Hughes v. Biter
| Decision Date | 27 June 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 1:14-cv-01237-LJO-SKO HC,1:14-cv-01237-LJO-SKO HC |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California |
| Parties | BERNARD C. HUGHES, Petitioner, v. MARTIN BITER, Warden, Respondent. |
(Docs. 1, 34, and 35)
Petitioner is a state prisoner proceeding pro se with a petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254.
At about 3:00 p.m. on May 1, 2008, Bill and Janet Whitla returned from vacation to their ranch near Hornitas, California (Mariposa County). As they drove into the property, the Whitlas saw an unfamiliar Chevy flatbed truck next to their garage. Janet Whitla recognized Petitioner as the driver. Petitioner said, "Rick," and twice pointed toward the house before driving away. As he left, Janet saw some of Bill's equipment on Petitioner's truck bed. Bill turned his truck around and followed Petitioner.
The Whitlas eventually encountered Petitioner's truck abandoned on the side of the road and used their truck's OnStar security system to call the Sheriff's Department. While the Whitlas were speaking with the OnStar operator, Petitioner's girlfriend, Tami Turner, drove up. In response to Janet's questions, Turner confirmed that the truck belonged to Petitioner but insisted that Janet could not have seen Petitioner driving it since he had been home in bed with her. Janet did not argue with Turner, who appeared intoxicated. Turner left.
When sheriff's deputies arrived, the Whitlas identified a number of items on the truck as having been taken from their house and garage, including an air compressor, a generator, jewelry valued at $2000, a loaded Colt pistol, and various other personal items. Deputies searched the cab and found bolt cutters, a pry bar, and leather gloves with fresh sweat stains. Later forensics testing confirmed that the bolt cutter had been used to cut the chain that connected the air compressor and generator to the Whitlas' garage wall. The gloves yielded a partial DNA sample consistent with Petitioner's DNA.
Deputies determined that the burglar entered the Whitlas' home through the open garage. They concluded that the burglar had removed the screen from the door to the house, reached inside, and disengaged the door lock, possibly by using a pry bar.
After investigating the Whitlas' home, deputies went to Turner's home to look for Petitioner. Petitioner was not there. Turner and the Whitlas' ranch caretaker, Rick Skavdahl, were there together; both were intoxicated.
Skavdahl lived in a trailer on the Whitlas' ranch. Before leaving on vacation, the Whitlas told Skavdahl of their plan to return on May 3, 2008. When they returned home early on May 1, they saw and waved to Skavdahl while they picked up their mail in Hornitas before heading out to the ranch.
/// The next day, the Whitlas found a cigarette butt on the garage floor and secured it in a sealed envelope. Janet delivered the envelope to the sheriff's office in Mariposa. DNA extracted from the cigarette butt matched Petitioner's DNA.
Petitioner was not apprehended until May 30, 2008. Deputies found him under the bed in Turner's master bedroom. Behind Turner's front door, near the door to the bedroom, deputies found a 30/30 rifle in a scabbard. In the living room, deputies found a box containing documents and a suitcase, both belonging to Petitioner. A white Dodge Caliber was found parked behind Turner's house: a folder and prescription bottle bearing Petitioner's name were inside. Petitioner had the key to the Dodge in his pocket when he was arrested.
The Dodge had a Kansas license plate that had been issued to another vehicle. The Dodge's vehicle identification number indicated that it was owned by a Los Angeles car rental company. At trial, the parties stipulated that the rental company had reported the Dodge stolen on May 11, 2008.
Petitioner's comments were recorded during the ride to jail. With regard to the rifle, Petitioner said, "I seen a coyote the other night fucking coming up to get the chickens . . . [s]o I took a pretty good shot at him."
Petitioner admitted that he knew the Dodge was stolen. During a sheriff's department interview, Petitioner explained that he had borrowed the Dodge from a friend and had planned to return it. When Turner told him the car had been reported stolen, however, Petitioner decided to keep it since he needed a vehicle. He obtained the Kansas plate from a friend to replace the California plates that had been on the Dodge.
Lillian Donato, who had been Turner's friend, testified that Turner provided her with beer to induce her to lie and tell defense counsel that she had seen someone other than Petitioner getting out of the truck near Hornitos.
The parties stipulated that Petitioner was a convicted felon before May 1, 2008.
