Copeland v. Morgan

• Docket Number: 1:20-CV-01600-JGC
• Decision Date: 14 July 2023
• Parties: JAMES COPELAND, Petitioner, v. WARDEN DONALD MORGAN, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

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JAMES COPELAND, Petitioner, v. WARDEN DONALD MORGAN, Respondent.

No. 1:20-CV-01600-JGC

United States District Court, N.D. Ohio

July 14, 2023

JAMES G. CARR, DISTRICT JUDGE

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

AMANDA M. KNAPP, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

Petitioner James Copeland (“Petitioner” or “Mr Copeland”) brings this habeas corpus petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 based on his convictions for felonious assault, improper discharge of a firearm, and having a weapon while under a disability in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Case No. CR-17-617356-B. (ECF Doc. 1 (“Petition”).) Mr. Copeland's Petition was docketed in this Court on July 20, 2020. (Id.) However, “[u]nder the mailbox rule, a habeas petition is deemed filed when the prisoner gives the petition to prison officials for filing in the federal courts.” Cook v. Stegall, 295 F.3d 517, 521 (6th Cir. 2002) (citing Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266, 273 (1988)). Thus, the Petition is deemed filed as of July 14, 2020, the date it was placed in the prison mailing system. (ECF Doc. 1 at p. 15.) Respondent filed an Answer/Return of Writ (ECF Doc. 6), Petitioner filed a Traverse (ECF Doc. 8), and Respondent filed a Reply to Petitioner's Traverse (ECF Doc. 9).

The matter was reassigned to the undersigned Magistrate Judge on October 1, 2021. For the reasons set forth in detail herein the undersigned finds dismissal of Ground Three of the Petition is warranted based on procedural default, and that Grounds One and Two of the Petition are non-cognizable and without merit. Accordingly, the undersigned recommends that the Court DISMISS Ground Three and DISMISS and/or DENY Grounds One and Two.

I. Factual Background

“In a proceeding instituted by an application for a writ of habeas corpus by a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court, a determination of a factual issue made by a State court shall be presumed to be correct.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1). The petitioner has the burden of rebutting that presumption by clear and convincing evidence. See id.; Railey v. Webb, 540 F.3d 393, 397 (6th Cir. 2008).

The Eighth District Ohio Court of Appeals summarized the facts underlying Mr. Copeland's conviction and sentence as follows:

{¶3} On May 17, 2017, the Cuyahoga County Grand Jury indicted Copeland and his codefendant, Kenneth Sims, on two counts of murder in violation of R.C. 2903.02(A) and (B); two counts of felonious assault in violation of R.C 2903.11(A)(1) and (2); one count of discharging a firearm on or near prohibited premises in violation of R.C. 2923.162(A)(3); and one count of having weapons while under disability in violation of R.C. 2923.13(A)(2). The murder and felonious assault charges carried one- and three-year firearm, notice of prior conviction, and repeat violent offender specifications. Additionally, the having weapons while under disability count carried one- and three-year firearm specifications.

{¶4} Copeland pleaded not guilty to the charges and waived his right to a jury trial for the having weapons while under disability charge, as well as the repeat violent offender and notice of prior conviction specifications attached to the murder and felonious assault charges. The case proceeded to trial, during which the state presented testimony from 20 witnesses and Copeland presented testimony from one witness.

{¶5} According to testimony presented at trial, Copeland, Erica Moore, and another male went to the home of Neyda Barnes, William Earl's mother, in the early afternoon on May 5, 2017, looking for Earl. Earl had earlier agreed to buy a car at an auction for Moore in exchange for money, and Moore expected the car to be ready on May 5. Earl was not at Barnes's house when they arrived, and according to Barnes, Copeland became upset and began acting aggressively toward her. Barnes testified that she went back and forth with Copeland until she saw “the gun on the side of him[,]” and she immediately “shut up * * * [and] got really nervous” and that Copeland told her that she “could be got just like anybody else could be got.” Barnes explained that she took that as meaning that “[h]e could kill [her] just like he could kill anybody else[.]” Barnes stated that the conversation ended after Moore calmed Copeland down and that Copeland, Moore, and the other gentleman left in the car, driving in reverse down the street so that she did not “see the license plate.”

{¶6} A short time later, Earl arrived at his mother's house with his fiancee and mother of his three children, Maleika Gooden. After Earl found out what happened, he left with Gooden, Tyrone Washington, and Jesse Green and went to Moore's house. Gooden testified that she had a 9 mm firearm in her purse that day.

