Chandler v. French
| Decision Date | 03 March 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 1:99 CV 00668.,1:99 CV 00668. |
| Citation | 252 F.Supp.2d 219 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of North Carolina |
| Parties | Frank Ray CHANDLER, Petitioner, v. James B. FRENCH, Warden of Central Prison, Respondent. |
J. Clark Fischer, Randolph and Fischer, S. Mark Rabil, Winston-Salem, NC, for Petitioner.
Valerie B. Spalding, N.C. Department of Justice, Raleigh, NC, for Respondent.
This matter is now before the Court on Frank Ray Chandler's Petition for Habeas Corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In a thorough and carefully reasoned opinion, the United States Magistrate Judge recommended that the petition be denied. Petitioner has objected to the Recommendation on several grounds and this opinion addresses those issues. For the reasons set forth below, the Recommendations of the Magistrate Judge are ADOPTED, and the Petition is DENIED.
The facts, as stated by the North Carolina Supreme Court and to which there is no present dispute, are as follows:
This case arises out of the death of Doris Poore, a ninety-year-old widow who was killed during a burglary of her home on 11 December 1992. Defendant was indicted for first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, attempted larceny, attempted first-degree rape, and attempted first-degree sexual offense. He was tried before a jury, which found him guilty of the first-degree murder of Doris Poore under the felony murder rule, with first degree burglary as the underlying felony. The jury also found him guilty of attempted larceny, but not guilty of attempted first-degree rape or first-degree sexual offense. After a separate capital sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended and the trial court imposed a sentence of death for the first-degree murder conviction and a three-year prison sentence for the attempted larceny conviction.
The State presented evidence at trial tending to show that on 10 December 1992, Mrs. Poore talked by telephone with Grace Vaughn, a friend, until approximately 10:30 p.m. The next day at 8:00 a.m., Lea Quiros, the victim's housekeeper, arrived at Mrs. Poore's house and knocked on the front door. When Mrs. Poore did not answer the door, Mrs. Quiros attempted to call her on the telephone. Again, no one answered. Mrs. Quiros contacted Mr. Jack Leach, Mrs. Poore's son-in-law, who, on arrival, entered the house by the back door. Mr. Leach let Mrs. Quiros in the house. Mr. Leach found Mrs. Poore dead in her bed in a pool of blood.
Special Agent R.D. Melton of the SBI testified that during the investigation of Mrs. Poore's death, he observed that the screen door at the back of her house had been cut with two "L"-shaped cuts above the center support strut on the right side of the door where a latch was located. The screen was slightly pushed in. The wooden door was open, and the screws from the chain lock were pulled from the wall and left hanging on the door.
After entering Mrs. Poore's house, Melton found Mrs. Poore's glasses and hearing aids on the dining room table. Upon entering Mrs. Poore's bedroom, he found bed clothing on the bed, a sheet pulled up over the victim, and an area of pooled blood underneath her head. The victim was lying on the bed with her pajama top open and her body was nude from the waist down; smeared bloody fingerprints were on her abdomen. A pair of pajama bottoms and a pair of panties were wadded together at the foot of the bed between the victim's legs, but slightly beneath her right foot. He also noted that an electric heating pad was on the bed.
Dr. Gregory James Davis, a forensic pathologist, testified that Mrs. Poore died from a single "massive blow" to the head. The blow resulted in a hinge fracture to the scalp, which effectively caused the skull to snap in two resulting in extensive swelling and hemorrhaging of the brain. Mrs. Poore had numerous abrasions, lacerations, and bruises.
Special Agent Ricky Navarro, a latent evidence specialist with the SBI, testified that palm and fingerprints matching the defendant's were found on the wooden door leading into the kitchen. Special Agent J.L. Eddins testified that after he took defendant's fingerprints, he asked defendant to sign a consent to search form. Defendant signed the fingerprint card, but refused to sign the other related documents. After defendant asked to make a phone call, he proceeded to destroy all of the documents and the card.
Jeffrey Kyle Wilson, defendant's cellmate from January 1993 until April 1993, testified that while defendant was in jail, defendant asked him what he should do. Wilson told him to tell the truth so that he would not get the electric chair. Wilson said that defendant replied that "they" did not have the evidence to convict him. Then, defendant described how he had committed the murder and that as a defense, he planned to "play crazy."
