Dekalb v. Diaz

• Decision Date: 20 September 2022
• Docket Number: 2:20-CV-1818-KJM-DMC-P
• Citation: Dekalb v. Diaz, 2:20-CV-1818-KJM-DMC-P (E.D. Cal. Sep 20, 2022)
• Parties: JAMES L. DEKALB, Petitioner, v. RALPH DIAZ, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California

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JAMES L. DEKALB, Petitioner, v. RALPH DIAZ, Respondent.

No. 2:20-CV-1818-KJM-DMC-P

United States District Court, E.D. California

September 20, 2022

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

DENNIS M. COTA UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

Petitioner a state prisoner proceeding with appointed counsel, brings this petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254.Pending before the Court are Petitioner's petition for a writ of habeas corpusRespondent's answer to show cause, Petitioner's traverse, and Respondent's reply.ECF Nos. 1, 12, 22, 23.Respondent has lodged the state court record.ECF No. 12-3 to 12-12.

In the habeas petition, Petitioner asserts five claims: (1) conviction was obtained using evidence from an unconstitutional search and seizure; (2) insufficient evidence of the required mental states to support his convictions; (3) jury instruction error; (4) improper admission of prior burglary and theft evidence; and (5) cumulative error at trial deprived him of his due process rights.ECF No. 1.Having reviewed the petition and the record, the undersigned recommends that Petitioner's petition be denied.

I.BACKGROUND

A.Facts^[1]

After independently reviewing the record, this Court finds the state appellate court's summary accurate and adopts it herein.In its unpublished memorandum and opinion affirming Petitioner's judgment of conviction on appeal, the California Court of Appeal provided the following factual summary:

A.The burglary

On March 15, 2015, Dekalb's grandparents Larry and Nadine Dekalb were on vacation when a neighbor called to let them know Larry's pickup truck was missing from their driveway.1 Nadine called her son Jeffrey, Dekalb's father, who drove to his parents' home.Larry's pickup truck was gone and a security door on the attached garage was torn open.A 12 to 15-inch section of metal screen had been pried away from the door frame, leaving a gap large enough for someone to reach keys that were hanging from a hook on the inner door.Jeffrey called the police.

[N.1 To avoid confusion, we will refer to several members of the Dekalb family by their first names.We intend no disrespect by this practice.]

Three days later Fairfield police found the stolen truck parked in downtown Fairfield.In it were a laptop computer and three rifles that had been stolen from Larry and Nadine's home.

When Larry and Nadine returned from vacation on March 19they discovered that these and other items were missing from their home including the keys to their house and Larry's truck, watches, jewelry, a coin bank, a laptop charger and a .22-caliber Ruger convertible revolver.The total value of the stolen items was between $ 4,500 and $ 4,750.

B.The Arrest

On March 20, 2015, Fairfield Police Officer Nicholas McDowell responded to a report of a person acting erratically, yelling and banging on windows.He found Dekalb sitting on the sidewalk behind some planter boxes, rummaging through a backpack.When Officer McDowell approached, Dekalb offered to sell him methamphetamine.This, as well as Dekalb's fidgety movements, difficulty following directions, verbal outbursts, rapid speech, and inability to cooperate with an examination indicated that Dekalb was under the influence of methamphetamine.

Officer Cole Spencer was dispatched to assist Officer McDowell.When he arrived Dekalb was sitting on a planter box talking with McDowell.McDowell informed Spencer that Dekalb had asked if he wanted to buy methamphetamine.Based on Dekalb's statements and “fidgety, kind of nonsensical” behavior, Officer Spencer handcuffed and searched him but found no methamphetamine.Officer McDowell told Spencer about the backpack Dekalb had been going through, which was now about 10 feet away.Officer Spencer unzipped the backpack and found a loaded .22-caliber Ruger revolver, a watch, and various pieces of jewelry.Nadine later confirmed that the gun and jewelry belonged to her and her husband.

In April 2016 Dekalb wrote to his father from jail that he“wasn't planning on doing all the damage I did, but just to take one of the guns.”

C.Mental Illness

DeKalb was raised primarily by his father, but he spent a lot of time at his grandparents' home.When he was 19 he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.Within the following year he moved out of his father's home because, as Jeffrey testified, “it just got too hard to handle.”After that he was either homeless or in a halfway house or drug rehabilitation program.Jeffrey gave Dekalb food when he came to the door, but did not allow his son in his home.Dekalb used marijuana and was a heavy drinker.

