Coleman v. Lewis
| Decision Date | 13 August 2014 |
| Docket Number | NO. CV 13-3268-MAN,CV 13-3268-MAN |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Central District of California |
| Parties | RODERICK LYNN COLEMAN, Petitioner, v. G.D. LEWIS, Respondent. |
On May 7, 2013, Petitioner, a California state prisoner, filed a habeas petition, which pleaded three claims ("Petition"). Respondent filed an Answer to the Petition and lodged the pertinent portions of the state record ("Lodg."). Petitioner thereafter filed a Traverse. The matter is fully briefed and under submission to the Court.1
Petitioner was tried jointly with codefendant Patrick McMillan in the Santa Barbara County Superior Court, although they were tried before separate juries. On March 5, 2010, the jury found Petitioner guilty of first degree residential robbery, first degree burglary with a person present,forcible rape, sexual penetration by foreign object, and cruelty to a child by endangering health. The jury also found true numerous enhancement allegations related to gang conduct and personal use of a firearm. (Lodg. No. 1, Clerk's Transcript ("CT") 700-09.) In addition, the jury found that Petitioner committed the rape and sexual penetration offenses during the course of a residential burglary within the meaning of California Penal Code § 667.61 (California's "One Strike" law). (CT 705, 707.) Petitioner thereafter was sentenced to a total term of 26 years plus 25 years to life. (CT 732-35, 799-802; Lodg. No. 9 at 2.)2
Petitioner appealed and raised the three claims alleged in the Petition. (CT 794-95; Lodg. Nos. 5, 8.) On March 7, 2012, the California Court of Appeal affirmed Petitioner's convictions in a written, reasoned decision. Petitioner sought review in the California Supreme Court. (Lodg. No. 11.) On June 13, 2012, the California Supreme Court denied review summarily. (Lodg. No. 12.)
"Jane Doe"4 grew up in Lompoc, California, and was still living there in October 2008. She lived with Troy Grant, her boyfriend, and their son Dante, who was a year and a half old, and Dasha, Grant's child from a previous relationship, who was six years old. (Lodg. No. 3, Reporter'sTranscript ("RT") 291-93, 648-49.) Doe had met Petitioner a few times prior to October 15, 2008, including at the home of her friend Bridgette Oliver, but Doe was not Petitioner's friend. Doe had not seen codefendant McMillan before October 15, 2008. (RT 344-45.). Oliver was acquainted with Petitioner and had seen Petitioner with McMillan on several occasions. (RT 756-57.) Grant went to the same high school as McMillan and had seen Petitioner around, but Grant was not a friend of either man. (RT 650.)
On October 15, 2008, Grant left home to work a night shift. Doe remained at home and put the two children to bed around 9:30 p.m. (RT 299-300, 655.) Oliver, who was Doe's best friend at the time, was at the house, and they watched television. Oliver left around 11:00 p.m., and Doe went to bed 15 minutes later. (RT 300-02.)
Doe fell asleep but woke when she heard a "fidgeting" sound coming from her front door knob. She sat up, got out of bed, and heard a "big boom." Two men ran into the room: one -- who Doe identified as McMillan -- had a "net" stocking over his face; and the other wore a gorilla mask and was holding a bat and a firearm. Both men were wearing gloves and referred to each other as "Cuz," a term Doe understood to be a name that members of the Crips gang call each other. McMillan grabbed Doe from behind and used his elbow to put pressure on her neck. (RT 301-09, 342-43.)
The two men demanded money and "weed," i.e., marijuana. McMillan was choking Doe so "hard" that she started to lose sight and could not breathe. McMillan knelt Doe facedown over the bed and told the other man to get something to tie up her feet. Doe felt someone attempt to tie her ankles with a wire. (RT 309-11.) One of the intruders pulled Doe's pants down. She felt both men's hands on her. One of the men penetrated her vaginally with his penis, and it was painful. Thereafter, she was penetrated vaginally by a plastic object. (RT 311-15.)
McMillan stood up and again asked Doe for the location of money and weed, and Doe toldhim the items were in the car and also in a jacket belonging to Grant. The man in the gorilla mask obtained a backpack from the car, which contained the marijuana; however, there was no money in Grant's jacket. McMillan again asked for money, and Doe told him it was in a jacket in the closet in her son's room. During this time, McMillan had Doe in a chokehold. He forced her to go to her son Dante's room, and the man in the gorilla mask retrieved the money from a jacket and went outside. Approximately $1,100 was taken. Dante was awake as this occurred. (RT 315-18.) McMillan took Doe into the hallway and said she had the option of either being tied up or knocked out. Doe was crying and said, "just let me go." McMillan walked Doe into Dasha's bedroom, knelt her over the bed, and told her to not move and to count to a thousand. Dasha was awake and crying. McMillan left. (317-19.)
