Haskell v. Folina
| Decision Date | 08 September 2015 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 10-149 Erie |
| Parties | VANCE HASKELL, Petitioner, v. LOUIS FOLINA, et al., Respondents. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Pennsylvania |
OPINION1
Presently before the Court is the Amended Petition For a Writ of Habeas Corpus filed by state prisoner Vance Haskell ("Petitioner" or "Haskell") pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In his petition, Petitioner raises five claims for relief (four of which revolve around the trial testimony of a single prosecution witness, Antoinette Blue). Petitioner makes the following claims:
For the reasons set forth below, all claims in the Amended Petition are denied. A certificate of appealability is denied.
Early in the morning of December 10, 1994, more than 150 people were at Jethroe's Steakhouse, a bar located in Erie, Pennsylvania. At around 1:23 a.m., a man pulled out a semiautomatic weapon and fired it approximately 14 times. The weapon used was referred to in Petitioner's subsequent trial as an "Uzi." Darrell Cooley was shot at least nine times and died. Kevin Twillie was shot in the arm but did not suffer life-threatening injuries. The shooter and another man, later identified as Curtis Mathis3 (also known as "Troy"), ran from the bar together. When the police arrived at the scene, the shooter was gone.
The police soon suspected that Petitioner, who was from Rochester, New York, might be the shooter. During their investigation, the police learned that Petitioner and Mathis often stayed at the home of Felicia Clark, who lived at the Franklin Terrace housing project. Felicia Clark testified atPetitioner's trial that Petitioner and Mathis stayed at her home beginning around the end of November 1994. (Day 3 Trial Tr. at 114-16). Petitioner and Mathis had been brought there by Felicia's brother, Phillip Anthony Clark (also known as "Tony Clark" or "Tony Montana"). The police suspected that not long after the shooting, Tony Clark drove Petitioner to Rochester, New York, in a blue Dynasty vehicle. That car belonged to Tony Clark's uncle, Ernest Glover, who had traded vehicles with his nephew on December 9, 1994. Glover testified at Petitioner's trial that when Tony Clark returned the car to him two days later, it had been driven about 586 miles, a fact that supported the prosecution's theory that Tony Clark assisted Petitioner in getting out of Erie after he shot and killed Darrell Cooley and injured Kevin Twillie. (Day 4 Trial Tr. at 11). Glover gave police permission to search his vehicle and they found several empty beer bottles in it and fingerprints were taken from them. (Id. at 86-87). The police subsequently received confirmation that prints lifted from the beer bottles matched those of Petitioner. (Id. at 112-17). The police investigation of the December 10, 1994, shooting at Jethroe's stalled for several years. Individuals who had relevant information were hesitant to come forward and reluctant to cooperate with the police.4
In November 1995, Mathis was convicted of two counts of hindering apprehension in connection with his role as an accomplice in the shooting. He was sentenced to three to seven years of incarceration. At that time, Mathis apparently did not identify the shooter and Petitioner had not been charged with any crime.
About a year later, in November 1996, Mathis wrote a letter to one of the primary investigators of the shooting, Detective Sergeant James Skindell, and indicated that he was ready to cooperate and give the police information about the shooting. (Day 3 Trial Tr. at 90-93). In exchange, Mathis wanted to be paroled. (Id. at 102-03). The Erie authorities told Mathis that, as consideration for his truthful cooperation, they would notify the parole board of his assistance but that they could not otherwise help him get parole. .
Det. Skindell and other investigators interviewed Mathis several times. (Day 3 Trial Tr. at 93-94; Day 4 Trial Tr. at 68-69). On March 7, 1997, Mathis gave an approximately 45-minute videotaped statement in which he discussed what happened before, during and after Petitioner shot Darrell Cooley and Kevin Twillie at Jethroe's. Mathis explained that he first met "Hakeem" (Petitioner's alias) through Tony and Felicia Clark, and that he and "Hakeem" (as Petitioner was known in Erie) went to Jethroe's together the night of the shooting. . Mathis stated that he did not see the actual shooting, but that immediately after the shooting stopped, he saw "Hakeem," who was wearing a green "puffy" coat that night, holding up a gun that was "smoking." Mathis said that he and "Hakeem" ran out of the bar together and that "Hakeem" discarded the gun in an alleyway in the area of Parade Street. . He explained that he and "Hakeem" then went to a nearby bar and a woman there called them a cab. The cab driver dropped them off in the Franklin Terrace neighborhood and they ended up at a home with two women, one of whose name was "Pam." . Also recorded was Mathis being shown a photographic line-up in which he selected Petitioner's picture and identified him as the man he knew as "Hakeem." (Id. at min. 40).
The police continued to investigate the case and gather evidence to corroborate the information given to them by Mathis, among other individuals. In November 1997, Petitioner was charged with the murder of Cooley, the aggravated assault of Twillie, unlawfully carrying a firearm, and related crimes.
The trial court appointed John J. Moore, Esq., to represent Petitioner. The five-day jury trial commenced on September 25, 1998. In his opening statement, the prosecutor, Matthew R. Hayes, Esq., warned the jurors that the case was complicated for a number of reasons. One reason, Hayes explained, was that many of the witnesses had credibility issues:
You're going to hear from a number of people, unfortunately, that are not particularly the most sterling individuals in the community. Some of them are presently in jail. Some of them have done jail time. Some of them just may come across as not reputable, just not somebody you want to take home for dinner. That's something you're going to have to accept. We obviously don't pick and choose what witnesses see a particular crime. We go with the folks that are there, the folks that are at the establishment where the shooting takes place.... I'm going to ask you to keep an open mind.... Listen to what they're telling you. Listen ... see whether that information fits in with all the other people.
(Day 1 Trial Tr. at 13-14). Another complicating factor was that many of the witnesses had been afraid to come forward with information and did not want to testify against Petitioner. (Id. at 16). Yet another complicating factor, Hayes stated, was the fact that by the time of the trial, almost four years had expired since the shooting. (Id.) Hayes also predicted that some of the testimony given by witnesses who were at the bar at the time of the shooting would not be entirely consistent, but he told the jurors that when they evaluated the evidence against Petitioner as a whole, they would learn the relevant facts of the shooting:
To continue reading
Request your trial