Devoe v. Davis, CIVIL NO. A-14-CA-151-SS

• Decision Date: 26 September 2016
• Docket Number: CIVIL NO. A-14-CA-151-SS
• Parties: PAUL GILBERT DEVOE, III, TDCJ No. 999550, Petitioner, v. LORIE DAVIS, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Texas

PAUL GILBERT DEVOE, III, TDCJ No. 999550, Petitioner, v. LORIE DAVIS, Director,¹ Texas Department of Criminal Justice,Correctional Institutions Division, Respondent.

CIVIL NO. A-14-CA-151-SS

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS AUSTIN DIVISION

FILED: September 27, 2016

September 26, 2016

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Petitioner Paul Gilbert Devoe, III filed this action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging his October 2009 conviction for capital murder and sentence of death in Travis County Cause No. D-1-DC-07-302093. For the reasons discussed below, Petitioner is entitled to neither federal habeas corpus relief nor a certificate of appealability from this Court.

I. Background and Procedural History

A. Indictment

On November 19, 2007, a Travis County grand jury indicted Petitioner on a charge of capital murder, to wit, intentionally and knowingly causing the death of Haylie Faulkner by shooting Haylie with a firearm and intentionally and knowingly causing the death of DanielleHensley by shooting Danielle with a firearm and committing both murders during the same criminal transaction.²

B. Guilt-Innocence Phase of Trial

The guilt-innocence phase of Petitioner's capital murder trial commenced on September 8, 2009.³ The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' opinion affirming Petitioner's conviction and sentence on direct appeal accurately summarized the testimony and other evidence presented during the guilt-innocence phase of Petitioner's trial as follows:

The evidence presented at guilt revealed that, in late August 2007, Appellant stole a silver Jennings .380-caliber handgun ("the gun"), two ammunition magazines, and fifteen Winchester bullets from his friend, Bill Brinlee. Brinlee considered Appellant to be "family," as Appellant had previously lived with the Brinlees. Appellant had access to the house, knew that the Brinlee would be out of town for a wedding during the weekend of August 24, and was aware that the gun was kept in the master bedroom.

On August 24, 2007, Appellant was residing at the Llano home of Sharon Wilson in exchange for work he had agreed to do around her home. At about 3:00 p.m., Wilson came home to find Appellant outside with the gun. Wilson had previously informed Appellant that she did not allow firearms in her home, and she asked that he not bring it in the house. She assumed that Appellant complied with her request.

A short while later, Wilson found Appellant looking in her purse. He claimed to be looking for a cigarette. Appellant then went to take a nap. At this point, Wilson decided that it was time to ask Appellant to vacate her home. She called some friends to be with her when she told him because she was afraid of how Appellant might react to the request. While waiting for her friends, she discovered that Appellant had emptied the gas can that she had filled for her lawnmower. Angered, Wilson felt she could wait no longer, so she went to confront Appellant.

Upon finding Appellant asleep in her bedroom, Wilson woke him and told him that he needed to leave. Appellant got up and went directly to the living room couch where he retrieved the gun from a hiding place behind the cushions, and he pointed it at Wilson's head and mid-section. Wilson knocked Appellant's arm so that the gun pointed away from her. Appellant then fired the gun multiple times into the couch and walls. Appellant spoke of killing himself. He told Wilson that he had only two bullets left and that he was going to his trailer, which was parked nearby, to get more. Appellant advised Wilson not to go near her pickup truck, but he told her she could go outside to smoke a cigarette. When Appellant walked out the door, Wilson grabbed her dog and ran from her home. She hid in heavy vegetation and cactus in the adjoining field. She heard Appellant start a truck, and he drove it towards Wilson. He stopped and revved the engine several times before backing up. Wilson saw Appellant drive away in her blue Dodge Dakota pickup truck. The license plate number was 21X-ZJ5. Wilson later found that her money and credit cards were missing from her purse. Investigators recovered .380-caliber bullets and shell casings from her home, and Wilson turned over Appellant's day planner, which contained a photocopy of Paula Griffith's driver's license.

Later that evening, Glenda Purcell was at her usual hangout, O'Neill's Sports Tavern in Marble Falls. Purcell had recently broken up with Appellant after a tumultuous six-month romantic relationship that ended when she asked him to move out of her home. Following the break-up, Purcell obtained a protective order against Appellant, of which Appellant had notice. Michael Allred was on duty as a bartender that night.

