Millender v. Adams
| Decision Date | 08 February 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV.A.99-CV-70945-DT.,CIV.A.99-CV-70945-DT. |
| Citation | 187 F.Supp.2d 852 |
| Parties | Trenton MILLENDER, # 243075, Petitioner, v. Stanley ADAMS, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan |
John F. Royal, Detroit, MI, for petitioner.
Janet Van Cleve, Lansing, MI, for respondent.
Trenton Millender ("Petitioner"), presently confined at the Riverside Correctional Facility in Ionia, Michigan, has filed this petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 through counsel. In his application, petitioner challenges his conviction after a jury trial for three counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct, M.C.L. 750.520b; three counts of armed robbery, M.C.L. 750.529; one count of assault with intent to do great bodily harm, M.C.L. 750.84; three counts of felonious assault, M.C.L. 750.82; and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, M.C.L. 750.227b. For the reasons set forth below, the petition for writ of habeas corpus is DENIED.
Petitioner's convictions arise out of armed robberies, sexual assaults, and other assaults which took place at the home of Elizabeth Wade in Detroit, Michigan, on July 11, 1994 at about 12:00 midnight. Mrs. Wade and her husband were out of town at the time. Her eighteen year old granddaughter Jermeka Roach was watching the house for her. Jermeka Roach's twenty-four year old boyfriend Corie Robinson, Corie Robinson's twenty-five year old sister, Tina Robinson, and three youths, Lisa Wells, age fourteen, Eugene Wells, age twelve, and Damon Brown, age fifteen, were also in the house when the home invasion took place.
At about midnight on Monday July 11, 1994, Tina Robinson, Corie Robinson, and Jermeka Roach left the house to put some gas in Tina Robinson's car. Tina and Corie walked ahead and Jermeka followed behind. Lisa Wells, Eugene Wells, and Damon Brown were asleep in one of the bedrooms. Someone shouted to the persons who were leaving the house to get back inside. Jermeka Roach ran back inside and hid in her grandparent's room beside the bed. The intruders forced Tina Robinson and Corie Robinson into the house at gunpoint. Two of the intruders were wearing ski masks. A third intruder carrying a long gun was not masked.
One of the intruders ran to the room where Jermeka Roach was hiding, paused, then went to the bedroom where the children had been sleeping. He forced the children to get up, hit Damon Brown with a hard object, and ordered them to get into the bathroom where he shut the door behind them. Jermeka Roach came out of her hiding place when she heard the intruders saying they were going to kill them if the missing person did not come out.
When Jermeka Roach came out of her grandparents' bedroom, a masked intruder referred to by the other intruders as "T-Bone" or "T" grabbed her by the neck. This intruder's eyes, nose, and square-shaped gold metal framed eyeglasses were visible through the holes in his ski mask. Transcript Volume I ("Tr.Vol.I") at 102. This intruder held a black handgun to Jermeka Roach's head during much of the incident. He ordered her to accompany him on a search for valuables throughout the house. The intruder forced Jermeka Roach to go to her grandparents' room where several hundred dollars cash was found in a dresser drawer. "T-Bone" also found and took a camcorder, a cell phone, and two long guns from the grandparents' room after a lengthy search through all of the dresser drawers, and the clothes in the closet. He also took some jewelry that was hanging from a chandelier.
"T-Bone" next forced Jermeka Roach to go to the living room where another intruder was holding Tina and Corie Robinson at gunpoint. Tina and Corie were laying on the floor naked. Jermeka Roach eventually identified the other masked intruder as Ericke Peterson and the unmasked intruder as Brian Maxwell. Although she could only see his eyes through his mask, she knew Ericke Peterson from prior contacts at her cousin's house and recognized him during the home invasion. Ericke Peterson ordered Jermeka Roach to take her clothes off and lay down on the floor, which she did.
Ericke Peterson ("Peterson") and "T-Bone" began talking about how much money had been found to that point. Peterson threatened to kill the victims or cut off their fingers if they did not get the amount of money they came for. "T-Bone" told Jermeka Roach that she knew where the drugs and money were and that she'd better produce them. She told him he had the wrong house. "T-Bone" put his gun to her head and threatened to blow her head off. Jermeka Roach testified that she was "scared, terrified" at that point.
