Hicks v. Tripp

• Decision Date: 17 February 2023
• Docket Number: 22-CV-1016 CJW-MAR
• Parties: EDDIE HICKS, Petitioner, v. CHRIS TRIPP, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa

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EDDIE HICKS, Petitioner, v. CHRIS TRIPP, Respondent.

No. 22-CV-1016 CJW-MAR

United States District Court, N.D. Iowa, Eastern Division

February 17, 2023

ORDER DISMISSING PETITION

UNDER 28 U.S.C. § 2254

C.J Williams United States District Judge

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................4

II. BACKGROUND ..........................................................................4

A. The Crime, Trial, and Appeal ..........................................................................4

B. Petitioner's First State Post Conviction Relief Case ..........................................................................8

C. Petitioner's Second State PCR Case ..........................................................................10

D. Petitioner's Federal PCR Case ..........................................................................11

III. STANDARDS FOR SECTION 2254 HABEAS CORPUS RELIEF ..........................................................................12

IV. LEGAL STANDARDS..........................................................................14

A. FED. R. CIV. P. 8 ..........................................................................14

B. FED. R. CIV. P 12(b)(1)..........................................................................14

C. FED. R. CIV. P. 12(b)(6)..........................................................................15

D. Pro Se Pleadings ..........................................................................17

V. PETITIONER'S GROUNDS FOR RELIEF ..........................................................................17

VI. DISCUSSION..........................................................................19

A. Approaches to Mixed Petitions ..........................................................................19

B. Petitioner's Unexhausted Claims ..........................................................................20

C. Petitioner's Exhausted Claims ..........................................................................21

1. Alleged Brady Violation ..........................................................................22

2. Alleged Miranda Violations ..........................................................................25

a. Petitioner's First Statements at the Hospital ..........................................................................26

b. Petitioner's Statement the Following Day ..........................................................................26

3. Alleged Ineffective Assistance of Counsel .........................................................................30

a. Failing to Evaluate or Obtain an Expert on. Glass Shards ..........................................................................32

b. Discovery of the Glass Shards .........................................................................33

c. Failure to Obtain Expert to Testify About Petitioner's PTSD ..........................................................................34

d. Petitioner's Post-Conviction Ineffective Assistance Claims ..........................................................................36

4. Alleged Insufficient Evidence..........................................................................36

a. Sufficiency of the Evidence on Intoxication Defense Theory ..........................................................................38

b. Sufficiency of the Evidence on the Self-Defense Claim Theory ..........................................................................41

VII. CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY..........................................................................43

VIII. CONCLUSION ..........................................................................44

I. INTRODUCTION

This matter is before the Court on respondent's December 5, 2022 motion to dismiss petitioner Eddie Hicks' (“petitioner”) Petition Under Title 28, United States Code, Section 2254 for Writ of Habeas Corpus by a Person in State Custody. (Docs. 17; 20). After petitioner failed to respond to the motion, on January 5, 2023, the Court ordered him to show cause by January 31, 2023, why the Court should not dismiss his case. (Doc. 21). On January 10, 2023, petitioner filed a response. (Doc. 22). On January 12, 2023, petitioner filed a supplement to his response, attaching a request for production of documents he filed in a state court post-conviction relief petition. (Doc. 23). On January 17, 2023, petitioner filed a “Motion to move forward,” which the Clerk of Court appropriately filed, and the Court interprets as a response to the Court's order requiring him to show cause for why he failed to timely respond to respondent's motion to dismiss. (Doc. 24).

For the following reasons, the Court grants petitioner's “Motion to move forward” (Doc. 24) and accepts his untimely response and supplemental response. The Court also grants respondent's motion to dismiss (Docs. 17; 20), denies petitioner's petition for habeas relief (Doc. 1) and enters judgment against petitioner and in favor of respondent.

