Goodwin v. State

• Decision Date: 02 May 2006
• Docket Number: No. SC 86278.,SC 86278.
• Citation: 191 S.W.3d 20
• Parties: Paul T. GOODWIN, Appellant, v. STATE of Missouri, Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 20

191 S.W.3d 20

Paul T. GOODWIN, Appellant, v. STATE of Missouri, Respondent.

No. SC 86278.

Supreme Court of Missouri, En Banc.

May 2, 2006.

Rehearing Denied May 30, 2006.

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Melinda K. Pendergraph, Office of the State Public Defender, Columbia, for appellant.

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. General, Leslie E. McNamara, Shaun J. Mackelprang, Asst. Attys. General, Jefferson City, for respondent.

WILLIAM RAY PRICE, JR., Judge.

I) Introduction

Paul Goodwin was sentenced to death for the murder of Mrs. Joan Crotts, a widow in her sixties. This Court upheld his conviction and sentence on direct appeal. State v. Goodwin, 43 S.W.3d 805 (Mo. banc 2001). The motion court denied post-conviction relief under Rule 29.15. Goodwin now appeals the motion court's ruling. This Court affirms.

II) Factual Background

In the summer of 1996, Goodwin moved into a boardinghouse near North Hanley Road in St. Louis County. The boardinghouse was next door to Mrs. Joan Crotts' home. Within a week or so of his arrival at the boardinghouse, Goodwin began confronting Mrs. Crotts. Goodwin continued to insult and curse her throughout the summer. In August, Goodwin was having a barbeque in the backyard of the boardinghouse and began throwing beer cans over the fence into Mrs. Crotts' yard. When Mrs. Crotts came out to complain, Goodwin picked up a sledgehammer and smashed a rock with it saying: "this is your head . . . if you keep messing with me."

A short time later, Mrs Crotts left her home to attend a social function. Goodwin confronted her in the driveway and yelled: "get your fat ass back in the house, bitch. I've got one coming for you." Mrs. Crotts' daughter intervened and ended the confrontation, but Goodwin was evicted from the boardinghouse. As he left the boardinghouse, he said to Mrs. Crotts: "I'm going to get you for this, bitch."

A year and a half later, Mrs. Crotts called the police at 5:00 a.m. to report that someone had tampered with her vehicle. An officer arrived, and Mrs. Crotts reported that she had found some papers taken from her car and thrown on the ground. She also reported that her dogs had been let out of her backyard and that a step on the back porch was out of place. The officer found no suspicious persons in the neighborhood.

Goodwin had already entered Mrs. Crotts' house that morning and hid in the basement until after the police left. Goodwin then came up the basement stairs carrying a sledgehammer and confronted Mrs. Crotts in her kitchen. He grabbed her arm and forced her into the living room where he forced Mrs. Crotts to perform oral sex on him. He then took her back to the kitchen. While drinking a two-liter bottle of Pepsi, he wrote on a piece of paper "you are next," and forced her to walk to the head of the basement stairs. With both hands, he shoved her down the stairs. As she lay face down and unmoving at the bottom of the stairs, Goodwin watched her for a while. Then he hit the back of her head several times with the sledgehammer and left the house.

Mrs. Crotts' daughter found her, still alive, that afternoon, and Mrs. Crotts related these events to a police officer at the hospital. Mrs. Crotts died that evening. An autopsy revealed that Goodwin inflicted injuries all over her body. In addition to the skull fractures, which caused her death, she had bruises and injuries on her face, chest, shoulders, back, buttocks, knees, thighs, and both arms and hands. She had eight broken ribs and a broken hip. Many of the wounds were defensive wounds. Many of the injuries were not consistent with a fall down the stairs, but instead of a beating.

The police found the note and Pepsi bottle. Goodwin's fingerprints were on both. They also found bootprints in the spilled Pepsi. Two cigarette butts and a wrapper, the brand Goodwin smoked, were found in the basement. Just outside the door, police found Goodwin's hearing aid. After obtaining a warrant to search Goodwin's home, the police found blood stains on a pair of his jeans, underpants, and boots. The boots matched the bootprints left in the spilled Pepsi.

The police picked Goodwin up at work that day. After being offered a sign-language interpreter and being advised of his Miranda rights, Goodwin admitted to killing Mrs. Crotts and provided the details above.