Shortly after McMillan left Dasha's room, Doe gathered the children and her purse and left in her car. She called Grant and told him what happened, and he told her to bring the children to his workplace, which Doe did. All of them then went to the hospital. Grant called Oliver, who came and stayed with Doe, and Grant took the children to Doe's mother. (RT 319-21, 657-59.)
Thereafter, a SART (Sexual Assault Response Team) nurse examined Doe. (RT 330, 333, 846-48.) Although Doe had difficulty breathing and swallowing, because her throat and neck felt crushed due to the chokehold, she was able to describe the attack and the intruders to Grant. (RT 332-33, 660, 865, 868.) Doe had bruising and abrasions in numerous areas of her body, her vaginal area was painful and tender, and the back of her neck was red, swollen, and tender. (RT 334-38, 859-62, 868-69, 874, 877-79.) Doe described the incident to the SART nurse and to a police officer, who interviewed her at the SART location. (RT 854-73, 1028-36.)
Doe went to her parents' home after she left the SART location. Oliver showed up 30 minutes later. (RT 339.) Doe described the incident to Oliver, including the assailants' appearances. They looked at the MySpace website, Doe saw a photograph of McMillan, and she recognized him as the man who wore the net stocking mask. Doe called Detective Clancy, whohad interviewed Doe at the SART location, and both Doe and Oliver told Clancy that: when Doe described the assailants, Oliver said she thought she knew who one of them was; Oliver brought up McMillan's photograph on MySpace; and Doe said right away that the man depicted was one of the assailants. (RT 340-44, 1064-65.)
McMillan was arrested on October 17, 2008, with $1,250.50 on his person. (RT 933-34, 1077.) Detective Clancy interviewed McMillan a few days later, and Petitioner stated that: after he finished work on October 15, 2008, he came to Lompoc and visited Aundrice Dixon; he left Dixon's home at 11:00 p.m.; he then picked up Gloria Thomas; and they spent the night at his home in Santa Maria. (RT 1074-76.)
A week later, Detective DeLauretis interviewed Dixon. She told him she had seen McMillan and Petitioner on the afternoon of October 15, 2008, walking through her apartment complex, and they stopped by her residence at around 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. (RT 941-42.)
On November 3, 2008, Detectives Clancy and DeLauretis interviewed Thomas. (RT 948.) Some time after October 16, 2008, Thomas, who had read an article about the crime in the newspaper, asked McMillan if he was involved, and he responded, "I was not there." Thomas asked McMillan if Doe has been raped, and he said, "Not to my knowledge." (RT 951-52.) Thomas thereafter started to cry during the interview and said she was scared. She said that, during the same conversation with McMillan, he told her she needed to get his car and remove some clothing from his house (which she did), and he also said, "We did go in the house." (RT 952-53, 1058.) McMillan asked Thomas to get a message to Petitioner, who had not yet been located by the police, "to stay where he's at and not come in," and to have her boyfriend give a false alibi for Petitioner. (RT 953-55, 1058.) Thomas stated that she was not with McMillan on the evening of October 15, 2008, as he claimed. (RT 954.)
Detective Clancy interviewed Oliver on November 4, 2008. Oliver stated that when shespoke with Doe after the incident and heard Doe's descriptions of the assailants, Oliver believed that Doe was describing McMillan and Petitioner. Oliver said that Petitioner and McMillan were always together, and around that time frame, she spoke with Petitioner daily. Petitioner called Oliver on October 15, 2008, while she was at Doe's house, and again on October 16, 2008, at which time he said "he didn't rape nobody," and she told him to turn himself in. (RT 755, 106870.) At trial, Oliver denied having told anyone that Petitioner matched the description of the second assailant. (RT 755.) Oliver testified that when she told Detective Clancy she had advised Petitioner to turn himself in, it "had nothing to do with" the crimes committed against Doe and, instead, related to an outstanding warrant for something else. (RT 761.)
Petitioner confessed that: he and McMillan broke into Doe's home, stole marijuana, and attempted to tie Doe up; and McMillan physically assaulted Doe, although Petitioner denied that either man raped her. (Lodg. No. 2 at 85-95, 104, 109-10, 112-13, 116-17, 132-36.) Evidence of Petitioner's confession was not presented to McMillan's jury. (RT 988-1000, 1003-13, 1015.)
In Ground One, Petitioner contends that his Confrontation Clause rights were violated by the admission of evidence of certain statements by codefendant McMillan (who did not testify) to Petitioner...
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