Matthews v. Lumpkin

• Decision Date: 26 October 2020
• Docket Number: No. 3:19-CV-0192,3:19-CV-0192
• Parties: RYAN ANTONIO MATTHEWS, PETITIONER, v. BOBBY LUMPKIN, RESPONDENT.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas

RYAN ANTONIO MATTHEWS, PETITIONER, v. BOBBY LUMPKIN, RESPONDENT.

No. 3:19-CV-0192

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS GALVESTON DIVISION

October 26, 2020

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

JEFFREY VINCENT BROWN, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE.

The petitioner, Ryan Antonio Matthews, seeks a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 to challenge the conviction and sentence he received in state court in Brazoria County (Dkts. 1, 2). The respondent, Bobby Lumpkin,¹ has answered with a motion for summary judgment (Dkt. 15) arguing that Matthews is not entitled to relief. Matthews has filed a reply (Dkt. 28). After considering all the pleadings, the state-court records, and the applicable law, the court will grant the respondent's motion, deny the petition, and dismiss this action for the reasons explained below.

BACKGROUND

I. The Crime

The victim, a sixteen-year-old Pearland high-school student, took a home pregnancy test on February 26th, 2014, that rendered positive results. A doctor's visit confirmed that she was twelve weeks pregnant. The victim was excited a week later to find that she carried twins. She decided to transfer to an alternative school in Pearland.

On March 21, the last school day before the victim's transfer, family members came home to find the house in disarray. There was no sign of forced entry. The victim's father eventually found her dead, lying in a pool of blood. She had died from a combination of manual strangulation and stab wounds to her neck and head.

The police investigation quickly turned to the victim's sexual partner, sixteen-year-old Ryan Antonio Matthews. Matthews had been in a casual sexual relationship with the victim for several months but still maintained relationships with other girls. Matthews did not share the victim's enthusiasm about the pregnancy; he saw it as an impediment to his dreams of college education and sports stardom. Matthews had repeatedly and persistently urged the victim to abort the pregnancy, either through a medical provider or through self-harm.

Matthews was the last person known to have been with the victim. A friend had dropped Matthews off at the victim's home only a few hours before her familyfound her dead. Testing confirmed that Matthews had sexual relations with the victim soon before her death. When questioned by police, Matthews repeatedly lied about various material facts. The police arrested Matthews for the murder of the victim and their two unborn children.

II. The Juvenile-Court Proceedings

In Texas, a juvenile court has original jurisdiction over any child under seventeen years of age. See Tex. Fam. Code §§ 51.02(2), 51.04. Matthews was only a few weeks shy of his seventeenth birthday when the offense occurred.² The State of Texas initially filed charges in the County Court at Law No. 2 and Probate Court of Brazoria County, sitting as a juvenile court. In the matter of Ryan Antonio Matthews, No. JV 19869H. On May 23, 2014, the Brazoria County prosecuting attorney filed a petition for a discretionary transfer to criminal court alleging that a child, Matthews, had committed two counts of capital murder.

Under Texas law, "[t]he juvenile court may waive its exclusive original jurisdiction and transfer a child to the appropriate district court or criminal district court for criminal proceedings" if certain conditions are met. Tex. Fam. Code § 54.02. As part of the transfer proceedings, Dr. Michael Fuller, a forensic psychiatrist with the University of Texas Medical Branch, examined Matthews on June 5, 2014. Dr. Fuller was one of four witnesses who testified in a July 8, 2014, juvenile-court hearing on the transfer petition. Dr. Fuller explained that Matthewsdid not have a history of major psychiatric illness, was not intellectually disabled, and exhibited no impairment in his memory, judgment, reasoning, or insight. Dr. Fuller testified that Matthews understood the charges against him and possessed a rational ability to engage in a reasoned choice of legal strategies and options—including the ability to enter a plea and testify at trial.

The juvenile court also received evidence of Matthews's prior offenses, (assault and credit-card abuse), his poor school disciplinary history, and his participation in an altercation while in custody. A police officer testified about Matthews's dishonesty during the investigation, his threats to other students who asked about the pregnancy, and his flight risk.