{¶7} When they arrived at Moore's house, Earl went up to the front porch and asked Moore about the men who accompanied her earlier. During that conversation, Kenneth Sims, Moore's cousin, exited the house, and Earl asked if Sims was one of the guys that she took with her, but Sims said he was not. Gooden said that as Earl spoke to Moore, Sims pulled her aside and “lifted up his shirt and showed [her] that he had a weapon” and told her that Moore felt as if Earl and Gooden had “finessed her out of $ 1,500.” Gooden then got into a “heated argument” with Moore about the car deal.

{¶8} Eventually, Earl told Gooden, Washington, and Green they were leaving, and they all got back in the car. As Earl walked toward the driver's seat, he was still arguing with Moore's other cousins, who were on the porch of the house next door. A number of witnesses testified that during this time, they saw Copeland and another male walking down the street toward Earl. Witnesses stated that they heard Copeland say something to Earl along the lines of “either * * * ‘I'm here or I'm him' ” or “What's up now?”

{¶9} Within moments, gunfire started. Both Gooden and Kenneth Sims testified that they saw Copeland and the other male shooting at Earl. While witnesses also testified that they saw Earl shooting back, Gooden testified that she never saw Earl with the gun and did not see him shoot or point a gun that day. She also said that the 9 mm firearm that the police recovered was hers and that she typically kept it in her purse. She said that the 9 mm firearm ended up on the ground underneath the car because she “fumbl[ed]” it after hearing the first shots. Sims also admitted that he had a gun - a “380” - on him at that time and that his gun “went off” but that he was not shooting at anybody. He explained that his gun went off because he “hit the ground” after the shots started with his gun in hand.

{¶10} After the gunfire stopped, Copeland, the other male with Copeland, and Sims “all took off running” together through a neighboring backyard. Sims stated that he ran because he “was on probation at the time” and was not supposed to have a gun. He said that while running from the scene, he asked Copeland what happened and that Copeland responded, “It was your cousin[‘s] fault.” He said after a couple minutes of running, he split from Copeland and the other guy who continued to run in the same direction together.

{¶11} Police arrived soon after and interviewed a number of witnesses. Gooden identified Copeland as “one of the guys who walked up to Baldwin [Avenue] before the shots were fired.” She stated that while she did not write that Copeland was one of the shooters on the photo array, she was “in distress” and that she did see Copeland shoot. She also testified that she identified Sims's nephew, Jamir Brown, as being present during the shooting in a photo array, on which she wrote “[s]een the hand and arm of the guy with the blue hoodie and heard shots and fire.” During trial, however, Gooden testified that she did not recall seeing Brown fire a weapon.[]

{¶12} Moore said she saw Earl shooting a gun, but that she did not see Copeland or Sims with a gun. She also said she did not see Gooden, Brown, or Washington with a gun. She explained that while Earl was “not the only person that shot * * * [he was] the only one that I saw with a gun.”

{¶13} During a photo lineup, Tyrone Washington identified Copeland and wrote that he “remember[ed] seeing him on Knowles [Avenue].”

{¶14} Sims turned himself into Cleveland police a few days later, but during his initial interviews, he said that he was not truthful and lied about the incident because he was “scared” and on probation. Sims explained that he told detectives that Copeland was one of the shooters, but that officers failed to include that information in their report. Sims identified Copeland as one of the individuals shooting and said he was wearing “a blue jacket and some dark pants.” He said he did not know the second individual with Sims, but had seen that individual with Copeland before. Sims also denied that he told a corrections officer at the jail, Brandon Gordon Wheat, that he, not Copeland, shot Earl while he was being detained.

{¶15} Detective Joseph Marche testified that police “knew that there were at least two to three other firearms [other than the one police recovered near Earl's body] * * * due to the fact that there [were] two different shell casings on the scene.” He explained that there were “shell casings from a 380 handgun and a 9 millimeter so that's what brought [police] to the conclusion that there was possibly two other firearms that were involved.”

{¶16} Police arrested Copeland a few days later and collected the blue Nautica jacket that he was wearing.

{¶17} Curtiss Jones, a supervisor for the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office's trace evidence unit, testified that he performed a gunshot residue test on a blue Nautica jacket that Copeland was wearing the day police arrested him. He said that he collected residue from the sleeves

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