Medina v. Lumpkin
| Docket Number | CIVIL 09-CV-3223 |
| Decision Date | 06 June 2023 |
| Parties | ANTHONY MEDINA, Petitioner, v. BOBBY LUMPKIN,[1] Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas |
Anthony Medina was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1996. Medina first petitioned for federal habeas relief in 2009. Over the past decade, Medina has litigated numerous issues in federal and state court. Respondent Bobby Lumpkin has moved for summary judgment. (Docket Entry No. 76). Medina's federal petition is now ripe for adjudication.
This Court has reviewed the numerous pleadings, the voluminous records, and the applicable law, paying special attention to the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”). With that background, the Court finds that Medina is not entitled to federal habeas relief. The Court grants Respondent's motion for summary judgment and denies all other pending motions. The Court will provide the reasons for these rulings below.
A New Year's Eve party ran late at the Rodriguez family's house in Houston, Texas. In the early morning hours of January 1, 1996, the adults gathered in a room to play dominos while most of the 15 to 20 children at the party played in the backyard. A few children went out front. Street lamps illuminated the foggy, misty night as the children danced and listened to music from the boombox on the top of Veronica Rodriguez's red Dodge Shadow. Nine-year-old David sat on the trunk of the car; his fifteen-year-old sister Diane stood nearby.
A car turned down the dead-end street at around 2:30 a.m. As it slowly passed, a person reached out the front passenger window-whose hand an eyewitness described as “white or Mexican” but definitely not “black,” Tr Vol. XIII at 1479, 1480, 1488-89-with an assault rifle. Bullets sprayed toward the children. Slugs hit Veronica's car, the Rodriguez's house, and the children. As the car drove away, David and Diane lay dead and their cousin injured.
The driveby murders were only the last act in escalating violence aimed at the Rodriguez family. About six months prior to the murders someone had shot at their house. The next day someone painted gang-related graffiti on the Rodriguez's garage. Tr. Vol. XIII at 1416. Later, someone vandalized Veronica Rodriguez's car as it sat outside their home. Tr. Vol XIII at 1417. Another time someone threw a Molotov cocktail at her house. Tr. Vol XIV at 1640-41.
Gang warfare had brought the needless violence to the Rodriguez family. But no one in the Rodriguez family belonged to a gang. The violence stemmed from Veronica's two-year relationship with Marco “Blue” Martinez, a member of the H-Town Crips (“HTC”).[2]
Throughout the time that Martinez dated Veronica, a gang war brewed between the HTC and its rival gang, La Raza 13 (“LRZ”). LRZ was one of Houston's most violent street gangs. Tr. Vol. XVII at 2248-49. Tensions intensified after an HTC member killed an LRZ member. Personal animosity particularly built between Martinez and Anthony “Creeper” Medina, an LRZ “cruz” (or leader).[3] The two men started by giving each other dirty looks, then flashing gang signs, and then threatening with weapons. Once, Martinez and a car load of other gang members drove by Medina's house flashing gang signs. Later, Medina drove by and did the same as Martinez was outside the Rodriguez house.
There was no question that it was Veronica's relationship with Martinez which brought violence upon the Rodriguez house, culminating in the New Years murders. Veronica's “house and her red Dodge were ‘marked' . . . because of her association with [Martinez].” State Habeas Record at 930. But Martinez and Veronica were not home at the time of the shooting; Martinez had picked up Veronica and they had left before the LRZ members began their assault.
Veronica's marked car, however, was parked outside the Rodriguez's house. The children dancing around the car died in a hail of gunfire from a passing car.
No one outside the Rodriguez home could see the face of the person who fired shots that night. Positive identification of the shooter could only come from those inside the car, though statements people made after the killing and evidence relating to the gun provided useful circumstantial evidence as to the killer's identity. The prosecution eventually fingered Medina as the shooter. The defense would claim that Dominic “Flaco” Holmes, an African-American “peewee” or junior member of the predominantly Hispanic LRZ gang, was the killer.
Testimony about the circumstances leading up to and following the murders provided integral context at trial. As the Rodriguez family met to celebrate the new year, Medina and his fellow LRZ gang members began partying at the house of Candelario “Candyman” Guerrero. Throughout the night, LRZ members, including Medina, would come and go from Candyman's house. At around 11:00 p.m., Medina and others went to a different party at the house of former LRZ member Michele “Chichona” Aguenta. A dispute erupted, however, when LRZ members accused another person of having a brother affiliated with HTC. When that person looked like he was going to hit another “cruz,” Medina brandished a gun. The LRZ members left after Chichona's brother put an end to the tension.
