McAdoo v. Elo

• Decision Date: 15 April 2004
• Docket Number: No. 01-2050.,01-2050.
• Citation: 365 F.3d 487
• Parties: Silas T. McADOO, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Frank ELO, Warden, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

365 F.3d 487

Silas T. McADOO, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Frank ELO, Warden, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 01-2050.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: February 5, 2003.

Decided and Filed: April 15, 2004.

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Penny R. Beardslee (briefed), James R. Gerometta (argued and briefed), Federal Public Defenders Office, Detroit, MI, for Petitioner-Appellant.

Debra M. Gagliardi, Asst. Attorney General, Lansing, MI, for Respondent-Appellee.

Before: GILMAN and GIBBONS, Circuit Judges; POLSTER, District Judge.^*

AMENDED OPINION

GIBBONS, Circuit Judge.

Silas McAdoo appeals the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. McAdoo pled guilty in Michigan state court to one count of second-degree murder and two counts of assault with intent to commit murder. Pursuant to a plea agreement, he was sentenced to three life sentences to run concurrently. McAdoo later claimed that his attorney misinformed him about the consequences of a life sentence. McAdoo raises three issues in this appeal, arguing that (1) his guilty plea was not knowing and voluntary because he misunderstood its consequences, (2) his plea was illusory based on the effective unavailability of parole for those serving a statutory life sentence, and (3) his trial counsel was ineffective for allegedly misinforming McAdoo about his possible sentence. For the following reasons, we affirm the district court's denial of habeas relief.

I.

McAdoo was charged in Michigan state court with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of assault with intent to commit murder. The charges arose from the stabbing death of McAdoo's wife, Alicia Kelley, and the stabbing of two of his daughters. At McAdoo's preliminary hearing, his ten and fourteen year old daughters testified about the facts of McAdoo's offenses, all of which occurred in the family home.

On January 9, 1995, the trial date, McAdoo entered a guilty plea to the lesser offense of second-degree murder and two counts of assault with intent to commit murder. The agreement was in exchange for the dismissal of the first-degree murder charge that carried a maximum sentence of life without parole. At the plea proceeding, McAdoo's attorney told the court that the plea agreement indicated three life sentences. McAdoo signed the plea form, which stated that the agreement was for three life sentences. McAdoo stated to the court under oath that no one had promised him anything other than what the plea form indicated.

Sentencing was held on February 1, 1995. At the outset, McAdoo's attorney stated that McAdoo did not want to withdraw his plea, and McAdoo agreed on the record. The court stated that it was ready to "impose a sentence in accord with the sentence agreement." It then sentenced McAdoo to parolable life for the murder conviction and two concurrent terms of twenty years imprisonment for the assault convictions. The sentencing judge stated, "Count one and murder two for a term of statutory life which is 20 years." Although the judge indicated an intent to sentence McAdoo in accord with the plea agreement, she failed to do so. First, a statutory life term does not equal twenty years in Michigan. Second, the plea agreement did not call for twenty-year sentences for the assault convictions.

The prosecution then moved to amend the sentence to conform to the plea agreement, which had provided for three concurrent life sentences rather than one life sentence and two twenty-year sentences. Resentencing occurred on March 24, 1995. McAdoo, then represented by his second counsel, Robert Plumpe, requested the withdrawal of his guilty plea, claiming that he did not understand the nature of his plea agreement and that he was under the influence of medication at the time he entered his plea. Defense counsel argued that there was confusion when McAdoo entered his plea about what the sentence would be. The prosecutor responded that there was some confusion at sentencing, "but not at plea time."

At the resentencing hearing, McAdoo, who was not under oath, had the following exchange with the state trial court:

THE COURT: Mr. McAdoo, sir, do you wish to say anything before this Court imposes the correct sentence, which was pursuant to the plea agreement?

DEFENDANT McADOO: Yes, Judge Braxton. The day that you accepted my plea, I don't know if you remember. I know you have a lot of cases that you have to do, but when Batchelor first came before you with me, and you asked me more than once did I understand, and you asked me how did I plead, and I pled not guilty.

Then he took me, and we went into the back chambers or in another room, and he made the statement to me, and maybe I am wrong, but I was told that the three life sentences would be 20, 20, 20 to run concurrently, and that my kids would not have to be subjected to the Court.

