Madrigal v. Bagley
| Citation | 276 F.Supp.2d 744 |
| Decision Date | 05 August 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 1:02-CV-522.,1:02-CV-522. |
| Parties | Jamie R. MADRIGAL, Petitioner, v. Margaret BAGLEY, Warden, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio |
Susan M. Roche, Timothy R. Payne, Office of the Public Defender, Columbus, OH, for Petitioner.
Daniel Ranke, Office of the Attorney General, State of Ohio, Capital Crimes Section, Cleveland, OH, Heather L. Gosselin, Office of the Attorney General, State of Ohio, Capital Crimes Section, Columbus, OH, for Respondent.
On March 19, 2002, Petitioner Jamie R. Madrigal ("Madrigal") petitioned this Court for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In seeking relief in this death penalty case, Petitioner Madrigal says that constitutional error attended his conviction and resulting death penalty sentence.
Although Madrigal states various grounds for relief, he principally claims that the state-court denied him his constitutional right of confrontation when it allowed the admission of two out-of-court statements by a co-defendant who refused to testify at trial. With those out-of-court statements, the co-defendant denied culpability and instead implicated Madrigal as the killer. The co-defendant Chris Cathcart's testimony was important. The identity of the killer was the principal issue at trial and some evidence suggested that the co-defendant Cathcart was the killer.
Reviewing this denial of a right to cross-examine evidence offered against him, the Ohio Supreme Court found the trial court erred but found the error harmless. Madrigal challenges this finding. He says much evidence suggested that the co-defendant, not Madrigal, was the killer. He argues that the trial court's error in admitting the implicating statement was significant to his conviction.
Respondent Warden Margaret Bagley ("Bagley") denies that Petitioner Madrigal is entitled to a writ of habeas corpus. First, Respondent Bagley maintains that Madrigal procedurally defaulted many of his claims for relief. Regarding the remaining claims, Bagley argues that Madrigal fails to show any constitutional violations. Alternatively, she argues that Madrigal raises claims not cognizable in federal habeas review.
In this decision, the Court first describes the factual background of Madrigal's crime.1 Then, the Court describes Madrigal's direct appeal and his later efforts at state-afforded post-conviction relief. The Court then discusses whether Madrigal exhausted his state court remedies and whether Madrigal defaulted certain claims under state procedural rules. Finally, the Court substantively reviews Madrigal's claims that had not otherwise been defaulted.
All, save one, of Madrigal's arguments fail. The Court finds that the admission of co-defendant Chris Cathcart's statements that implicated Madrigal as the killer "had a substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict." The Court grants the petition for habeas corpus for the reasons that follow.
On Friday, April 12, 1996, a robber killed Misty Fisher at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant ("KFC") in Toledo. During that evening, Misty Fisher, Eric Armstrong, Brian Conley, and Carrie Tracy worked at the KFC. Tracy was sixteen years old. Misty Fisher, Eric Armstrong and Brian Conley were eighteen years old. Fisher and Armstrong were both closing managers.
Around 8:15 p.m. that Friday night, a black male entered the restaurant. Working at the front counter, Tracy asked the person if she could help him. He said "No, no." After looking around the restaurant, the black male exited.
At this time, Jeffrey Kerekes and Todd Corbett took their dinner break from work, and decided to go to the KFC for dinner. As they pulled into the drive-thru, they realized that the speaker was not working and they drove up to the window. Tracy came to the window to take their order.
At approximately the time that Kerekes and Corbett approached the drive-through window, the same black man who had previously been in the KFC returned. A loud crash caught everyone's attention as the man jumped over the counter, shattering the glass on the refrigerated counter case. After vaulting the counter, the man hit Armstrong in the head and ordered everyone to the floor. The man asked who the closing manager was. Armstrong said he was. The man then ordered Armstrong to get up and get the money out of all the registers. Armstrong responded and put the money in a KFC bag on the counter. The man then told Armstrong to open the safe, but Armstrong told him he did not have the combination. Armstrong told the robber that Fisher had the combination. The man grabbed Fisher by her ponytail and took both her and Armstrong to the area near the safe.
