Lott v. Woods
| Decision Date | 30 June 2011 |
| Docket Number | CASE NO. 08-14367 |
| Parties | BRIAN LOTT, Petitioner, v. JEFFREY WOODS, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan |
BRIAN LOTT, Petitioner,
v.
JEFFREY WOODS, Respondent.
CASE NO. 08-14367
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION
Dated: June 30, 2011
Petitioner Brian Lott has applied for the writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The habeas petition challenges Petitioner's convictions for possession with intent to deliver cocaine and conspiracy to possess with intent to deliver cocaine. The grounds for relief are (1) ineffective assistance of trial counsel, (2) prosecutorial misconduct, (3) denial of the right to confront witnesses, and (4) cumulative effect of errors. Respondent Jeffrey Woods urges the Court to deny the petition. Having reviewed the pleadings and record, the Court finds that the state court's rejection of Petitioner's claims was reasonable. Accordingly, the habeas petition will be denied.
I. BACKGROUND
A. The Facts
The facts leading to the charges against Petitioner have been summarized by the state court as follows:
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On February 11, 2004, in response to information regarding potential narcotics trafficking, Deputy Kenneth Rumps of the Macomb County Sheriff's Department began surveillance of a 2003 Chevy Blazer located in the parking lot of the Extended Stay Hotel in Roseville, Michigan. About 9:00 p.m., Rumps observed Ronnie Kevin Turrentine leave the hotel, enter the Blazer, and drive away. After calling for backup, Rumps followed the Blazer and observed Turrentine make a series of traffic infractions. Because Rumps was in an unmarked car, he notified an officer in a marked car to pull over the Blazer for a traffic stop.
Rumps and other officers arriving on the scene conducted a normal traffic stop. After learning that Turrentine was from another state and driving a rental car and receiving evasive answers from Turrentine regarding his reasons for visiting Detroit, the officers grew suspicious. Two officers had police dogs with them, and they had the dogs conduct exterior sniffs of the Blazer to locate narcotics. Both dogs indicated that they smelled narcotics near the rear driver's side tire and wheel well of the Blazer and under the vehicle's carpeted trunk. When searching the vehicle, the officers noticed that the bolts used to hold the gas tank to the undercarriage of the Blazer looked unusually clean and were covered in fresh grease. The officers also noticed scuff marks near the gas tank. An officer in possession of a fiber-optic scope threaded the scope through the opening of the gas tank and noticed white packages with black zip ties inside the tank. The officers immediately drove the Blazer to the Oakland County Sheriff's Department Central Garage, where garage mechanics removed the gas tank and found 22 heat-sealed bricks of cocaine inside.1
The officers also confiscated a key to Room 328 of the Extended Stay Hotel from Turrentine. Room 328 was registered to Turrentine on the night in question. Rumps immediately contacted other officers to begin surveillance of Room 328 and returned to the hotel. Eventually, [Petitioner] and Kareem Dale Rhodes attempted to enter Room 328. The officers detained them and escorted them to the room across the hall, where they confiscated a key to Room 328 of the Extended Stay Hotel found in their possession.
When defendant admitted that he had driven to the hotel, the officers asked to search his vehicle. Defendant said that he was driving a Ford Taurus and permitted the officers to take his car keys. The officers located the vehicle in the parking lot, and a police dog performing an exterior sniff of the car identified the scent of narcotics at the back of the trunk and on the driver's side door handle. The officers, including Rumps, opened the trunk
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and found a toolbox with miscellaneous tools, a red bucket, nylon pants, and a nylon jacket inside. The red bucket contained a box of natural latex disposable gloves, a pair of size 12 Neoprene shoes, a hat, a sponge, and more nylon clothing. Among the tools in the box was a 15-millimeter socket with grease in it and a 15-millimeter wrench.2 The trunk also contained two heat sealers of different sizes, rolls of FoodSaver plastic in a plastic bag, rubber bands, a box cutter razor knife, and a black handheld bag with a red zip tie containing three plastic rolls and an extension cord.