II. BACKGROUND

A. The Crime, Trial, and Appeal

On direct appeal from his state court conviction for first degree murder, the Iowa Court of Appeals summarized the pertinent facts and procedural history up to that point in time. State v. Hicks, No. 17-0130, 2018 WL 1433788 (Iowa Ct. App. Mar. 21, 2018). Having reviewed the state court documents (Doc. 15), the Court finds this recitation accurate and repeats it here.

Hicks and Lemon began dating in 2006 in Chicago. They had a tumultuous relationship marked by infidelity and abuse. They separated after an argument in May 2015. Around Memorial Day that year Hicks called Lemon's mother threatening to “flatten [Lemon's] head into a pancake” and saying “[Lemon] is going to be one daughter [she] don't have anymore.” Hicks also said he recently discovered Lemon had misrepresented how old she was and because she was underage when their relationship began, Hicks expressed concern he “could be doing time as a result.” Around the same time, Hicks called Lemon's sister with this dark message: “[Y]ou all going to catch you all sister in the casket; tell your mama to get this casket ready.”

Hicks and Lemon reconciled on June 12, 2015. They took a bus from Chicago to Dubuque four days later. When they arrived in Dubuque, according to Hicks, “everything was fine.” But Hicks later began to feel faint and sought medical attention. The next day started off as uneventful. Lemon went to work; later they picked up Hicks's medication, ate, smoked marijuana, and napped.

Hicks later said that upon waking up, he accessed Facebook on his phone, prompting an argument with Lemon. According to Hicks, he got up and went into the bathroom and Lemon threw a phone at him. Then the fight turned physical and Hicks recalled Lemon trying to hit him with a frying pan and stab him with a paring knife. Hicks said he returned Lemon's attacks.

Eventually, he fled the apartment and demanded water and alcohol from neighbors. A witness hanging out with friends at another apartment said she heard “somebody was yelling for help” and found Hicks with “blood all over him.” She went to get water, but when she came back, Hicks was demanding alcohol, or “otherwise he's going to kill [them.]” Another witness gave Hicks a half-full bottle of Paramount rum and he “chugged it all.”

Police responded to two 911 calls reporting a stabbing. One of the callers reported Hicks falling from a ten-foot retaining wall outside the apartment building. In an alley near Lemon's apartment, officers found Hicks sitting on the ground, bleeding from “a couple stab wounds.” As the squad car pulled up, the first responding officer planned to render medical aid, but then she saw Hicks “scooting” toward her. Hicks started to grab the officer's leg and try to force his way into her squad car, so she pinned him against the door and sprayed him with mace. The second officer to arrive observed that Hicks's conduct veered from erratic to calm. Hicks was able to answer the officer when asked for his first and last names, where he was staying, and what happened. Hicks said he'd been “stabbed up.” Hicks also identified Kahdyesha as the person who stabbed him.

Emergency medical personnel loaded Hicks onto a cot and into an ambulance. He was handcuffed to the cot and a police officer rode along in the ambulance to the hospital. An emergency room doctor described Hicks as “intermittently agitated” and recalled at times “his language was difficult to understand” and other times he “spoke very clearly.” Hicks had benzodiazepines, alcohol, and phencyclidine (PCP) in his system, according to a toxicology report.

Before he was sedated by medical staff so they could treat his injuries, Hicks spoke briefly with Officer Cory Tuegel in the emergency room. Tuegel asked Hicks just seven questions, starting with “what happened?” Hicks responded: “I loved her too much.” Hicks clarified he was talking about his girlfriend, Kahdyesha Lemon. Hicks said Lemon was “home sleeping” but also acknowledged she suffered stab wounds. Hicks soon ended the conversation.

Back at the apartment building, officers discovered Lemon outside suffering from more than one-hundred incised stab wounds. Inside the apartment, the floors were so soaked in blood that it was difficult for officers to keep their footing. Blood splatter glazed the walls of the bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. An officer testified he could not remember an area of the home not covered in blood. Officers found a bent frying pan matted with hair and blood. Officers also located a paring knife on the bed and later discovered two of Lemon's teeth, with the “whole root” attached, under the...