As they approached the safe, the robber told Armstrong to get to the floor, and ordered Fisher to open the safe. Fisher knelt in front of the safe, while the man held a gun to the back of her head. Afraid and nervous, Fisher told the robber she could not get the safe open. In response, the man barked, "hurry up bitch." Fisher asked Armstrong to help her, but as he got up, the man ordered him back to the floor. When Misty Fisher still could not get the safe open, the man said, "Now you're playing, bitch," and shot her in the back of the head. The man exited through the back door. Armstrong immediately got up and called 911.
While this was going on, Corbett and Kerekes waited for their order. While waiting for their order, customers Corbett and Kerekes saw a man jump over the counter and hit Armstrong. They saw a chrome-plated gun in the man's hand. Realizing the man was robbing the KFC, they pulled through the drive-thru and drove around the front of the building. They noticed another man sitting on the driver's side of an older maroon Buick with chrome Cragar SS rims, parked against the back fence of the KFC parking lot. The car was backed into the parking spot, and had no license plate.
Corbett and Kerekes pulled around to the alley behind the KFC parking lot. Kerekes got out and looked through the bottom and top of the fence, looking for a license plate on the back of the car. He saw none.
Kerekes returned to his car, and he and Corbett drove to a 7-Eleven Store and asked the clerk to notify the police that a robbery was in progress at the KFC. They then went back to the KFC.
As they pulled into the parking lot, they noticed that the maroon Buick remained parked in the same spot; however, the man who had been in the car had now moved to the passenger seat.
After observing the maroon Buick, Corbett and Kerekes drove through the parking lot. As they came near to the back door, the door opened and a black man came out carrying a brown paper bag in his hands. The man stopped momentarily, looked at them, then got into the maroon car and took off. Corbett and Kerekes again went through the drive-thru lane. This time Tracy was hanging out the window screaming that someone had been shot.
Corbett and Kerekes went into the KFC as the police and ambulance were arriving. Although the police and ambulance had quickly arrived, Fisher died en route to the hospital from her gunshot wound.
Although Corbett and Kerekes gave the police a description of the car and the direction it headed, the police were unable to find it that night. The police took statements from Corbett and Kerekes and then took the three employee witnesses, Armstrong, Conley, and Tracy, to the police station. At the police station, the officers received the employees' statements. In their statements, the witnesses described the man as a black man, medium complexion, in his late teens or early twenties, medium build, short hair, wearing tan boots, a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt, and baggy pants. Kerekes described the baggy pants as jeans, while Tracy described them as brown "Dickies" brand pants with cuts on the legs.
The following day, Saturday, the police asked Corbett and Tracy to return to the police station to create a composite sketch to help generate leads in the case. Because of leads coming into the police station, the police arrested James Jordan.
On the Monday following the crime, the police asked the witnesses to come to the police station to participate in a lineup. Neither Corbett nor Kerekes picked anyone from the lineup. Tracy picked out Jordan, although she thought he was too short. She later said that she picked him only because she thought she was supposed to pick someone out.
Corbett and Kerekes identified a car type similar to the Buick they had seen. Police received a crime-stoppers tip that Jamie Madrigal had purchased such a car and the car was at a house on Alldays Street. On the Tuesday morning following the murder, Toledo police took Corbett to look at the vehicle at the Alldays address and Corbett identified it as the car he saw in the KFC parking lot. The police obtained a search warrant and seized the car.
After receiving leads that Cathcart had spent the night of the murder with Madrigal, officers then brought Cathcart in for questioning. Cathcart gave two extensive statements to the police, both implicating Madrigal in the robbery of the KFC and the murder of Fisher. In those statements, Cathcart said that he was the person in the car, while Madrigal went into the KFC and, by implication, committed Fisher's murder.
After Cathcart gave his statements, the police arrested him, issued an arrest warrant for Madrigal, and obtained a search warrant for the Alldays Street address. During the search of those premises, the police seized a pair of work boots, men's maroon pants, and a blue hooded sweatshirt.
Thursday morning, Boyd told police that Madrigal was in Cleveland. Evidently, Madrigal left Toledo in the early morning hours after the murder and went to the home of Rodney...
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