THE COURT: But he did inform you that they were three life sentences. Is that correct?

DEFENDANT McADOO: Yes, Ma'am.

THE COURT: Which is indicated on this form.

MR. DEFENDANT: But he, I guess what I am trying to say is, Judge Braxton, that if I had understood what he was telling me which, as I stated to you before, I had no knowledge of what was going on whatsoever. I have no —

THE COURT: Now you had some knowledge because I spoke to you. But you go ahead.

DEFENDANT McADOO: What I am trying to say is my lawyer, Batchelor, he never spoke with me about anything. It was just the first time I ever saw this piece of paper here was the day that you took my plea agreement. When I first saw you, and it was more or less stated to me accept it or get another attorney. I wrote all this up, and I turned it in to the Grievance Commission.

But anyway to sum it all up, he told me something that was different than what you did, and that's the only thing I am arguing, and is the fact that I didn't understand what he was doing. If I would have understood that he was sentencing me to three life sentences to the point, why not fight the case?

I didn't want my kids to be subjected to it. It was enough that they went through. And then for him to tell me that it would be the three life sentences, I know I need to be punished for what I did. No problem whatsoever with that. But that's not what he explained to me. That's all I am trying to say to the Court.

The court then conformed the sentence to the written plea agreement and stated that it would consider McAdoo's motion to withdraw the plea if he presented evidence that his mental state and medication prevented him from knowingly entering a guilty plea.¹

McAdoo was then appointed a third counsel, Edward Jabbour, who filed another motion to withdraw McAdoo's guilty plea, arguing that the plea was not knowing and voluntary. The sentencing court held a hearing on this motion on March 7, 1996. Jabbour argued that McAdoo entered his plea believing that he would be released after twenty years imprisonment and that this alleged misunderstanding nullified the plea.

The court conducted an evidentiary hearing on May 9, 1996, to determine whether McAdoo's alleged misunderstanding nullified his plea. At the May 9, 1996, hearing, Batchelor testified that his understanding was that the penalty for first-degree murder in Michigan was a sentence of "natural life" and the penalty for second-degree murder was a sentence of "parolable" life. He testified that he was familiar with the "Lifer Law,"² which would have governed McAdoo's possibility of parole. When asked what his understanding of the "Lifer Law" was, Batchelor stated, "in terms of what I remember in discussion with Mr. McAdoo with regards to the Lifer Law, we never discussed it." When asked whether he had said anything to McAdoo about what a sentence of life imprisonment means, Batchelor responded, "I don't recall saying anything to him about life imprisonment."

McAdoo presented the testimony of Michael Patrick Martin, prisoner advocate for the Wayne County jail at the time of McAdoo's incarceration there, and Mark Carrico of the Team for Justice, who visited McAdoo after his incarceration. Jabbour asked Martin if McAdoo told him about the sentence agreement contained in the plea agreement. The prosecution objected to this evidence as hearsay. Jabbour argued that the evidence was "state of mind" testimony, but the court sustained the objection. Jabbour attempted to elicit the same information from Carrico that he had from Martin. Carrico stated that, at some unspecified time before McAdoo was transferred to a state prison to serve his sentence, McAdoo told Carrico he would "get out in 17 years." Jabbour then asked the court to rule that if McAdoo testified, he could not be questioned about the underlying facts of the offense. The court ruled that McAdoo could be questioned about any facts that were relevant to the motion to withdraw the plea. McAdoo did not testify.³

At the close of the hearing, the court denied McAdoo's motion to withdraw his guilty plea, concluding:

If I look at the testimony and my view of the witnesses that testified this afternoon, he stated — Mr. Carrico stated he met the defendant back in 1994, and that the defendant's mother called him because he's a member of the Team for Justice. He further testified that he visited weekly with the defendant before he was sent to Jackson [prison], and Mr. Carrico also testified he was at the sentencing. Mr. Carrico further testified that defendant told him he would be eligible for parole in 17 years. That'[s] what your witness means to the understanding the defendant had at that time.

Upon questioning Mr. Batchelor, he indicated there was, in fact, a plea bargain that was made on the day of trial. He testified further that he, being Mr. Batchelor, was of the opinion that the plea offered the defendant would give him a better opportunity to put his client in the best possibl[e] posture that he could be in, and he made it know[n] to his client what his options were at the time ...

This Court,...