

The next thing Carter remembered was being in the kitchen and washing his hands and the knife. He

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