Menzies v. Crowther

• Decision Date: 11 January 2019
• Docket Number: Case No. 03-CV-0902-CVE-FHM
• Citation: Menzies v. Crowther, Case No. 03-CV-0902-CVE-FHM (D. Utah Jan 11, 2019)
• Parties: RALPH LEROY MENZIES, Petitioner, v. SCOTT CROWTHER, Warden of the Utah State Prison, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Utah

RALPH LEROY MENZIES, Petitioner, v. SCOTT CROWTHER, Warden of the Utah State Prison, Respondent.

Case No. 03-CV-0902-CVE-FHM

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF UTAH, CENTRAL DIVISION

January 11, 2019

OPINION AND ORDER

This matter comes before the Court on a second amended petition for writ of habeas corpus(Dkt. # 109) filed by Utah death row inmate, Ralph Leroy Menzies, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254.Petitioner, who appears through counsel, challenges his conviction and sentence in the Third District Court of Salt Lake County, State of Utah, Criminal Case No. 86-887.Respondent filed a response (Dkt. # 123) to the second amended petition, and petitioner filed a reply (Dkt. # 127).The state court record has been produced.¹The Court considered all of these materials in reaching its decision.For the reasons discussed below, the Court concludes the petition should be denied.

I.BACKGROUND

A.Factual Background

Historical facts found by the state court are presumed correct, unless the petitioner rebuts the same by clear and convincing evidence.28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1).Since petitioner has failed to rebut the facts, as set forth by the Utah Supreme Court, this Court hereby adopts the factual findings which the Utah Supreme Court found were "largely undisputed."²

At approximately 9:50 p.m. on Sunday, February 23, 1986, Salt Lake County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the Gas-A-Mat station located at 3995 West 4700 South.The deputies found customers waiting to pay, but the cashier's boothempty and the door locked.The station attendant, Maurine³ Hunsaker, was missing, although her coat was still in the booth and a radio was playing.A preliminary accounting indicated that approximately $70 in cash was missing from the register.⁴

At approximately 11:05 that same night, Maurine telephoned her husband, Jim, at their home.Deputy Scott Gamble was with Jim at the time.Maurine told her husband that she had been robbed and kidnapped, but that her abductor(s) intended to release her sometime that night.Deputy Gamble also spoke with Maurine, and she again indicated that a robbery had occurred.However, Deputy Gamble was unable to get a clear answer regarding the kidnapping.Maurine also refused, or was unable, to answer Gamble's question regarding her location.When Jim again spoke with his wife, she asked him what she should do.The line then went dead.

At approximately 5 p.m. on Tuesday, February 25, 1986, a hiker discovered Maurine Hunsaker's body at the Storm Mountain picnic area in Big Cottonwood Canyon.She had been strangled and her throat cut.Her purse, which had not been found at the gas station, was not with the body or in the immediate area.That same evening, a jailer at the Salt Lake County Jail found several identification cards belonging to Maurine Hunsaker in a desk drawer in one of the jail's changing rooms.He recognized the picture on the driver's license as a woman reported missing the night before on television news.

Detectives later determined how the cards got into the drawer.[Petitioner] had been booked into the jail on unrelated charges at approximately 6:40 p.m. on Monday, February 24, 1986.He left the booking area for a short time without supervision and was found in a changing room.Shortly thereafter, Maurine Hunsaker's identification cards were found in a clothing hamper in that room.Unaware of the kidnapping, the officer who found the cards placed them in the desk drawer where the jailer found them Tuesday night.

Also on Tuesday evening, a high school student named Tim Larrabee was watching the news and learned that a hiker had discovered a woman's body at Storm Mountain.On Wednesday, Larrabee notified deputies that he and his girlfriend, Beth Brown, had skipped school on Monday, February 24th, and were at Storm Mountain.Larrabee had noticed a full-sized, two-door, late-1960s model, cream-colored automobile in the parking lot.He said that the vehicle was similar in appearance to a 1968 Buick Riviera.Larrabee and Brown also saw a man and woman at the site but saw nothing unusual happening between the two.They later heard a short scream, but Larrabee thought that the woman had slipped or had been frightened by ananimal.Approximately fifteen minutes later, Larrabee saw the man walking alone.Neither Larrabee nor Brown saw the woman again.

Larrabee described the suspect as a white male, 25-30 years of age, 6'1" tall, with a medium build (approximately 170 pounds), black, curly hair, prominent sideburns and a mustache, and wearing wire-rimmed glasses.A detective created a composite drawing of a possible suspect based on the description.After learning that Maurine's identification cards had been found at the jail, sheriff's detectives compared the composite drawing with the photographs of more than two hundred inmates who had been booked into the facility from February 23rd through the 25th.Three photographs were chosen as possible matches, including that of [petitioner].

