Leachman v. Winn

• Decision Date: 14 December 2017
• Docket Number: Civil No. 2:16-CV-12417
• Parties: CURTIS R. LEACHMAN, Petitioner, v. THOMAS WINN, Respondent
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan

CURTIS R. LEACHMAN, Petitioner, v. THOMAS WINN, Respondent

Civil No. 2:16-CV-12417

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION

December 14, 2017

HONORABLE BERNARD A. FRIEDMAN UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

OPINION AND ORDER DENYING THE PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, DECLINING TO ISSUE A CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY, AND DENYING LEAVE TO APPEAL IN FORMA PAUPERIS

Curtis R. Leachman, ("Petitioner"), confined at the Saginaw Correctional Facility in Freeland, Michigan, filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In his application, filed pro se, petitioner challenges his convictions for second-degree murder, M.C.L.A. 750.317; and carrying a weapon with unlawful intent, M.C.L.A. 750.226. For the reasons that follow, the petition for writ of habeas corpus is DENIED.

I. Background

Petitioner was originally charged with first-degree murder and carrying a weapon with unlawful intent. Following a jury trial in the Isabella County Circuit Court, petitioner was convicted of the lesser included offense of second-degree murder and guilty as charged of the weapons offense.

This Court recites verbatim the relevant facts relied upon by the Michigan Court of Appeals, which are presumed correct on habeas review pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1). See Wagner v. Smith, 581 F.3d 410, 413 (6th Cir. 2009):

I. STATEMENT OF FACTS¹

A. BACKGROUND

On November 9, 2012, Leachman, then 25 years old, moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Isabella County that was leased by Valerie Sprague. The building that housed the apartment had retail space on the first floor and two apartments on the second floor. The apartments were labeled apartment A and apartment B;² Leachman lived in apartment A.³ Leachman was permitted to rent the spare bedroom in that apartment because Sprague was injured and was temporarily unable to live there. Sprague instructed Leachman to keep the apartment clean, not to have any parties, and to stay out of her bedroom. Leachman, however, allowed his then-close friend, Brandon Harner, to live in the apartment with him and sleep in Sprague's bedroom.⁴

B. NOVEMBER 23-24, 2012

On November 23, 2012, Harner arrived home in the early evening after spending time with a woman who he had been dating. Harner encountered Leachman outside, near the apartment. The two men returned to the apartment together and talked for about 25 minutes. Leachman told Harner about his plans for the evening, which included seeing a woman who Leachman had been dating. After they finished talking, Leachman left the apartment and did not return for several hours.

Once Leachman returned home, he and Harner remained in the apartment for some time. At approximately 10:00 p.m., Leachman and Harner heard a bang on the wall outside of his apartment. When Leachman checked to see what caused the noise, the hallway was empty, but a hole had been made in the wall to the left of the apartment's front door. Leachman grabbed a bucket of drywall from his apartment, walked down to apartment B, and asked its occupant, Reyes Hinojosa Jr., who was going to fix the hole. Hinojosa appeared intoxicated. The conversation betweenLeachman and Hinojosa started off calm, but then escalated. There was an exchange of words, which included obscenities, and Leachman threw down the bucket of drywall. Leachman then picked up the bucket, and returned to his apartment. The interaction with Hinojosa lasted about two minutes.

Sometime after midnight on November 24, 2012, someone pounded on the door of Leachman's apartment. Leachman answered the door, seemingly upset about the banging. Hinojosa, Tyrone Stanley, and Chino Alaniz were in the hallway.⁵ Taylor Gepford and Alsina Waboose were behind them. Harner remained inside of the apartment, a couple of feet from the door. The conversation between Leachman and the three men started off calm. Leachman and Stanley then began arguing. Stanley threatened to beat up Leachman, and the two men discussed where Harner's loyalty would lie if Leachman and Stanley fought. It was Harner's impression that because Leachman allowed Harner to live in the apartment, Leachman wanted Harner to side with him. Harner, however, told Stanley and Leachman that he would not choose sides because he was friends with both of them. Gepford encouraged Leachman and Stanley to fight.⁶ The conversation lasted less than five minutes and ended without a physical altercation. After Leachman closed the door, he purportedly overheard Hinojosa, Stanley, and Alaniz discussing the need to get additional people to come to the building.⁷ Leachman told Harner that he was not a good friend because he would not fight for him. At that time, it was obvious to Harner that Leachman wanted to fight.

