Charleston v. Gilmore

• Citation: 305 F.Supp.3d 612
• Decision Date: 29 March 2018
• Docket Number: No. 2:15–cv–01437,2:15–cv–01437
• Parties: Brandon CHARLESTON, Petitioner, v. Robert D. GILMORE, Superintendent at SCI–Greene; The Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania; the District Attorney of Philadelphia County, Respondents.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

305 F.Supp.3d 612

Brandon CHARLESTON, Petitioner,

v.Robert D. GILMORE, Superintendent at SCI–Greene;¹ The Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania; the District Attorney of Philadelphia County, Respondents.

No. 2:15–cv–01437

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.

Filed March 29, 2018

Burton Rose, Philadelphia, PA, for Petitioner.

Joshua Scott Goldwert, James Foster Gibbons, Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, Philadelphia, PA, for Respondents.

OPINION

Report and Recommendation, ECF No. 21—Adopted in part

Joseph F. Leeson, Jr., United States District Judge

I. Introduction

Brandon Charleston has filed a counseled Petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. He is challenging his August 2009 conviction for murder in the first degree and possession of an instrument of crime, following a trial by jury before the Honorable George W. Overton in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County. ECF No. 1. The charges arose from the June 15, 2008 shooting death of William Stanton inside the residence located at 2428 North 25^th Street in Philadelphia. In September 2009, Judge Overton sentenced Charleston to life imprisonment for the murder and a concurrent term of 3 to 24 months' imprisonment for the weapons offense.

Upon review of Charleston's Petition, United States Magistrate Elizabeth T. Hey issued a Report and Recommendation (R & R) recommending that the Petition be denied. ECF No. 21. Charleston timely filed objections to the R & R. ECF No. 24. After de novo review and for the reasons set forth below, the R & R is adopted in part and the Petition is denied.

II. Factual and Procedural History

The Court adopts the factual and procedural history as summarized by Magistrate Judge Hey in the R & R, as there are no objections to this portion of the R & R.

III. Standard of Review

12 When objections to a report and recommendation have been filed under 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(C), the district court must make a de novo review of those portions of the report to which specific objections are made. Sample v. Diecks, 885 F.2d 1099, 1106 n.3 (3d Cir. 1989) ; Goney v. Clark, 749 F.2d 5, 6–7 (3d Cir. 1984) ("providing a complete de novo determination where only a general objection to the report is offered would undermine the efficiency the magistrate system was meant to contribute to the judicial process"). "District Courts, however, are not required to make any separate findings or conclusions when reviewing a Magistrate Judge's recommendation de novo under 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)." Hill v. Barnacle, 655 Fed.Appx. 142, 147 (3d Cir. 2016). The district court "may accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings and recommendations" contained in the report. 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(C) (2009).

IV. Analysis

Charleston's Petition presents five claims for relief. First, he contends that the Pennsylvania courts acted contrary to clearly established federal law, under Miranda² , in allowing the admission at trial of a statement he made to a detective while in custody. Second, he contends that the admission of evidence of his tattoo deprived him of a fundamentally fair trial. Charleston's third, fourth, and fifth claims each assert the ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Specifically, he claims he was deprived of effective assistance of counsel when his counsel (1) failed to request a proper instruction to the jury regarding the hearsay testimony of a witness; (2) failed to object when, in the course of the trial judge's closing instructions to the jury, the judge advised the jury that Charleston's "reputation for telling the truth is bad"; and (3) failed to ask that the jury be instructed as to the possible verdict of involuntary manslaughter.

The Magistrate Judge, in her R & R, recommended denying relief on each of these five claims. Charleston's Statement of Objections to the R & R presents five objections, or sets of objections, to the Magistrate Judge's analysis of each claim. The Court addresses Charleston's objections in turn. As explained below, although the Court agrees with the Magistrate Judge that Charleston is not entitled to relief on any of the five grounds presented in his Petition, the Court departs from the R & R's analysis in some respects and, accordingly, adopts the R & R in part.

A. Objection One, concerning the admission of Charleston's statement, is overruled.

i. Introduction

Charleston's first objection to the R & R concerns the admissibility of a statement he made to Homicide Detective Greg Singleton. As explained in detail below, Charleston was taken into police custody the evening of July 16, 2009, and was questioned by Detective Singleton the following morning. After obtaining some biographical information from Charleston, the detective asked Charleston about the circumstances of Stanton's death, and Charleston "described his involvement in the incident." The detective then provided the Mirandawarnings to Charleston and took a formal statement from him, which the detective transcribed.