Detective Jerry Thompson questioned [petitioner] regarding the Hunsaker homicide.[Petitioner] said that on Sunday, February 23rd, he borrowed a car from Troy Denter and picked up a young woman on State Street that evening.He told the detective that while with this woman, he picked up his girlfriend, Nicole Arnold, and drove around until the two women began to argue.[Petitioner] reportedly dropped Nicole and then left the unidentified woman somewhere around 7200 West and 2400 South.According to [petitioner], he then went home, where he talked with Nicole.

On February 28th, the detectives questioned Denter.He told them he loaned his cream-colored 1974 Chevrolet to [petitioner] on Sunday, February 23rd, sometime in the afternoon.He said that [petitioner] did not return the car until the afternoon of Monday, February 24th.Detectives then took Larrabee and Brown to the jail parking lot, where they identified Denter's car as the one they saw at Storm Mountain.They were also shown a photospread consisting of six photographs.Larrabee indicated that [petitioner] appeared to be the man he saw at Storm Mountain.Several months later, however, Larrabee did not correctly identify [petitioner] in a lineup.

Detectives found Maurine Hunsaker's fingerprint in Denter's car and located her purse in [petitioner's] apartment.[Petitioner] was charged with first degree murder, a capital offense.After the charges were filed, Walter Britton, [petitioner's] cell mate, contacted detectives about the homicide.Britton said that on February 27th, [petitioner] told him that he killed Hunsaker to prevent her from testifying against him.

Menzies II, 889 P.2d at 396-97(second footnote in original)(citation omitted).

B.Procedural History

On March 8, 1988, a jury convicted petitioner of criminal homicide, murder in the first degree, a capital offense, and aggravated kidnapping.Trial ROAat 898-99.The jury found petitioner not guilty of aggravated robbery.Id. at 900.The jury specifically found that the homicidewas committed while petitioner was engaged in the commission of, and attempt to commit, or flight after committing, or attempting to commit robbery and aggravated kidnapping.Id. at 898.Petitioner waived his right to a jury trial for the penalty phase of the proceedings, and on March 23, 1998, he was sentenced to death.Id. at 1104-07.On May 26, 1988, petitioner filed a docketing statement in the Utah Supreme Court raising twenty-nine issues on appeal.State v. Menzies(Menzies I), 845 P.2d 220, 223(Utah1992).On September 5, 1988, the trial transcript was certified.Id.Prior to filing his brief, petitioner"observed that the record contained numerous transcription errors."Id.As a result,

[o]n November 15, 1989, prior to submitting his brief, [petitioner] filed a "motion to set aside judgment and/or for a new trial" on the ground that the transcription errors rendered the record inadequate for appeal.The trial court referred the matter to [the Utah Supreme Court], and [petitioner] modified his motion to include claims concerning the qualifications of the court reporter.

Id.The matter was remanded "to the trial court to conduct proceedings to correct the record, pursuant to rule 11(h) of the Rules of the Utah Supreme Court."Id.Additionally, the trial court was directed to rule on petitioner's "motion for a new trial and to resolve all issues relating to the qualifications of the court reporter and the adequacy of the transcript."Id.After several hearings, the trial court denied the motion, and the Utah Supreme Court affirmed, ordering petitioner to proceed with the appeal on the merits.Id. at 242.

Thereafter, petitioner raised forty-four issues on appeal.See Brief of Appellant filed on September 14, 1992(Dkt. # 110, Disk # 1, Related Appeals/Direct Appeal, Dkt. # 100).The Utah Supreme Court's majority opinion addressed only the following claims of error on appeal: (1) failure to remove five jurors for cause; (2) failure to grant a mistrial following "surprise" testimony by Tim Larrabee; (3) admission of preliminary hearing testimony of a jailhouse informant; (4) considerationof a heinousness aggravating circumstance during the penalty phase; (5) admission of victim impact evidence during the penalty phase; and (6) use of the incorrect standard in sentencing petitioner to death.The remaining claims were all denied as being without merit.The Utah Supreme Court affirmed the sentence and conviction.Menzies II, 889 P.2d at 406-07.

On April 20, 1995, petitioner, who was represented by attorneys acting probono, initiated postconviction proceedings in the state district court.Petitioner amended his petition on May 2, 1995, asserting seventy-three separate claims for relief, including claims that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance.Menzies v. Galetka(Menzies III), 150 P.3d 480, 489-90(2006).

On March 3, 1998, Edward K. Brass was appointed by the state court to represent petitioner in all...