Approximately 15 minutes later, Leachman told Harner that he wanted to go to Michael and Jacob Partie's house to see Leachman's brothers, Ethan and Andrew. Leachman and Harner walked to the Parties's house, which was five minutes away, but Ethan and Andrew were not there. Leachman then attempted to recruit people to come back to his apartment because he believed that he was going to get "jumped"⁸.⁹ Joe Babosh agreed to return to Leachman's apartment, so Leachman, Harner, and Babosh walked back.

Harner wanted to remove himself and Babosh from the situation and discourageLeachman from pursuing a fight. As such, once they returned to the apartment, Harner lied to Babosh and told him that there were eight people interested in fighting Leachman.¹⁰ Around 4:00 a.m., Babosh heard yelling and banging on the walls outside of Leachman's apartment. As a result, Babosh called Caleb Donley to pick him and Harner up. Donley arrived at Leachman's apartment shortly thereafter with Nicole Coan, Karena Tucker, and Stephanie Alwood. Donley and Alwood entered apartment A, and greeted Leachman, Harner, and Babosh. Alwood then went and spoke with Stanley who was standing outside of the door to apartment B. Donley stayed in apartment A and teased Leachman, Harner, and Babosh for hiding in the apartment.¹¹ Donley then joined Coan, Tucker, and Alwood, outside of apartment B and spoke with Stanley. Donley had been concerned that Leachman was going to get "jumped," but Stanley told him that he intended to fight Leachman one-on-one.

Over the course of the evening, people became aware of the possibility that Stanley and Leachman may fight, so there were many people congregating in the hallway between apartments A and B. Leachman eventually exited his apartment and he and Stanley began exchanging words from opposite ends of the hall. The situation began to escalate, so Harner briefly went to speak with Stanley, who was near apartment B, in an effort to alleviate the tension. The exchange of negative words continued between Leachman and Stanley; Stanley being more verbal than Leachman. According to Leachman, Stanley then removed a gun that he had in his waistband and handed it to Hinojosa, who pointed it at Leachman.¹² Stanley joked with Alaniz that he needed a belt to use on Leachman, so Alaniz handed Stanley his belt.¹³ Leachman then went inside of apartment A, purportedly to retrieve a knife for his protection. It was the impression of several witnesses that the confrontation was over at that time.

Within a minute, Leachman exited apartment A, passed the stairwell, and headedtoward Stanley, who was by the door of apartment B. Leachman stopped approximately eight feet from Stanley and continued arguing with him. Stanley then approached Leachman and they continued to exchange words. Then Stanley (with a belt in hand), and Leachman (holding a knife) simultaneously advanced toward each other. Leachman then stabbed Stanley in his left armpit region, and also inflicted minor knife wounds to Stanley's left shoulder and left cheek.¹⁴ Leachman reported to law enforcement that he only used light force when he stabbed Stanley in the armpit and believed that he penetrated Stanley's skin an inch to an inch and a quarter. However, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy testified that the wound to Stanley's armpit was over four inches deep.

After the stabbing, Leachman returned to apartment A with the bloody knife in hand. Stanley returned to apartment B and collapsed outside of the bathroom. Waboose called 911 at approximately 4:21 a.m. about 10 minutes after the stabbing.¹⁵ Alaniz and Gepford applied pressure to Stanley's wound until Stanley stopped breathing, which was shortly before the ambulance arrived at 4:38 a.m.¹⁶ The knife that killed Stanley was identified as a decorative knife belonging to Sprague that was one of a pair of knives that fit together and were kept on a stand in Sprague's bedroom.

Harner, Babosh, Alwood, Coan, Tucker, and Donley immediately left the building, and Donley drove them all to the Parties's house. Leachman arrived at the Parties's house shortly thereafter looking for Harner. Many of those at the Parties's house had become aware of the stabbing, and Leachman was told that Harner did not want to speak with him. Tucker overheard Leachman say "Where are the witnesses at? I'm going to stab them." Tucker responded by shouting to no particular person that Leachman was going to kill them. Leachman was escorted out of the house, at which time he told Jacob Partie that Stanley was hitting him with a belt, and he did not know what else to do.

C. INVESTIGATION

After leaving the Parties's house, Leachman returned to his apartment building. The police were present. Leachman was detained without incident in a patrol car for questioning, and was transported to the police department. Leachman did not identify himself as the person who stabbed Stanley, but rather was detained becausehe lived in the building. While being questioned regarding what happened that evening, Leachman recommended to Officers Nathan Koutz and Dale Hawks, two of the investigating officers, that they look for a gun in apartment B. Police recovered parts of a plastic air soft gun from inside

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