After considering the parties' testimony, evidence, and argument, the juvenile court waived its jurisdiction and transferred the case to the state district court. The juvenile court entered an order outlining the reasons for certifying Matthews for prosecution as an adult: (1) he exhibited sufficient sophistication and maturity to stand trial in adult court; (2) he possessed sufficient sophistication and maturity to aid an attorney in his defense; and (3) the nature of the offense and Matthews's criminal history weighed in factor of protecting the public through adult certification, especially given the paucity of evidence showing the hope for rehabilitation through juvenile procedures. The juvenile court's order also made case-specific findings of fact based on the nature of the offense, Matthews's threats to others, and his age which had nearly removed him from juvenile court's originaljurisdiction.

III. Trial

On July 24, 2014, Matthews was indicted for two counts of capital murder in Cause 73841, filed in the 239th District Court for Brazoria County. Trial began on April 14, 2015. As set forth by the state intermediate appellate court, the trial evidence established the following facts:

Sixteen-year-old Amy[³] was pregnant with twin boys when she was strangled and stabbed to death at her home in Pearland, Texas. [Matthews], about three weeks shy of his seventeenth birthday at the time of Amy's murder,[⁴] was the father of Amy's unborn children. Both attended the same Pearland high school and had met in class. They were not dating but were involved in a sexual relationship. When Amy discovered she was pregnant, [Matthews] was very upset. He encouraged her to take actions to induce a miscarriage, such as punching herself in the stomach several times a day. He also encouraged Amy to have an abortion. [Matthews] was very concerned about the impact having a child would have on his life; he even told Amy that he had considered killing himself because of the pregnancy. When Amy confessed to her parents she was pregnant, they quickly took her to a doctor. An ultrasound revealed that Amy was pregnant with twins; Amy thought this was good news. [Matthews], on the other hand, was extremely upset to discover that Amy was having twins. When Amy told [Matthews] that abortion was no longer an option, [Matthews] was angry.

On the day of Amy's murder, [Matthews], Amy, and a friend of theirs skipped an afternoon class, and the friend drove them to Amy's home so that [Matthews] and Amy could have sex. The friend had done this on several occasions in the past. The friend dropped them off, and [Matthews] and Amy entered through the back door of Amy's home, as was their normal practice. The two went upstairs and had sex, although [Matthews] claimed in an interview with detectives he did not "finish" because he was concerned he could hurt the babies.

[Matthews] also claimed in that interview that he and Amy talked about their future and both became emotional. He stated he left the house alone through the back door, while Amy was upstairs crying.

[Matthews's] friend picked him up in front of the house about an hour later. His friend noted that [Matthews] appeared "normal," but did not come out of the front door of the home accompanied by Amy as had happened in the past. [Matthews] was also wearing different clothing than he had been wearing earlier in the day. About forty-five minutes after [Matthews] left Amy's home, Amy's younger brother arrived. Amy's brother called her name and didn't hear a response. He went upstairs and saw several items broken and lying on the floor in his parents' room. Thinking the house had been burglarized, he ran to a neighbor's house and called his mother.

Amy's mother tried to contact Amy, but Amy didn't respond. Amy's mother drove home from work immediately and entered the house through the garage. She saw the master bedroom in disarray, left the house and returned to the garage, and called 911. She told the 911 operator that her home had been burglarized, and she couldn't find her daughter. Amy's mother also called her husband at work. Amy's father drove home from work and arrived while Amy's mother was still there. He went inside the house to look around; during his search, he found Amy's body in her bedroom lying in a pool of blood.

Amy's father ran back downstairs to his wife, took her outside, and told her that their daughter was dead. The two began to cry and remained outside the house until police arrived. When Pearland Police Department officers arrived on the scene, Amy's father told them that their daughter had been murdered. Pearland police officers entered the home and found Amy's body. Amy's father told responding officers that [Matthews] had gotten her pregnant and that he believed [Matthews] had killed her. Officers determined that the home had been staged to appear as if it had been burglarized; Amy's parents found nothing missing.

Pearland Police Detectives Jennifer Page and Cecil Arnold interviewed [Matthews] later that evening around 10:00 p.m., after obtaining his address from the high school. At the time of this interview, the detectives had not had a chance to thoroughly review any of the evidence obtained from the crime scene, nor had any security videos from [Amy and Matthews's] high school or the guardhouse at the entry to Amy's neighborhood been obtained. The initial interview occurred at the home of Mavani Thornhill, who was allowing [Matthews] to use her address so that [Matthews] could enroll in a

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