Currie v. Rapelje
| Decision Date | 21 March 2019 |
| Docket Number | CASE NO. 13-CV-10252 |
| Parties | DAVID CURRIE, Petitioner, v. LLOYD RAPELJE, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan |
This is a habeas case under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In 2007, Michigan prisoner David Currie ("Petitioner") was convicted by a jury of assault with intent to murder, carjacking, three counts of armed robbery, felon in possession of a firearm, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was sentenced as a third habitual offender to concurrent terms of 35 to 70 years imprisonment on the assault, carjacking, and armed robbery convictions, a concurrent term of 5 to 10 years imprisonment on the felon in possession conviction, and a consecutive term of two years imprisonment on the felony firearm conviction.
Before the Court is Petitioner's petition, filed through counsel, for a writ of habeas corpus. Petitioner raises claims concerning the sufficiency of the evidence, the effectiveness of trial and appellate counsel, and the validity of his sentence. Respondent contends that three of the claims are barred by procedural default and that all of the claims lack merit. For the reasons that follow, the petition will be denied for lack of merit.
Because Petitioner raises a sufficiency of the evidence claim, a detailed account of the facts revealed at trial is necessary.
Petitioner's convictions arise from a crime spree targeting motorists during the early morning hours on April 28, 2006 in Detroit, Michigan. Four men, Petitioner, Elgie Grays, Jason Treadwell, and Brion McConnell, were charged in the crime spree, which involved the men posing as police officers and pulling over motorists in order to rob them. Several motorists were assaulted and robbed and an off-duty Detroit police officer was killed. Petitioner was tried in a joint trial before separate juries with co-defendant Grays.1
The surviving victims of the crime spree testified at trial. John Feazell testified that he was driving home from his grandmother's house and was near the intersection of Rutland and Dover in Detroit around 3:00 a.m. on April 28, 2006, when a silver Honda CRV pulled in front of him and cut him off causing him to stop his vehicle. Threeblack men exited the vehicle and a fourth man remained in the back passenger seat pointing a gun out of the window. Feazell identified the older man who exited the vehicle as Brion McConnell and identified the shorter man who exited the driver's side of the vehicle as Jason Treadwell. The third man who exited the passenger side of the vehicle had braids.
The men said they were police officers, pointed guns at him, and ordered him to exit his vehicle and put his hands up against the vehicle. They took his gold chain and cell phone. The three man discussed whether to shoot him. Treadwell wanted to shoot him, but the man with the braids disagreed and told Feazell to run, which he did.
Feazell ran west on Dover and when he got to Longacre, a green car with an out-of-state license plate was heading north on Longacre and drove past him. When Feazell got to Archdale, he saw the same green car parked in a driveway, along with the silver Honda CRV, and saw the men pointing guns at the green car and yelling that they were the police. Feazell called the police and took them to the location where he was robbed. His vehicle was subsequently found on a nearby street.
Later that day, Feazell gave the police a statement in which he described the men involved in the incident. His descriptions of McConnell and Treadwell were more complete than those of the other men. Feazell attended line-ups before trial, but could not recall any identifications. At trial, he identified Petitioner and Grays as the two men involved in the incident with McConnell and Treadwell. Grays was the person with the braids who told him to run. He could not recall what type of gun Grays had, but he said that Petitioner had a chrome or nickel-plated .38 because he saw it sticking out of theHonda CRV window. On cross-examination, Feazell testified that he did not see the fourth man in the back of the SUV so he could not say whether Petitioner was that man.
Marie Leinonen testified that she was driving in her red Mercury Sable in the area of Ashton and VanBuren in Detroit around 3:00 a.m. on April 28, 2006 looking to purchase marijuana. An SUV cut her off and four black men exited the SUV with guns. One man fired a shot and told her to open the door. The men said they were police. She did not think they were the police, so she put her car in reverse. Shot were fired at her car, so she stopped and opened her door. She was hit in the head and her purse was taken. Although Leinonen was bleeding and her car windows were shot out, she was able to drive away and go to a gas station eight blocks away for help. She gave a statement to police that day and indicated that only two men exited the SUV. Leinonen testified that the four men involved in the incident were black, but she was unable to identify any of them in a lineup or at trial.