Ericke Peterson then asked Jermeka Roach if she wanted to get raped. She said no. He asked her again, this time pointing his gun at her. She said yes. Peterson then forced Tina Robinson to perform oral sex on him. Peterson then ordered Tina Robinson to go into the kitchen where he forced her to submit to penile-vaginal penetration on the kitchen table.
Jermeka Roach identified Petitioner during his trial as the masked intruder referred to as "T-Bone." She also testified that a pair of glasses shown to her by the prosecutor appeared similar to the glasses "T-Bone" was wearing that night. Roach first identified Petitioner at an in-person lineup held on July 28, 1994, on the basis of his appearance and his voice.1 Tr. Vol. II at 9. Roach testified that she had seen Petitioner at her cousin's funeral about a year before the home invasion. Tr. Vol. I at 136.
Jermeka Roach testified that "Trenton, he was over me, and he had stuck the gun in my vagina and asked me did I want to get shot or whatever." Tr. Vol. I at 116. Petitioner did not shoot her, but kept saying that she "better come up with some more money or else he was going to kill me." Tr. Vol. I at 117. "T-Bone" then left Jermeka Roach and went over to her boyfriend, Corie Robinson.
"T-Bone" tried to extract information about additional valuables from Corie Robinson by breaking several of his fingers with a pair of pliers. He held the pliers in his right hand while pointing the gun at Corie Robinson with his left hand. Corie was unable to offer any information about additional valuables.
Corie Robinson identified Petitioner at trial as the masked intruder referred to as "T-Bone" who had broken his fingers at gunpoint while demanding information about more valuables. Corie Robinson did not identify Petitioner at the July 28, 1994 in-person lineup. Further, he identified another subject in the lineup as the perpetrator. He did not recall whether he was told that he had identified someone other than Petitioner. Corie Robinson testified at the trial that he had seen Petitioner one time before the incident, at Grace Hospital where Petitioner had come with Ericke Peterson, Dericke Peterson, and Donwell Harris to visit Donwell Harris's mother. Corie Robinson testified that this hospital visit took place "[t]hat Sunday before." Tr. Vol. II at 73. Donwell Harris was another grandchild of Elizabeth Wade and a cousin of Jermeka Roach.
Petitioner then returned to Jermeka Roach, still armed with the pliers and his handgun. Pointing the handgun at her chest, Petitioner squeezed her hands and fingers, without breaking any of them. Petitioner threatened to start breaking fingers and toes if he was not told the whereabouts of more money. Jermeka Roach was unable to tell Petitioner about any more money because there wasn't any more to tell about. Tr. Vol. I at 118.
Shortly thereafter, someone called loudly from outside the house that it had been fifteen minutes and that it was time to go. The intruders then forced the two adult female victims to crawl and walk to a basement closet where they were shut inside with the child victims who had been taken there earlier. Some time later, Corie Robinson went downstairs and let the others out of the closet. When they went back upstairs, the intruders were gone. It was undisputed that the intruder identified as Petitioner wore a ski mask throughout the entire incident and spoke to or in the presence of many of the victims during the incident.
Tina Robinson testified that Ericke Peterson forced her to have oral and vaginal sex with him at gunpoint. At trial, she identified Petitioner as the man who had broken her brother Corie Robinson's fingers with pliers. However, she did not identify Petitioner as one of the perpetrators at the July 18, 1994 in-person lineup. Further, she identified someone else as the perpetrator at Petitioner's lineup and was subsequently told that she had not identified Petitioner. Tr. Vol. II at 27-29. When asked at trial how she was able to identify Petitioner as one of the perpetrators, she replied, "[b]y his height." Tr. Vol. II at 26.
Lisa Wells testified that she was awakened by the noise of someone being beaten in the living room the night of the incident. She pretended to be asleep. A masked man wearing glasses and armed with a handgun whom she later identified as Trenton Millender came into the bedroom and turned on the light. The man left briefly, returned, and began beating her cousin Damon Brown. The man took the three children to a nearby bathroom and forced them into it. Lisa and Eugene Wells laid down on the floor. Petitioner hit Damon Brown with his handgun, knocking him down and making blood fly everywhere. Lisa Wells identified Petitioner at trial. She also identified him at the July 28, 1994 in-person lineup. She testified at trial that she identified Petitioner at the lineup by his voice alone and that she had been able to see him while he was speaking at the lineup. Tr. Vol. II at 95-98.
Eugene Wells testified that he woke up the night of the incident when h...
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