ORDER DENYING PETITION FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORUPUS Petitioner Edward Lay was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in an Indiana state court. Mr. Lay now seeks a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Mr. Lay alleges that there is insufficient evidence to support his convictions and that his trial and appellate counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel in several respects. However, the Indiana Court of Appeals reasonably applied federal law in Mr. Lay's direct and post-conviction appeals. Therefore, Mr. Lay's petition for a writ of habeas corpus is denied, and a certificate of appealability will not issue.
Federal habeas review requires the Court to "presume that the state court's factual determinations are correct unless the petitioner rebuts the presumption by clear and convincing evidence." Perez-Gonzalez v. Lashbrook, 904 F.3d 557, 562 (7th Cir. 2018); see 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1). On direct appeal, the Indiana Court of Appeals summarized the relevant facts as follows:
In August 2011, Lay, estranged from his wife, was dating Mary Swift. Lay had recently moved into Mary's Fountain Square home in Indianapolis, in which Mary's nine-year-old daughter Alley, Mary's twenty-year-old daughter Brittany Swift, Brittany's one-year-old son, and Brittany's boyfriend Joshua Edenfield also lived.
On the evening of Thursday, August 11, 2011, Lay's longtime friend Ron Kortz and his fiancee Kelly Jinks went to Mary's house to celebrate their new home and Ron's acceptance back into college. Ron and Kelly arrived around 8:00 p.m. with a bottle of Patron tequila. They went to Mary and Lay's bedroom, which was the normal place to "hang out." Brittany joined the party while Josh was at work. After the Patron tequila was gone, Lay and Ron went to a friend's house to get more tequila. After the second bottle of tequila was gone, Ron went with Josh, who had just returned home from work, to the liquor store and bought two bottles of Bambitos tequila. Josh did not drink any alcohol that night.
Sometime during the night, nine-year-old Alley was awakened by Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" coming from the bedroom. She went downstairs to complain because she had school in the morning. Mary and Brittany asked Lay to turn down the music, but he refused. An argument ensued, and Mary and Brittany told Lay to leave. Lay refused, calling Mary and Brittany "fuc*ing bit* *es," "who*es," and "cun*s" who "couldn't tell him what to do." A shoving match ensued between Mary and Brittany and Lay. As Mary and Brittany inched Lay out the door, he grabbed a black bag that was inside a box. At the time, no one knew what was inside the black bag.
The arguing continued in the kitchen and then spilled out onto the back porch, where Lay continued to yell that Mary and Brittany could not make him leave. Brittany responded that Lay was being "disrespectful" and "need[ed] to go for the night" but "c[ould] come back tomorrow." Lay responded, "Well I got my 40, bit**." Lay then backed down the ramp from the back porch toward the area where the cars were parked. Josh tried to calm Lay down; however, Lay put a gun to Josh's face and said something that Josh could not understand. Josh swatted the gun away, saying, "Hey, I'm not down here to fight." Lay turned around and went to the passenger side of Kelly's car, where Ron and Kelly tried to get him inside.
The situation did not diffuse; rather, it escalated. Lay began threatening Brittany, so she swung at him and missed. Lay then hit Brittany in the face four or five times, which prompted her mother Mary to join the melee. Ron pulled Brittany away and brought her to where Josh was standing at the bottom of the ramp. Josh tried to corral Mary and bring her back toward the house, but he failed. Josh managed to move Brittany farther up the ramp as Mary yelled at Lay and hit him in retribution for hitting her daughter.
As Josh turned back toward the cars, he heard three or four gunshots that happened "so fast" and then saw Lay running away. He also saw Ron asking Kelly if she had been hit. Brittany, however, saw Lay push Mary down to her hands and knees, point the gun at her from behind, and then she heard gun shots. Brittany did not see Lay pull the trigger because she fell through a loose board on the ramp. Brittany ran toher mother. When Brittany realized her mother was not able to talk, she ran back to her sister, Alley, who was screaming on the back porch. Lay shot Mary, Kelly, and Ron. Josh called 911 to report the shootings.
