In re Personal Restraint of Knox
| Decision Date | 28 April 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. 52971-8-II,52971-8-II |
| Court | Washington Court of Appeals |
| Parties | In the Matter of the Personal Restraint of BRADLEY DAVID KNOX, Petitioner. |
MAXA, J. - In this personal restraint petition (PRP), Bradley Knox seeks relief from personal restraint imposed following his convictions of unlawful possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine) with intent to deliver, a violation of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act (VUCSA); two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm; bail jumping; and solicitation to commit first degree murder.
Knox's unlawful possession with intent to deliver, unlawful possession of a firearm, and bail jumping convictions arose from a search warrant executed by the Longview Police Department (LPD) at Knox's residence. Knox's solicitation to commit first degree murder conviction arose from conversations he had after his arrest with an informant in the Cowlitz County Jail.
Knox argues that (1) the State violated the Brady1 rule when it failed to disclose certain impeachment evidence regarding the informant and exculpatory evidence on his VUCSA charge regarding a person named Cassandra Crimmins, (2) there were multiple conflicts of interestinvolving the Cowlitz Office of Public Defense attorneys who represented Knox that denied Knox his right to effective assistance of counsel, (3) the entire Cowlitz County Prosecuting Attorney's Office should have been disqualified from his case because the elected prosecutor and his chief criminal deputy had disqualifying conflicts of interest, (4) Knox's right to an impartial judge was violated because the trial judge previously had represented the informant, (5) the trial court erred in not giving a true threat instruction in conjunction with the solicitation charge, (6) the State violated Knox's due process rights by failing to tie up impeachment questions it asked Knox, (7) there was insufficient evidence to support the possession with intent to deliver conviction because Knox's admission that he was a drug dealer could not be considered under the corpus delicti rule, (8) Knox's trial counsel provided ineffective assistance of counsel in a number of ways, (9) cumulative error deprived Knox of a fair trial, and (10) Knox's appellate counsel provided ineffective assistance of counsel in a number of ways.
We hold that Knox's claims have no merit or that he cannot show actual and substantial prejudice resulting from any errors. Accordingly, we deny Knox's PRP.
In January 2014, the LPD's Street Crimes Unit executed a search warrant at 909 California Way in Longview. On the property was a motor home, owned by Knox, and a storage building containing a loft area where Christian Sullivan resided. Officers observed Knox leaving the property in a vehicle, and they stopped the vehicle and detained him. Knox had $2,405 on his person. According to one officer, Knox stated that he lived in the motor home, said how much meth there would be inside and where to find it, and that he was a lower-end drug dealer.
In the motor home, police seized 27.4 grams of methamphetamine, two handguns, and drug paraphernalia, including cellphones, plastic bags, and a digital scale. In the storage building, police seized firearms.
While officers were searching the motor home and storage building, Sullivan arrived in a vehicle. Officers stopped the vehicle and detained Sullivan and his three passengers, including Robert Tubbs. Methamphetamine was discovered during a search incident to their arrest.
The State charged Knox with unlawful possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine) with intent to deliver and two counts of first degree unlawful possession of a firearm. Knox later was charged with bail jumping when he failed to appear for court.
The State charged Sullivan with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, second degree unlawful possession of a firearm, and first degree possession of stolen property. He pleaded guilty to all three charges.
The State charged Tubbs with attempted possession of methamphetamine and later bail jumping. He pleaded guilty to the attempted possession charge.
In August, Knox was driving with Hailey Crookshanks in his car when they got into an argument. Knox believed that Crookshanks was trying to steal his phone. According to Crookshanks, Knox started yelling at her and calling her profane names. Crookshanks started screaming for help, and a motorist stopped next to their vehicle and called the police. The State charged Knox with unlawful imprisonment.
Knox was detained in the Cowlitz County Jail. In September, a confidential informant also housed in the jail came forward with information concerning Knox. The informant statedthat Knox had approached him and solicited him to kill Crookshanks, Crimmins, and Steven Walker, Crimmins's boyfriend. According to the informant, Knox initiated most of the conversations and the informant would just be listening. The informant understood Knox would pay him for the work in cash and discounts on drugs.