A jury convicted Goodwin of murder and sentenced him to death. This Court affirmed his direct appeal. Goodwin then filed a motion for post-conviction relief in the motion court. The motion court denied a hearing for most of his claims. The motion court then denied the rest of his claims after a hearing.

III) Legal standard

A) Prerequisites for post-conviction hearing

Before movant may be granted a post-conviction hearing by a motion court, he must show that he is entitled to a hearing. "If the court shall determine the motion and the files and records of the case conclusively show that the movant is entitled to no relief, a hearing shall not be held. In such case, the court shall issue findings of fact and conclusions of law as provided in Rule 29.15(j)."

In order to be entitled to an evidentiary hearing, a movant must 1) cite facts, not conclusions, which, if true, would entitle movant to relief; 2) the factual allegations must not be refuted by the record; and 3) the matters complained of must prejudice the movant. Belcher v. State, 801 S.W.2d 372, 375 (Mo.App. 1990). An evidentiary hearing is not required if the motion court determines that the motion and the files and records of the case conclusively show that the movant is entitled to no relief. Rule 29.15(g). Appellate review of a motion court's action is limited to a determination of [whether] the findings and conclusions of . . . the motion court are clearly erroneous. Rule 29.15(j).

State v. Blankenship, 830 S.W.2d 1, 16 (Mo. banc 1992).

B) Requirements for post-conviction relief

In order to actually receive post-conviction relief from the motion court,

[f]irst, the defendant must show that counsel's performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the "counsel" guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Second, the defendant must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. This requires showing that counsel's errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable.

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).

To establish ineffectiveness, a defendant must show that counsel's representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness. To establish prejudice he must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.

Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 390-91, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000) (internal citations omitted). "To prove ineffectiveness with regard to death penalty sentencing, [the defendant] must show that, but for his counsels' ineffective performance, there is a reasonable probability that the jury would have concluded after balancing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, death was not warranted." Rousan v. State, 48 S.W.3d 576, 582 (Mo. banc 2001).

When the motion court determines whether counsel was ineffective, "[a] strong presumption exists that trial counsel was effective and an appellant bears a heavy burden of overcoming that presumption by a preponderance of the evidence." State v. Tokar, 918 S.W.2d 753, 761 (Mo. banc 1996) (citations omitted). There is also "a presumption that counsel's alleged omissions were sound trial strategy." Id. at 766. "Trial strategy is not a ground for ineffective assistance of counsel." State v. Chambers, 891 S.W.2d 93, 109 (Mo. banc 1994). "Strategic choices made after a thorough investigation of the law and the facts relevant to plausible opinions are virtually unchallengeable." Tokar, 918 S.W.2d at 761 (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 690-91, 104 S.Ct. 2052). "Where counsel has investigated possible strategies, courts should rarely second-guess counsel's actual choices." Middleton v. State, 103 S.W.3d 726, 736 (Mo. banc 2003).

C) Review of motion court

This Court's review of the motion court's denial of post-conviction relief is limited to a determination of whether "the motion court clearly erred in making its findings of fact and conclusions of law." Skillicorn v. State, 22 S.W.3d 678, 681 (Mo. banc 2000), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1039, 121 S.Ct. 630, 148 L.Ed.2d 538 (2000). A judgment is clearly erroneous when, in light of the entire record, "the court is left with the definite and firm impression that a mistake has been made." Moss v. State, 10 S.W.3d 508, 511 (Mo. banc 2000). The motion court's findings are presumed correct. Black v. State, 151 S.W.3d 49, 54 (Mo. banc 2004). "The question is whether, when all the mitigation evidence is added together, is there a reasonable probability that the outcome would have been different?" Hutchison v. State, 150 S.W.3d 292, 306 (Mo. banc 2004).

IV) Points relied on

Goodwin alleges seven instances of trial counsel ineffectiveness and clear error by the motion court, in this appeal, as follows: 1) the motion court clearly erred because it found that Goodwin was not mentally retarded; 2) trial counsel failed to investigate and rebut the State's suggested motive that Goodwin blamed Mrs. Crotts for his eviction from the boarding house; 3) trial counsel failed to investigate and rebut the State's claim that Goodwin had previously threatened Mrs. Crotts with a sledgehammer; 4) trial counsel failed to investigate and present medical evidence, at trial, that Mrs. Crotts' injuries were caused by her fall down the stairs; 5) trial counsel failed to investigate Goodwin's ability to plan details and...