After searching the Taurus, the officers transported defendant and Rhodes to the Macomb County Jail, where Detective Sergeant Terrance Mekoski of the Oakland County Sheriff's Department questioned them. Defendant told Mekoski that he was from California and had arrived in Michigan the previous day to meet a female. When Mekoski asked for the female's name, defendant paused and then replied "Veronica." Defendant claimed that he arrived at Detroit Metro Airport the day before, rented the Taurus, and drove to Veronica's apartment on the east side of Detroit. Defendant claimed that he spent the night with her, but his interaction with Veronica "wasn't what he thought it was going to be" and he left the following day. Defendant claimed that he could not provide her last name, an address or the specific location of the apartment, or a telephone number.
Defendant claimed that Turrentine also happened to be visiting Detroit at this time. Defendant and Turrentine knew each other, and defendant claimed that he left Veronica's apartment on the morning of February 11, 2004, to meet Turrentine and stay in his hotel room at the Extended Stay Hotel. After meeting with Turrentine that morning, defendant "drove around the whole day going to various malls . . . ." Eventually, defendant went to Eastland Mall, where he had a chance encounter with Rhodes, another acquaintance. Defendant and Rhodes left the mall together in defendant's rented Taurus and spent the rest of the day traveling from mall to mall and "hooking up with girls."
Mekoski also interviewed Rhodes in the Macomb County Jail's interview room that evening. Rhodes waived his Miranda rights and spoke with Mekoski. Rhodes claimed that he had flown to Detroit from California approximately one week before his arrest. He claimed that he had been staying at the Quality Inn near the Detroit Metro Airport, but recently switched lodgings and was staying at the Extended Stay Hotel. Rhodes confirmed that he and defendant had been "hanging out" and "hooking up with girls" when visiting the Detroit area, but he did not provide names, addresses, or
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telephone numbers of these females.
Mekoski then described to Rhodes what the officers had found in Turrentine's Blazer and defendant's Taurus. When he asked Rhodes where the narcotics would be delivered, Rhodes admitted that the narcotics were scheduled for delivery at a house on the east side of Detroit. Rhodes also admitted that the police found the narcotics just before their scheduled delivery.
People v. Lott, No. 265051 at *1-3 (Apr. 19, 2007) (footnotes in original with different numbers).
B. The Trial, Sentence, and Appeal
Petitioner was tried jointly with Ronnie Turrentine and Kareem Rhodes. On January 14, 2005, the jury found all three defendants guilty, as charged, of possession with intent to deliver 1,000 or more grams of cocaine, see Mich. Comp. Laws § 333.7401(2)(a)(i), and conspiracy to possess with intent to deliver 1,000 or more grams of cocaine, see Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.157a and Mich. Comp. Laws § 333.7401(2)(a)(i). The trial court sentenced Petitioner to two concurrent sentences of fourteen years, eleven months, to thirty years with 392 days of credit for time served.
Petitioner moved for a new trial on grounds that his trial attorney was ineffective and the evidence was insufficient to support the jury's verdict. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing, known as a Ginther hearing3, and denied Petitioner's motion.
Petitioner raised his pending claims in an appeal of right. The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed his convictions in an unpublished decision, see People v. Lott, No. 265051 (Mich. Ct. App. Apr. 19, 2007), and on October 17, 2007, the Michigan Supreme Court denied leave to appeal because it was not persuaded to review the issues. See
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People v. Lott, 480 Mich. 911; 739 N.W.2d 621 (2007).
C. The Habeas Petition and Responsive Pleading
Petitioner filed his habeas corpus petition through counsel on October 15, 2008. He alleges that (1) his trial attorney was ineffective, (2) the prosecutor committed multiple instances of misconduct, (3) his right to confront the witnesses against him was violated, and (4) the cumulative effect of the trial errors deprived him of due process and a fair trial.
Respondent argues in an answer to the habeas petition that Petitioner's third claim (denial of the right to confront witnesses) and portions of the second claim (prosecutorial misconduct) are procedurally defaulted because Petitioner failed to object to the claimed errors at trial. Respondent contends that Petitioner's remaining claims lack merit.
Procedural default is not a jurisdictional limitation. Pudelski v. Wilson, 576 F.3d 595, 606 (6th Cir. 2009), cert. denied, __ U.S. _, 130 S. Ct. 3274, 176 L.Ed.2d 1182 (2010). The Court therefore will proceed to adjudicate the merits of Petitioner's claims, using the following...
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