According to the informant, Knox was upset with Crimmins and Walker because he had given them money to take on the charges against him for possession of methamphetamine and guns at his house. Knox became angry with Crimmins and Walker because they had not yet come forward. Because Crimmins and Walker had used the money to buy a truck, Knox suggested that their truck be "[b]lown up or run off the road or something." Report of Proceedings (RP) at 606.
With respect to Crookshanks, the informant stated that Knox "said the best thing to do with her because she's a heroin addict would be to give her a bad shot or shove her down the stairs where she lives at because nobody pay any difference." RP at 605.
The informant testified that he came forward with this information for two reasons. First, "Knox was asking everybody in . . . jail to kill those guys for him," and "if [he] allowed that to continue without doing something about it" he would be "no better than [Knox] is." RP at 631-32. Second, the informant testified that he was hoping to get a benefit from this information as well.
After coming forward with the information regarding Knox, the informant agreed to wear a body wire to record his conversations with Knox. In October 2014, the informant recorded a conversation with Knox in the jail through the body wire. The State played portions of the audio recording at trial. On the wire, Knox can be heard asking the informant to kill Walker. There was no discussion on the wire of killing Crimmins or Crookshanks.
The State charged Knox with three counts of solicitation to commit first degree murder relating to Crimmins, Walker, and Crookshanks.
At trial, defense counsel cross-examined the informant about his previous contracts with the LPD's Street Crimes Unit and underlying motivations for coming forward. The informant acknowledged that he previously had worked as a confidential informant but was back in jail on drug charges. He testified that he had four outstanding criminal charges for two counts of possession with intent to deliver in a school bus zone, possession of methamphetamine, and tampering with evidence. By informing on Knox, the informant expressly stated he was hoping to get a benefit.
Before trial, Knox was represented by three different defense counsel. In January 2014, Cowlitz Office of Public Defense (OPD) attorney Josh Baldwin was appointed to represent Knox. In February, Baldwin had to withdraw from representing Knox. Baldwin cited conflict with Thad Scudder - a fellow OPD attorney representing Sullivan, a codefendant in Knox's VUCSA case - as the reason for his withdrawal.
Kevin Blondin then was appointed to represent Knox. In October 2014, Blondin withdrew from representing Knox at a trial readiness hearing, citing an inability to adequately communicate with Knox.
Baldwin once again was appointed to represent Knox. In a declaration, Baldwin explained that the OPD maintained a process for checking for conflicts at that time. According to Baldwin, when the public defender's office was appointed to represent someone, the clerk would send a list of cases to Terry Mulligan, OPD's director. Ex. 32 at 756. Mulligan then would check for conflicts. When Baldwin received Knox's VUCSA case back from Blondin, heassumed that Mulligan had done a new conflicts check. Mulligan may have thought that Sullivan's case had resolved and there no longer was a conflict.
In March 2015, Scudder appeared on behalf of Baldwin for Knox to request that a hearing be set over. In or around April, the State moved to join Knox's VUCSA case with his two other cases involving unlawful imprisonment and solicitation to commit first degree murder. Baldwin represented Knox in filing a motion opposing the joinder of all three cases.
In May, Baldwin left the OPD. At that time, OPD attorney Simmie Baer was appointed to represent Knox in all three cases. Baer represented Knox up until his appeal. In her declaration, Baer stated that she assumed that when she took over Knox's cases that any issues about conflicts of interest had already been resolved.
Ryan Jurvakainen was an OPD attorney. Previously, Jurvakainen had been appointed to represent Tubbs in the case arising from the search warrant executed at Knox's residence. Jurvakainen later withdrew from representing Tubbs because OPD was then representing the listed co-defendant.
In November 2014, Jurvakainen was elected Prosecutor of Cowlitz County. Thomas Ladouceur, another OPD attorney, became Jurvakainen's chief criminal deputy. Previously, Ladouceur had represented the informant in two separate matters: a probation violation in 2012; and drug charges and evidence tampering in 2014. In September 2014, Ladouceur had moved to withdraw from the second matter.
Jurvakainen...
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