In a pretrial motion, Charleston moved to suppress his formal post-warning statement,³ arguing that it was coerced in violation of Miranda. After a suppression hearing, the motion was denied, and the post-warning statement was read into the record during the trial. The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the trial court's ruling that the statement was admissible.

In his present Petition, Charleston contends that Detective Singleton deliberately withheld the Miranda warnings until after he had obtained a confession (i.e., the initial, pre-warning statement) and that the formal, post-warning statement was therefore inadmissible under the rule established by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Missouri v. Seibert, 542 U.S. 600, 124 S.Ct. 2601, 159 L.Ed.2d 643 (2004). The Magistrate Judge, in the R & R, found that Charleston's statement was admissible under Seibert and that Charleston was not entitled to relief on this claim. Charleston objects to this analysis and contends that Seibert, properly understood, renders his formal, post-warning statement inadmissible.

ii. Factual and procedural background

The factual background of Charleston's statement is as follows. Around 9:00 p.m. on July 16, 2008, approximately one month after William Stanton's death, Philadelphia Police Officer Anthony Soliman and his partner, responding to a 911 call concerning the presence of a homicide suspect in the area, drove to 25^th and Hagert Streets, where they encountered Charleston, who matched the description of the suspect. Suppression Hearing, N.T., Aug. 17, 2009, at 8–34 (hereinafter "Suppr. N.T."). The officers told Charleston that they needed to ask him some questions but that he was not under arrest, and they asked him to sit in their police car. Id.at 10, 30. Charleston agreed to do so. Id.at 10, 30. While Charleston was sitting in the car, Clara Stanton, the mother of the victim, approached the officers and told them that she was the one who had called 911 and that Charleston had murdered her son, William Stanton. Id.at 12–13. Officer Soliman asked Charleston what he knew about William Stanton, and Charleston stated that he knew nothing. Id.at 14, 39, 43–44. Officer Soliman then called the Homicide Unit, and Detective Singleton, who had been investigating the Stanton murder, told Officer Soliman to handcuff Charleston and bring him to the station. Id.at 14, 80; Trial N.T., Aug. 24, at 5–12.⁴ Officer Soliman told Charleston that some detectives wanted to talk to him, and the officers brought Charleston to the Homicide Unit of the police station, where they arrived at about 9:35 p.m. Suppr. N.T. at 33, 36.

After Charleston was brought to the station, Officer Soliman, along with Detective Singleton, took Charleston into an "interview room." Id.at 35, 52, 79. Officer Soliman did not know if the door was locked, but both Officer Soliman and Detective Singleton acknowledged that Charleston was not free to leave at that point. Id.at 35, 80.

Detective Singleton testified that after he helped place Charleston in the interview room that evening, he briefly spoke with Charleston but declined to interview him at that time because he appeared to be "under the influence of either alcohol or some narcotics substance." Id.at 51–53. Detective Singleton did not mention to Charleston anything about the Stanton killing. Id.at 54. The detective left Charleston alone in the room at about 10:00 p.m. and did not see him again until 10:00 a.m. the next morning. Id.at 78–79, 88.

At 10:00 a.m. the next morning, Detective Singleton, along with another detective, returned to the interview room where Charleston had been placed. Detective Singleton observed that Charleston "appeared to be sober and more coherent," and he gave him a cheese sandwich and water. Id.at 54, 90. He began asking Charleston biographical questions in order to fill out a biographical form. Id.at 54. Charleston was cooperative in answering these questions. Id.at 55. After Detective Singleton completed the biographical form, he "asked [Charleston] about the circumstances surrounding the murder of William Stanton, and [Charleston] explained in some detail what occurred in the house." Id.at 56. Detective Singleton testified that when he first started speaking to Charleston about the incident, Charleston "was immediately receptive." Id.at 71.⁵

Detective Singleton testified that, after Charleston explained what occurred in the house, "[a]t some point, I stopped [Charleston] and read him his rights and prepared the memorandum form for...the sheets, the warnings for his rights, and he signed off on them." Id.at 56.⁶ Specifically, Detective Singleton used a "75–331 form," which "reflects the warnings and the information on who's being interviewed, the date, time, location, who's interviewing and who's present at the time of the interview." Id.at 57. Detective Singleton testified that, as reflected on the form, he read a series of warnings to Charleston concerning his...