Defendant took the stand as the only defense witness and testified that he left his aunt's house between midnight and 12:30 a.m. on 11 December 1992 and walked to the victim's house. After knocking on the window, back door, and garage door, and not getting an answer, he entered the house through the unlocked basement door. He proceeded up the stairs, cut the screen door with a pocketknife, and opened the back door leading to the kitchen. He testified that as he started to walk through the house, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. When he started to leave, somebody behind him screamed. He then turned and swung, making the victim fall against him. He testified that as Mrs. Poore was falling, he caught her; he then carried her to her bed, put her in the bed, and went to the bathroom to wash the blood off his hand. He saw Mrs. Poore's clothes at the front of the toilet, picked them up, put them next to her in her bed, and covered her up.
Defendant testified that he had not known who lived in the house, but thought that a man lived there because he had seen a blue pickup truck parked in front of the house before and had seen a man smoking "reefer" or marijuana there. Defendant testified that after he left the house, he washed his clothes and that he still had them. On cross-examination, defendant testified that after he killed Mrs. Poore, he did not look for the marijuana as he had originally planned. State v. Chandler, 342 N.C. 742, 747-50, 467 S.E.2d at 639-41
Petitioner was indicted on March 8, 1993 for first degree murder, first degree burglary, attempted larceny, attempted first degree rape, and attempted first degree sexual offense. Petitioner was tried in Surry County and, on July 16, 1993, was convicted of first degree burglary, attempted larceny and first degree murder under the felony murder rule, with first degree burglary as the underlying felony. He was found not guilty of the attempted rape and attempted sexual offense charges in the indictment.
At the sentencing phase, the jury found pecuniary gain to be the sole aggravating factor. It found three mitigating factors: (1) Petitioner's lack of proper parental role models during his formative years; (2) his history of alcohol and drug abuse; and (3) his acknowledgment that he had killed Mrs. Poore. The jury recommended that Petitioner be sentenced to death.
The North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed Petitioner's conviction and sentence on March 8, 1996. State v. Chandler, 342 N.C. 742, 467 S.E.2d 636 (1996). The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari on October 7, 1996. Chandler v. North Carolina, 519 U.S. 875, 117 S.Ct. 196, 136 L.Ed.2d 133 (1996).
Petitioner filed a Motion for Appropriate Relief, which was heard in the Surry County Superior Court on April 6 and April 9, 1998. The Honorable William Freeman denied the Motion for Appropriate Relief on October 14, 1998. ("MAR court"). The North Carolina Supreme Court denied certiorari to review Judge Freeman's ruling on the Motion for Appropriate Relief on July 23, 1999. State v. Chandler, 350 N.C. 838, 538 S.E.2d 572 (1999).
A Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina on October 20, 1999. The Magistrate Judge reviewed the Petition for Habeas Corpus and made the following recommendations on June 12, 2001:(1) the prosecution did not fail to disclose impeachment evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland; (2) the prosecution did not present perjured testimony in violation of Giglio v. United States; (3) Petitioner's Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel was not violated due to a conflict of interest; and (4) the jury instructions regarding mitigating circumstances and the definition of mitigation were not erroneous. Petitioner filed Objections to the Magistrate Judge's Recommendations on July 16, 2001. Each of these objections will be addressed separately.
Petitioner first contends that the Magistrate Judge (1) failed to consider the importance of Jeffrey Kyle Wilson's testimony at trial and (2) applied an improper standard of review. Neither objection has merit.
As to the first, Petitioner asserts he would not have received the death penalty had Wilson not testified that Petitioner wanted to see the private parts of an old woman. Essentially, Petitioner's argument is that the jury sentenced him to death because they believed Wilson's testimony and thought Petitioner should be sentenced to death because of the perverse nature of the crime. In the first place, there is nothing to indicate that the jury did give weight to Wilson's testimony in reaching its decision or that it concluded Petitioner should receive the death penalty because of a perverse nature. Wilson's credibility was effectively impeached on cross examination: he admitted to a multitude of crimes involving misrepresentation and contradicted himself within moments about whether Petitioner had said he burned some of the clothing worn during the murder or threw the...
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...to Petitioner. Therefore, no Brady violation could have occurred because nothing was withheld from Petitioner. See Chandler v. French, 252 F. Supp. 2d 219, 232 (M.D.N.C. 2003), aff'd sub nom. Chandler v. Lee, 89 F. App'x 830 (4th Cir. 2004) (finding that no Brady violation for withholding a......
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