Petitioner conceded his ownership of the flatbed truck used in the burglary and the Whitlas' ownership of the property found on it, but denied committing the May 1, 2008, burglary. He maintained that Janet Whitla, who admittedly had only seen the driver for a few seconds, misidentified Petitioner as the truck's driver. In his testimony, Charles Cahoone, the defense investigator, contrasted Janet's initial description of the driver with details she added in later interviews and her trial testimony. The defense also presented expert testimony regarding problems associated with perception, memory, and eyewitness identification.
Cahoone testified that when he interviewed Donato in 2008 and 2009, she told him that she saw Petitioner's truck near the Whitla ranch and saw someone other than Petitioner get out of the driver's door. The person Donato saw was a short, heavy-set White male with short spiked hair. Cahoone never heard the claim that Turner had bribed Donato to give a false alibi until he interviewed Donato in April 2010.
Defense experts testified that DNA testing excluded Petitioner as a contributor to DNA samples extracted from a sweatshirt found in the truck and a beanie found in the Whitlas' garage after the burglary.
Turner testified that she and Petitioner awoke early on May 1, 2008, to spray thistle. They returned to the house and were sitting outside when Skavdahl and Humberto "Cheeto" Arteaga stopped by. After Skavdahl and Arteaga left, Turner and Petitioner went to bed, had sex, and fell asleep. Turner woke up to the sound of Petitioner's truck. She ran outside, saw the truck going up the road, dressed, and set out in her car to follow the truck. She found it crashed into a bank with the Whitlas parked behind it. Turner told them that it was Petitioner's truck but that he was still home in bed.
Turner returned home, woke Petitioner, and told him that the sheriff was coming because his truck had been used in a burglary. Petitioner said he was not going back to jail for something he didn't do and ran off. He did not return to Turner's home until May 30, 2008.
Turner denied that she tried to bribe Donato to say she saw someone else driving Petitioner's truck. She also dismissed Petitioner's claim that he had shot a coyote with the 30/30 rifle in her home. Turner testified that the rifle had belonged to her father and that she had no ammunition for it in her home.
In January 2010, Petitioner filed a complaint and an emergency grievance with the Mariposa County Sheriff's Department concerning the prison administration's ability to monitor his conferences with his attorney in the prison visiting room, which was not soundproof. On January 13, 2010, the sheriff found that the complaint did not meet the requirements for an emergency grievance but directed that adjacent phones and speakers be turned off during Petitioner's meetings with his attorney.
In May 2010, Petitioner was tried in Mariposa County Superior Court. A jury convicted him of (1) residential burglary (Cal. Penal Code § 459), (2) two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm (Cal. Penal Code § 12021(a)(1)), (3) being a felon in possession of ammunition (Cal. Penal Code § 12315(b)(1)), (4) receiving stolen property (Cal. Penal Code § 496(a)),and (5) falsifying a license plate (Cal. Vehicle Code § 4463(a)(1)). The trial court found true allegations that Petitioner had two prior serious felony convictions (Cal. Penal Code § 667(a)(1)), two prior strike convictions (Cal. Penal Code §§ 667(b)-(i) and 1170.12(a) and (d)), and four prison terms (Cal. Penal Code § 667.5(b)). The court sentenced Petitioner to an aggregate prison term of 88 years to life.
/// Petitioner filed a direct appeal to the California Court of Appeals. In a May 16, 2013, decision, the court of appeals affirmed Petitioner's convictions but remanded for sentence modification. The California Supreme Court denied the petition for review on September 11, 2013.
In January 2014, Petitioner filed a writ of habeas corpus with the Mariposa County Superior Court. On February 6, 2014, the superior court denied the petition, finding that it failed to establish a prima facie case for relief. The Court of Appeal summarily denied the petition on March 14, 2014; the California Supreme Court summarily denied the petition on June 18, 2014.
On August 7, 2014, Petitioner filed a habeas petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. On April 30, 2015, the Court dismissed two state claims over which it had no jurisdiction.2
A person in custody as a result of the judgment of a state court may secure relief through a petition for habeas corpus if the custody violates the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a); Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 375 (2000). On April 24, 1996, Congress enacted the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), which applies to all petitions for writ of habeas corpus filed thereafter. Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 322-23 (1997). Under the statutory terms, the petition in this case is governed by AEDPA's...
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