Donelson v. Steele

• Decision Date: 26 August 2021
• Docket Number: No. 20-1094,20-1094
• Citation: 11 F.4th 675
• Parties: Rodney L. DONELSON, Petitioner - Appellant v. Troy STEELE, Respondent - Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

11 F.4th 675

Rodney L. DONELSON, Petitioner - Appellant

v.Troy STEELE, Respondent - Appellee

No. 20-1094

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: January 13, 2021

Filed: August 26, 2021

Rehearing Granted, Opinion Vacated October 22, 2021

Rodney L. Donelson, Pro Se.

Kathryn Parish, CARLYLE & PARISH, Saint Louis, MO, for Petitioner - Appellant.

Gregory Michael Goodwin, Stephen David Hawke, Assistant Attorneys General, ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, Jefferson City, MO, for Respondent - Appellee.

Before SMITH, Chief Judge, KELLY and ERICKSON, Circuit Judges.

SMITH, Chief Judge.

A Missouri jury found Rodney Donelson guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. After the Missouri Court of Appeals denied him postconviction relief, Donelson filed this federal habeas action under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Donelson claims that he received ineffective assistance of counsel when his trial attorney withdrew a motion to sever the two murder charges. The district court¹ denied his habeas petition. We affirm.

I. Background

This case involves the murders of two women, Cassandra Scott and Barbara Hampton, who were killed five years apart—in 2000 and 2005, respectively. In 2009, Donelson, an acquaintance of both women, was charged with the murders. The offenses were joined in a single indictment.

A. Pretrial Motion to Sever Offenses

Donelson's trial counsel, Geralyn Ruess, initially filed a motion to sever the offenses. Ruess argued that the State of Missouri had not made the requisite showing for joinder, including any similarity in motive or character, or any common scheme or plan. The State replied that the similarities between the two murders made joinder proper. The state trial court held a hearing on the motion. The State called a detective who testified about the similarities between the murders: (1) both crime scenes involved phone cords and knives; (2) both women appeared to have had their underwear removed; (3) both bodies were found with various liquids either on or around them; (4) a bottle of rubbing alcohol was found at each crime scene; (5) Scott had been strangled and Hampton was gagged and suffocated; (6) both victims were black females of the same age group; (7) both women were killed in their apartments, which were one mile apart; (8) Donelson knew both victims; and (9) Donelson's DNA was present at both crime scenes.

Ruess highlighted the differences between the offenses, including: (1) the murders occurred five years apart; (2) nothing indicated that the phone cord near Scott's body had anything to do with her murder; (3) cleaning fluid had been poured on Hampton's body but not Scott's; (4) only Scott had been stabbed; and (5) only Hampton had been sexually assaulted. Ruess also argued that prejudice from joining the two murder charges would be "incredibly overwhelming." Resp. to Order to Show Cause, Ex. A, at 8, Donelson v. Steele , No. 4:16-cv-00637-AGF (E.D. Mo. 2016), ECF No. 14-1. She explained that the DNA evidence against Donelson was weaker in one case, but if the cases were combined, "there[ ] [was] no way a jury [would] be able to give him a fair shot on both of those separate incidents." Id.

The state trial court denied the motion, concluding that sufficient similarities existed to justify joinder of the offenses. On the date trial began, Ruess withdrew the motion to sever the offenses.

B. Trial

We describe the evidence from trial as summarized by the Missouri Court of Appeals:

In July 2000, Cassandra Scott ... was found dead in her apartment.^[2] She was lying face down on the floor in a pool of blood and with a kitchen knife protruding from the back of her neck. A container of antifreeze, a telephone cord, and a pair of men's underwear were found nearby. A purse strap was wrapped around Scott's neck and arm. The murderer had apparently broken a window on the front door to gain entry into Scott's apartment. Investigators discovered that the blood near Scott's body had been diluted by some other liquid and that the liquid was on Scott's buttocks. Investigators found an empty bottle of isopropyl alcohol in the apartment, and the knife found in Scott's neck matched some knives in the kitchen sink. An autopsy revealed that Scott died from a combination of strangulation by the purse strap and five cuts to the right side of her neck, which pierced the jugular vein. Laboratory testing on the men's underwear found near Scott's body revealed that two stains on the underwear were blood and seminal fluid. DNA tests matched the blood to Scott and the seminal fluid to [Donelson].