Dewayne Smith testified that he was driving in a green Honda Accord with an out-of-state license plate in the area of Archdale and Joy in Detroit around 3:00 a.m. on April 28, 2006 when someone tried to flag him down, but he did not stop. He drove into a driveway on Archdale. A minivan pulled up and armed black men exited the vehicle, said that they were the police, and ordered him to put his hands up. The men ordered him to turn around and one of them struck him on the head. They took his wallet and money. He was then told to run to the corner, which he did. Smith testified that one man was older and a different height than the other men, but he could not recall hairstyles. He was unable to identify the perpetrators. On cross-examination, Smithclarified that three men exited the minivan, but he said there were three to five involved in the incident because someone stayed in the back of the minivan.
Myra Andrews testified that she was driving with her brother in a Buick Century near Faust and Belton in Detroit around 3:30 a.m. on April 28, 2006 when a grey Honda truck rolled past her and cut her off while she was stopped at a stop sign. She saw four black men in the Honda. A man with a muscular build and braids wearing a black hoodie and a skull cap exited the passenger seat with a weapon. Andrews testified that he looked like Grays, but she was not sure. She did not know if Petitioner was present. Andrews backed into a driveway and drove over the sidewalk and down the street. On cross-examination, Andrews explained that Grays looked similar to the perpetrator but she could not say that it was him. She also admitted that she picked someone else out of a lineup before trial.
People associated with the co-defendants also testified at trial. Felicia Walker, who had a familial connection to Treadwell, testified that Treadwell and other men came to her house on April 28, 2006. They stayed about 30 minutes, left, and returned about an hour later. She did not see them, but heard the voices of Treadwell, Grays, and Petitioner. They left and returned a second time and went into the basement. She went to sleep and when she awoke, only Treadwell was at her house. Walker was interviewed by police in May, 2006 and appeared pursuant to an investigative subpoena. She told the authorities that an older man was with the other three men at her house. She saw weapons that night, but did not see Petitioner with one. She recalled hearing a demand for jewelry and seeing McConnell pointing a gun at someone on the corner near her house. She also recalled hearing an argument in the basementand hearing Treadwell say that Grays had shot someone and hearing Grays say that he was not the only one shooting. Walker said that she did not want to be involved in the case, but she was threatened if she did not cooperate. She claimed that she only told the police what they wanted to hear due to those threats.
Jessie Guiden, McConnell's aunt, testified that she had given McConnell permission to drive her 2006 silver Honda CRV on the night of the crime spree. She was interviewed by the police in May, 2006, and the interview was unpleasant. She did not sign her police statement.
Police personnel who investigated the crime spree testified at trial. Detroit police evidence technician Lori Briggs testified that she responded to the crime scene at Joy and Longacre at about 4:30 a.m. On Joy, she found six R & P nine millimeter casings, a spent bullet, suspected blood, and a Sprint pocket PC. She observed a beige minivan with bullet holes and broken windows crashed against a light pole at Joy and Southfield. In the locked console inside the van, she recovered a Detroit police-issued Glock firearm.
Detroit police officer Kirk Williams testified that he was in a marked squad car with his partner during the early morning hours on April 28, 2016 when they responded to the crime scene at Joy and Southfield and observed the crashed van with the windows shot out. Detroit police officers Grant and Heath were down the street standing near the body of Officer Charles Phipps, who had been shot several times and was unresponsive. Williams found Phipps' service weapon and his wallet the van's console. He observed a set of keys in the passenger seat and a set in the van's ignition.
Detroit police sergeant Kevin Reed, a firearms and toolmark identification expert, testified that he examined casings and bullets from two different scenes, one in the area of Joy and Longacre and the other on Faust. He found that the R & P nine millimeter casings were all fired from the same weapon, as was the bullet recovered from the medical examiner's office. The two other nine millimeter bullets had been fired from a different weapon. None of the bullets or casings had been...
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