Gomes v. Silva

• Citation: 958 F.3d 12
• Decision Date: 01 May 2020
• Docket Number: No. 19-1656,19-1656
• Parties: Joseph GOMES, Petitioner, Appellant, v. Steven SILVA, Superintendent, Massachusetts Correctional Institution-Souza Baranowski, Respondent, Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)

958 F.3d 12

Joseph GOMES, Petitioner, Appellant,

v.Steven SILVA, Superintendent, Massachusetts Correctional Institution-Souza Baranowski, Respondent, Appellee.

No. 19-1656

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

May 1, 2020

Charles Allan Hope, Cunha & Holcomb, P.C., with whom Cunha & Holcomb, P.C. was on brief, for appellant.

Jennifer K. Zalnasky, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Bureau, Appeals Division, with whom Maura Healey, Attorney General of Massachusetts, was on brief, for appellee.

Before Lynch, Stahl, and Kayatta, Circuit Judges.

STAHL, Circuit Judge.

Following a jury trial in the Suffolk County Superior Court, Joseph Gomes was convicted of one count of first-degree murder and several counts of lesser offenses in relation to a February 2007 shooting that occurred in the Roxbury area of Boston, Massachusetts. For the murder conviction, he received the mandatory sentence of life without parole. Gomes appealed his convictions, and the Supreme Judicial Court for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ("SJC") ultimately upheld them. See Commonwealth v. Gomes, 475 Mass. 775, 61 N.E.3d 441 (2016) (" Gomes I"). Gomes subsequently petitioned the District Court for the District of Massachusetts for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. He advanced two claims: that the evidence presented at his trial was legally insufficient to support a finding beyond a reasonable doubt that he knowingly participated in the shooting with an intent to kill; and that the trial court committed prejudicial error by admitting into evidence certain items found at an apartment building owned by his parents in violation of his due process rights. In June 2019, the district court denied the petition but subsequently granted a certificate of appealability. Gomes timely appealed. We affirm under the highly deferential standard prescribed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act ("AEDPA") for federal habeas review of state criminal convictions.

I. Background

A. Factual History

"[W]hen we consider a state conviction on habeas review, we presume the state court's factual findings to be correct." Dorisca v. Marchilli, 941 F.3d 12, 14 (1st Cir. 2019) (quoting Hensley v. Roden, 755 F.3d 724, 727 (1st Cir. 2014) ); see 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1). We draw the following essential facts from the opinion of the SJC. See Gomes I, 61 N.E.3d at 444-46.

In February 2007, several members of the Gomes and DaSilva families lived in an apartment building on Langdon Street in Roxbury. The building was owned by petitioner Gomes's parents, who lived in an apartment on the second floor. Anthony DaSilva ("Anthony"), Gomes's nephew, lived in an apartment on the first floor. Gomes did not live in the building at that time.

On the morning of February 13, 2007, as Anthony walked out of his home toward his car, he noticed a black Buick automobile stopped at the intersection of George Street and Langdon Street. The Buick moved slowly down George Street as the driver, David Evans, watched Anthony. Soon after, Anthony, then sitting in his car, saw the same Buick make a fast turn onto Langdon Street. Anthony circled the block, and the Buick followed. He returned to the Langdon Street apartment building and parked his car. He ran into the building with his father, who had been standing by the building's door. They both heard gunshots being fired. A neighbor also heard the shots and, looking out of her window, saw a man chase the Buick and fire several shots at it before running to the Langdon Street apartment building. Later that day, Evans, who had rented the Buick, returned it to the rental agency with damage to a tire consistent with gunfire; a mechanic who eventually repaired the Buick found a bullet and provided it to the police. After returning the Buick, Evans rented a silver Nissan Maxima automobile with New Hampshire license plates.

Boston police officers arrived at the Langdon Street apartment building shortly after 9:00 a.m. Gomes arrived there within the next fifteen minutes. He was met by the police officers, who allowed him to enter the building to check on his parents. Around 10:00 a.m., Gomes became upset and argumentative with the police and was escorted out of the building in handcuffs. He was released and permitted to leave shortly after. Gomes drove away in a rented silver Chevrolet Impala automobile with New Hampshire license plates.