Medina returned to Candyman's house. At around 2:00 or 2:30 a.m. a group left Candyman's house to carry out the driveby murders. The prosecution's theory was that Medina left in James Moore's[4] car with Johnny “Pelon” Valadez, Alex “Slim” Perez, Veronica “China” Ponce, Scharlene “India” Pooran, and Flaco. Medina was the only “cruz” in the car. The others were either not gang members or were young peewees.
Moore, who was not an LRZ member, had been drinking heavily before he drove the group around. Moore, Pelon, and Flaco-who each testified for the prosecution-all admitted to being present in the car. They all identified Medina, Slim, India, and China as being there also. Tr. Vol. XV at 1668, 1794, 1894-95.
The gang members directed Moore to the Rodriguez's street. The car briefly stopped and Medina “got a Russian SKS semiautomatic assault rifle . . . from the trunk and moved to the front passenger seat.” State Habeas Record at 931. Moore, Pelon, and Flaco would testify at trial that Medina fired at the Rodriguez house.[5]
Medina and other LRZ members returned to Chichona's house at around 3:00 a.m.[6] Medina told Regina Juarez that they had done a drive by and that he had shot the gun. Tr. Vol. XVI at 1947, 1977. Medina bragged about the murder as he told people that “he shot her and he saw that fat meat come off, or something like that.” Tr. Vol. XV at 1805. People saw Medina with the murder weapon at Chichona's house. Medina pointed the gun at someone he suspected to have a brother who was in a rival gang. Tr. Vol. XV at 1728. A fist fight soon broke out. Medina cocked the assault rifle, shot it into the air, and began to cock it again when Chichona's brother restrained him in a headlock. Medina tried to scuffle with Chichona's brother and told him, Tr. Vol. XV at 1739. The LRZ members left when Chichona's father came out of the house, fired a shotgun into the air, and “told everybody to get the hell out.” Tr. Vol. XV at 1740.
After his arrest, Medina called Regina Juarez and told her to get rid of the murder weapon which was at India's house. Tr. Vol. XVI at 1958. Regina Juarez, Flaco, Moore, and another gang member disposed of the gun. Medina also directed gang members to lay the blame on Flaco. Tr. Vol. XVI at 1963-65. Medina told Regina Juarez that he was trying to “change it around and make it look like . . . it's Flaco's fault.” Tr. Vol. XVI at 1964. China and India helped with Medina's plan. Tr. Vol. XV at 1807-09. China and India told Pelon to blame Flaco and “if [he] told the truth, that they were going to come after [his] family or try to do something to [him].” Tr. Vol. XV at 1810.[7]
The trial court had appointed John A. Millin and Gerald “Jerry” Guerinot to represent Medina at trial.[8] The defense team crafted a case putting the blame for the killings on Flaco. The defense based this strategy on two primary themes: (1) Flaco had made incriminating statements and (2) Medina disclaimed being the shooter.[9] The defense supported these theories with testimony that Flaco told Medina's sister that the police “had to know it was him, but they had to find him before they could arrest him.” Tr. Vol. XVI at 2015-16. Flaco also told one friend that he “put them hoes to rest,” Tr. Vol. XVI at 2046, and another friend that he made the hoes “lie down,” Tr. Vol. XVI at 2060.[10]
The defense had Slim testify that he had not left Candyman's house to do the driveby. Also, Slim said that he did not see Medina with a weapon at Candyman's house. Slim claimed that neither Flaco nor Medina had claimed responsibility for the shootings. Tr. Vol. XVII at 2093.
Medina took the stand and testified that he did not participate in the crime. Medina claimed that he stayed at Candyman's house until around 3:30 a.m. Medina, however, testified that he saw a weapon in Moore's car and that Moore and Flaco left around the time of the killings.
The jury found Medina guilty of capital murder.
Texas law decides an inmate's sentence after a separate punishment hearing. As Medina's federal petition challenges trial counsel's presentation of evidence in the penalty phase, the Court will later discuss the information that came before jurors. The Court, however,...
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