Ron suffered a gunshot wound to his right shoulder. According to Ron, Lay shot him as he confronted Lay for shooting Kelly. Ron took a few steps and collapsed in the alley by Kelly. When Ron landed, he saw Mary on the ground near the car. Ron was taken to the hospital where he underwent surgery and was released a week later. He now has no feeling in his right arm and cannot hold a coffee cup in his right hand.
Mary and Kelly, however, suffered fatal wounds. Mary was dead when emergency personnel arrived. Mary suffered a gunshot wound to the top of her head. The bullet traveled downward and exited the right side of her forehead, lacerating her brain and fracturing her skull. Kelly was taken to the hospital but was pronounced dead a couple hours later. Kelly suffered a gunshot wound to her chest and left buttock. The gunshot wound to Kelly's chest perforated her diaphragm and lacerated her liver, causing blood accumulation in her right chest cavity. The other gunshot wound traveled across Kelly's pelvic cavity and landed in her right hip. Kelly died as a result of blood loss from both gunshot wounds.
The police apprehended Lay within a few blocks of the scene. Four spent shell casings were found at the scene.
Lay v. State, 986 N.E. 2d 865, 2013 WL 1838514, *1-2 (Ind. Ct. App. Apr. 30, 2013) ("Lay I") (internal record citations omitted). Mr. Lay was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder and sentenced to 140 years. Id. On direct appeal, he challenged the trial court's handling of a juror question, the sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions, and the appropriateness of his sentence. Id. at *3-8. The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed Mr. Lay's convictions and sentence, and the Indiana Supreme Court denied his petition for transfer. Dkt. 7-2 at 4.
Following his direct appeal, Mr. Lay filed a petition for post-conviction relief in state court. He asserted that both his trial and appellate counsel provided ineffective assistance of counsel in several respects. Lay v. State, 124 N.E.3d 648, 2019 WL 1721687 (Ind. Ct. App. Apr. 18, 2019) ("Lay II"). The trial court denied Mr. Lay's petition following a hearing, and the Indiana Court ofAppeals affirmed. Id. at *11. The Indiana Supreme Court denied Mr. Lay's petition to transfer. Dkt. 7-9 at 6.
Mr. Lay filed the instant petition for a writ of habeas corpus on September 3, 2019. He alleges (1) that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions; (2) that the trial court violated his right to due process with how it handled a jury question; and (3) that trial and appellate counsel were ineffective in various respects. Dkt. 1.
A federal court may grant habeas relief only if the petitioner demonstrates that he is in custody "in violation of the Constitution or laws . . . of the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a). The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA") directs how the Court must consider petitions for habeas relief under § 2254. "In considering habeas corpus petitions challenging state court convictions, [the Court's] review is governed (and greatly limited) by AEDPA." Dassey v. Dittmann, 877 F.3d 297, 301 (7th Cir. 2017) (en banc) (citation and quotation marks omitted). "The standards in 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) were designed to prevent federal habeas retrials and to ensure that state-court convictions are given effect to the extent possible under law." Id. (citation and quotation marks omitted).
A federal habeas court cannot grant relief unless the state court's adjudication of a federal claim on the merits:
(1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or
(2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.
28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).
"The decision federal courts look to is the last reasoned state-court decision to decide the merits of the case, even if the state's supreme court then denied discretionary review." Dassey, 877 F.3d at 302. "Deciding whether a state court's decision 'involved' an unreasonable application of federal law or 'was based on' an unreasonable determination of fact requires the federal habeas court to train its attention on the particular reasons—both legal and factual—why state courts rejected a state prisoner's federal claims, and to give appropriate deference to that decision[.]" Wilson v. Sellers, 138 S. Ct. 1188, 1191-92 (2018) (citation and quotation marks omitted). "This is a straightforward inquiry when the last state court to decide a prisoner's federal claim explains its decision on the merits in a reasoned opinion." Id. "In that case, a federal habeas court simply reviews the specific reasons given by the state court and defers to those reasons if they are reasonable." Id.
"For purposes of § 2254(d)(1), an unreasonable application of federal law is different from an incorrect application of federal law." Harrington v. Richter, 562 U.S. 86, 101 (2011). "A state court's determination that a claim lacks merit precludes federal habeas relief so long as fairminded...