[Donelson] worked at the daycare where Scott worked, and [Donelson's] brother lived in the apartment below Scott's apartment. Although police investigators questioned [Donelson] about Scott's death approximately two months after her body was found, [Donelson] stated that he did not know anything about the murder. However, [Donelson] told investigators that he had been in Scott's apartment to repair a VCR three days prior to her murder. [Donelson] told investigators that he might have left a bag of clothes in Scott's apartment, including a pair of white boxer shorts. [Donelson] claimed that he left the clothes there because he liked to flirt with women at the daycare center and he wanted to look clean. [Donelson] then changed his story and said that he had been in Scott's apartment on the night of her murder and that they were preparing to engage in sex when they heard a car door slam. Scott suspected her boyfriend was there, so [Donelson] gathered his clothes, ran down the rear stairs into his brother's apartment, and left the building. [Donelson's] brother, however, denied that [Donelson] was in his apartment on the night of the murder. When investigators confronted [Donelson] with his brother's denial about [Donelson's] whereabouts, [Donelson] subsequently changed his story again and claimed he had been at Scott's apartment to repair a VCR.

In September 2005, [Donelson] was living in an apartment above the apartment of Barbara Hampton .... On September 14, 2005, at approximately 10:40 p.m., Hampton was having a telephone conversation with her daughter. Hampton interrupted the conversation to answer a knock at the door, then told her daughter that [Donelson] was there and wanted to use Hampton's telephone to make a call. Hampton ended the call with her daughter.

The following day, Hampton was found dead in her apartment. She was lying on the bedroom floor with a gag tied around her mouth. Hampton's dress and slip were pushed up, and her underwear had been removed and left near her feet. Hampton had sustained an injury to her vaginal area. Several bottles were located near Hampton's body: dish washing liquid, laundry detergent, and an empty bottle of isopropyl alcohol. Near Hampton's body, police investigators found the cap from the bottle of isopropyl alcohol, dried liquids and powders, a kitchen knife, and a telephone cord. An autopsy revealed that Hampton died from suffocation caused by the gag pushing her tongue back so that it blocked her airway. The autopsy also showed that Hampton had sustained a fresh injury to her vaginal area that could have been caused by a sharp object or by something stretching the tissue. Blood was found on Hampton's slip, on a pillowcase, and on the cap from the bottle of isopropyl alcohol. DNA tests revealed that [Donelson] was the source of the majority of DNA found in the blood on the bottle cap. [Donelson's] DNA also was found in some of the blood stains on the pillowcase. Trace amounts of DNA consistent with [Donelson's] DNA was found on [the] telephone cord and on Hampton's slip.

Police investigators questioned [Donelson] about Hampton's death approximately one month after her body was found. [Donelson] told investigators that he had spoken with Hampton the night before her body was found but that he had left with a friend named Robert Ellis ... and did not return home until the next morning. Ellis, however, denied that [Donelson] had ever spent the night with him and specifically denied that [Donelson] had spent the night with him in September 2005.^[3]

Consequently, after further investigation, police questioned [Donelson] a second time. This time, [Donelson] admitted that he had lied in his first statement because he had spent the night with Brenda Jacobs ... and he did not want his girlfriend, Melinda Freeman ..., to know he had been cheating on her. [Donelson] became angry and agitated during the second interview with police. [Donelson] then admitted he had been in Hampton's apartment a few years earlier to help her husband carry in a mattress. Hampton's husband had died approximately two years before Hampton's murder. After [Donelson] was arrested and informed of his Miranda⁴ rights, [Donelson] repeated the story he had given to investigators during the second interview.

Police investigators then questioned Freeman, with whom [Donelson] had lived in the apartment above Hampton's apartment. Freeman provided investigators with Jacobs’ telephone number. She stated that [Donelson] had instructed her to tell police that he had been cheating on her with Jacobs. Investigators subsequently interviewed Jacobs, who stated that she and [Donelson] had not spent any night together in September 2005.

After his arrest, [Donelson] also discussed Scott's murder with police investigators. [Donelson] claimed that he had gone to Scott's apartment the day before her murder to repair the toilet. [Donelson] said that he must have left a bag of clothes in Scott's apartment; however, on the night of Scott's murder, he had stayed with his girlfriend ....

State v. Donelson , 343 S.W.3d 729, 731–33 (Mo. Ct. App. 2011).

The prosecution introduced DNA evidence into the trial record. One DNA expert, Anna Kiatowski, testified about the Scott murder. She testified that while the DNA on the boxers matched Donelson, everything else at the crime scene matched Ronald Dickens.

Two DNA experts, Samantha Webb and Malena Jimenez, testified...