Based on the report that the gunman had run into the Langdon Street apartment building, police officers cleared the building of all residents. In the process, four young men were discovered in the common basement of the building, arrested, and charged with breaking and entering. One of the men matched the neighbor's description of the man who had fired shots at the Buick. The police secured the building while they waited for a search warrant. During that time, no residents were permitted to return to their apartments, and while waiting, members of the Gomes and DaSilva families stayed in their cars. Sometime in the afternoon, Gomes's brother-in-law and one or more police officers observed Evans's rented Maxima drive by the building.

Around 6:00 p.m. that evening, Gomes drove his Impala quickly down Roxbury's Maywood Street, where Evans lived. He stopped the vehicle abruptly when he reached a group of seven men who were then standing on a porch and sidewalk near where the Maxima was parked, across the street from Evans's house.

After the Impala stopped, two shooters fired several gunshots at the standing men from its open front and rear passenger-side windows. When the shooting ceased, the car, with Gomes driving, sped off toward Blue Hill Avenue. Within minutes, Boston police officers responded to the scene. One of the attacked men, Fausto Sanchez, had been shot in the lower back. He was transported to a hospital, where he arrived in cardiac arrest

and was pronounced dead soon after. The cause of his death was blood loss due to the gunshot wound. Among the remaining men, Roberto Ramos-Santiago sustained multiple gunshot wounds, Joel Perez was shot in the right calf, and Maurice Cundiff fractured his arm while fleeing the gunfire. Perez told an officer that the shooters were in a gray, four-door, newer-model Chevrolet Impala, and that description was broadcast over the police radio.

Two guns had been used in the shooting -- a .38 revolver and a .380 semiautomatic pistol.¹ Neither of those guns were recovered by the police. However, the police did recover one spent .380-caliber shell casing in front of the Maywood Street house and one .38-caliber bullet from the kitchen floor of a home on nearby Savin Street; the bullet had entered the kitchen through a rear window that faced Maywood Street. Meanwhile, shortly after 6:00 p.m., a detective driving to the Maywood Street scene observed an Impala that matched the description given by Perez. Gomes was driving the Impala, and Emmanuel DaSilva ("Emmanuel") -- Anthony's cousin -- was in the front seat. The detective stopped the vehicle. Gomes and Emmanuel were taken into police custody, and the Impala was towed to the police station. Officers searched the Impala pursuant to a warrant and discovered six spent .380-caliber shell casings on the front passenger side -- two on the seat and four on the floor. There was also a piece missing from the passenger-side mirror. Ballistics testing showed that the spent .380-caliber shell casing found on Maywood Street and the six .380-caliber shell casings found inside the Impala had been fired from the same .380-caliber gun. In addition, the .38-caliber bullet found in the kitchen of the house on Savin Street and a .38-caliber bullet that was recovered from Ramos-Santiago's arm had been fired from the same .38-caliber gun.

Around 10:00 p.m., the police obtained the search warrant that they were awaiting and searched the Langdon Street apartment building. In the first-floor apartment, police found mail dated May 2006 that was addressed to Gomes, two bags of marijuana, two electronic scales, and $7447 in cash that was hidden in the headboard of a bed. In the basement, police found personal papers, some of which belonged to Gomes, crack cocaine, marijuana, $545 in cash, a red, hooded sweatshirt, a .25-caliber firearm and a .22-caliber firearm, each loaded with six rounds of ammunition, a nine-millimeter firearm loaded with eight rounds of ammunition, and a .380-caliber Mauser semiautomatic firearm containing no ammunition. Subsequently, ballistics determined that the Mauser had fired the bullet that was recovered from Evans's rented Buick and had ejected the five .380-caliber shell casings found by police outside the Langdon Street apartment building.

B. Procedural History

On May 2, 2007, a Suffolk County grand jury returned indictments charging Gomes with one count of murder in the first degree; six counts of armed assault with intent to murder; one count of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon; one count of aggravated assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon; four counts of assault by means of a dangerous weapon; two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm; and one count of unlawful possession of ammunition.²

A jury trial was held in the Suffolk County Superior Court from November 9 to December 13, 2010. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts's ("Commonwealth") theory was that Gomes was a joint venturer³ with Emmanuel in committing the Maywood Street shooting to retaliate against Evans for pursuing Anthony and thereby causing the police occupation of the Langdon Street apartment building. Over Gomes's objection, the trial court allowed into evidence the items seized by the police from the apartment building. At the close of the Commonwealth's case, Gomes moved for a required finding of not guilty, which was denied. Gomes renewed his motion at the close of evidence, and it was again denied.

On December 13, 2010, the jury convicted Gomes of one count of murder in the first degree; four counts of armed...