Jeffrey found it impossible to communicate with Dekalb during his schizophrenic episodes.He testified, “you can't talk to him.And he's just, you know, only word to come up with is crazy.”Usually when Dekalb's episodes occurred Jeffrey would have to call the police or tell his son to leave.But they occurred during only 10 to 15 percent of Jeffrey's contacts with Dekalb, and the rest of the time Dekalb seemed normal and intelligent.His episodes were usually triggered by someone confronting or disagreeing with him, when he was under pressure or nervous, or had not taken his medication.He could become delusional, adopting the persona of rapper Tupac Shakur and going into what his father described as “thug mode.”When he was around 19 Dekalb told his family he was Jesus Christ.

Until 2011 or 2012 Nadine and Larry would occasionally let Dekalb shower and spend the night at their house, but after that they stopped allowing him in their home.When asked why, Jeffrey explained that Dekalb had stolen Larry's pickup truck.2 On that occasion Jeffrey spotted Dekalb driving Larry's truck, followed him to Larry and Nadine's house, chased him down and tackled him, and retrieved Larry and Nadine's house and car keys from Dekalb's pocket.At the time, Dekalb did not appear to be having one of his episodes and seemed normal.A watch and ring were missing from Larry and Nadine's home.Jeffrey found a video camera in their living room that showed Dekalb posing in the mirror with Larry's Ruger revolver, one of the guns he also stole in this case.Larry always kept the Ruger loaded in the drawer of his bedside stand.

[N.2 As we discuss in section IV, post, the date of this first auto theft is unclear from the record.]

Dekalb was no longer welcome in Larry and Nadine's home after that incident “[b]ecause he just had caused us so much heartache, so much trouble ....[W]e actually feared for our safety.”Nadine would still converse with her grandson, but on two occasions one of his episodes was triggered after she refused to let him in the house or to drive him to Sacramento.

On the morning of March 15, 2015, Dekalb came to Jeffrey's house and asked for food.Jeffrey gave him food, but Dekalb threw it in the bushes.When Jeffrey confronted him Dekalb “got all aggravated and stomped off down the street and yelling stuff down the neighborhood, all the way down the road.[¶] ... [¶] Foul, bad stuff.”

D.Defense Case

Psychologist Andrew Pojman testified as an expert in clinical psychology and psychological assessment.Dr. Pojman reviewed Dekalb's medical records and the police reports and videotape of his arrest, met with him twice, and administered various tests.The tests revealed intelligence in the low average range and notable deficits in executive functioning.Dekalb's diagnosis is schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type.When not on medication he becomes disorganized and is likely to present delusional thinking.Methamphetamine and alcohol generally exacerbate the symptoms of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, including delusional thinking.

Dr. Pojman thought Dekalb's behavior around Officers Spencer and McDowell displayed symptoms of psychosis, most notably his apparent failure to perceive they were police officers and soliciting a drug transaction.His nonsensical speech, parroting back the officer's request to remove his shoes, and distracted behavior indicated psychosis, although it was also possible that Dekalb was under the influence of a substance.Dekalb's belief when he was arrested that his cell phone was a marijuana pipe and that he was from “County Jail” was consistent with a “delusional space of like he was this cool dude, drug guy.”This was different from how DeKalb appeared when Dr. Pojman interviewed him or in the letter he wrote his father from jail, when he was medicated.Dekalb was more socially appropriate and presented better during his interviews, and his letter was organized, clear and displayed some insight.

Dr. Pojman opined that a hypothetical delusional homeless person with schizoaffective disorder would be able to find a familiar house, retrieve keys from a hook, and find and remove items from drawers or cupboards without making a mess.Asking for food and then throwing it into the bushes could indicate the person was delusional.Such a person could drive a car while delusional, could believe the car belonged to them, and could think they had the right to be somewhere they did not.

The jury convicted Dekalb of possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of a concealed firearm by a felon, carrying a loaded firearm, first degree residential burglary, receiving stolen property, vehicle theft and theft from an elder.The court dismissed a charge of receiving stolen property pursuant to Penal Code section 496, subdivision (a).Dekalb was sentenced to a total prison term of six years and eight months.This appeal is timely.

ECFNo. 12-10at 2-6.

B.Procedural History

On January 19, 2017, a jury found Petitioner guilty of possession of a firearm by a felon (Cal. Penal Code section 29800(a)(1)), having a concealed firearm on his person (Cal Penal Code section 25400(a)(2))...