At approximately 8:30 p.m., Appellant entered O'Neill's Sports Tavern. He was dressed in what Purcell described as his "motorcycle attire": a black leather vest, chaps, a cap, and a jacket. Purcell immediately called out for someone to call the police because she had a protective order against Appellant. Appellant then walked over to Purcell, put his hand over her eyes, and held the gun to her head. He pulled the trigger several times, but the gun jammed. Purcell then ran back towards the men's room where Allred was repairing something. She yelled, "Mike, Mike, [Appellant's] here, he's got a gun." Allred stepped between Purcell and Appellant. Allred tried to persuade Appellant to calm down and to give him the gun, but Appellant then shot Allred in the chest with a .380-caliber bullet, severing his aorta and killing him. Purcell ran out of the back door to the police station next door. Witnesses saw Appellant flee the bar in a blue Dodge Dakota pickup truck with the license plate 21X-ZJ5. Appellant was headed in the direction of Jonestown.

Paula Griffith lived in a house in Jonestown with her fifteen-year-old daughter, Haylie Faulkner. Griffith previously dated Appellant, but they had not had a romantic relationship in some time. By all accounts, the break-up seemedamicable, and Appellant kept in touch with Faulkner, even paying her entry fee into some beauty pageants.

On the evening of August 24, Griffith, Faulkner, Faulkner's friend (Danielle Hensley), and Griffith's boyfriend (Jay Feltner) were at Griffith's home preparing for a trip to Fiesta Texas, an amusement park in San Antonio. Griffith had obtained tickets to celebrate the last weekend before the start of school. The group planned to travel to San Antonio on Friday night, spend the day at Fiesta Texas on Saturday, and return to Jonestown late Saturday night. Hensley was to return to her family's home in Leander on Sunday.

On that Friday evening, August 24, Hensley's mother and step-father began to worry when they did not receive a phone call from her because Hensley normally called to say good night. On Saturday, her parents were still unable to reach Hensley, Griffith, or Faulkner. They called the Jonestown police, but the police were unable to assist because the parents did not know the physical address of Griffith's house. When searching the internet for news of any auto accidents or other events that might explain Hensley's failure to make contact, Hensley's step-father learned about the murder in Marble Falls and that the police were looking for a blue Dodge Dakota pickup truck with the license plate number 21X-ZJ5.

On Sunday morning, August 26, Hensley's parents drove to Griffith's home in Jonestown. As they approached the driveway, Hensley's step-father saw a blue Dodge Dakota pickup truck parked near the house. He recognized the license plate number from his internet search the day before, and he knew that something was wrong. He parked a block away and called the police.

After securing the area, the police entered Griffith's home to check on the welfare of the people possibly inside and discovered the four bodies. Feltner had been shot in the head from close range while sitting at the kitchen table. Griffith had been shot in the back of her head, apparently while she was running from the living room. Faulkner had fallen to the living room floor with a gunshot wound to the head. Hensley, who was lying on the living room couch, had four gunshot wounds including a fatal wound to the head. The group had apparently been preparing dinner as raw meat sat out on the counter and the barbecue, grill outside was open.

It appeared to the investigators that each of the females' purses had been searched and the contents dumped onto a couch. Feltner's duffle bag had also been searched, and his cell phone was discovered to be missing. A carton of Skydancer cigarettes was on the same couch, and a cigarette butt was found on the floor. No identifiable fingerprints were found at the scene.

Police confirmed that the blue Dodge Dakota pickup truck parked at Griffith's home was the same one that had been used to flee the murder in Marble Falls. Investigators collected three Natural Light beer cans, one empty Sport cigarette package, cigarette butts from the ashtray, and a set of General Motor keys from the pickup. They also discovered that Griffith's white 2001 Saturn station wagon was missing.

Meanwhile, beginning Friday night, August 24, Appellant began calling his friend, Brinlee. During his first phone call, Appellant told Brinlee that he had "shot at" six people and "maybe killed two" people. He stated that he "was on the run." During the second call, Brinlee noticed that Appellant was not calling from his cell phone; he was now calling from a new number. It was later determined that Appellant was using Feltner's cell phone. This second call was placed at 11:44 p.m. in the vicinity of a cell tower in Belton, Texas.

During his second or third phone call to Brinlee, Appellant said that "he was going after [Purcell] and her father and mother." He told Brinlee that he had gone to the bar to kill Purcell, but the bartender got in the way. Appellant said that he took a couple of shots at Purcell, but the gun jammed and that was why

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