Mitchell v. Wetzel
| Decision Date | 25 October 2019 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 2:15-1465 |
| Parties | WAYNE MITCHELL, Petitioner, v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Pennsylvania |
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
Wayne Mitchell's ("Petitioner's") Amended Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus (Doc. 12) will be granted only to the extent that he seeks a new capital sentencing hearing. His guilt-phase claims will be denied.
In September 1997, Petitioner raped his estranged wife, Robin Little, on two separate occasions, nine dates apart. The first rape occurred on September 1, 1997. The next day, Petitioner gave a statement to the police in which he confessed to the crime. The second rape occurred during the early morning hours of September 10, 1997. Petitioner stabbed and choked Robin to death during this attack. Later that same day, he gave a statement to the police in which he confessed that he killed Robin and raped her vaginally and anally, thereby committing, during the commission of the killing, the felonies of rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse ("IDSI").
Petitioner pleaded guilty to committing the September 10, 1997, rape and IDSI. Following a trial before the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County held in October 1999, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder and of the September 1, 1997, rape. At the conclusion of the sentencing phase of his trial, the same jury determined that he should be sentenced to death on the first-degree murder conviction.
Before this Court is Petitioner's Amended Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus (Doc. 12), which he filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. He asserts that he is entitled to a new trial or, at a minimum, another sentencing hearing. After careful consideration of Petitioner's claims, the Court concludes that he has demonstrated his trial counsel performed deficiently when he failed to provide critical evidence to, and prepare the testimony of, the defense's sole expert, Dr. Lawrence Bernstein. This deficient performance prejudiced Petitioner at his capital sentencing hearing. Therefore, if the Commonwealth still seeks the death penalty for Petitioner, it must conduct another capital sentencing hearing.
Petitioner and Robin began dating around 1994, when they were in high school. (Trial Tr. at 123-26). At Petitioner's trial, the Commonwealth introduced entries from Robin's journal in which she chronicled their volatile relationship and Petitioner's abusive behavior towards her. (Id. at 158-67). In September 1996, Petitioner threatened to kill Robin if she ever left him. (Id. at 160). She gave birth to their son in January 1997 and they were married in April 1997, when Petitioner was age 19 and Robin was age 18. Robin and their son lived with her mother, Debra King, in a home located in an apartment building on Hamilton Avenue in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Petitioner moved in with them in the late spring of 1997. (Id. at 122-27).
By July 1997, Robin had ended her relationship with Petitioner, and Petitioner had moved out. Robin and their son relocated to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to live with her brother. During that time, Robin told her sister-in-law that she was afraid of Petitioner and believed that one day he would kill her. (Id. at 253-55).
In August 1997, Robin and their son moved back to Pittsburgh to live with her mother. On September 1, 1997, Petitioner was working at a nearby gas company and Robin visited him there. They argued because she was seeing another man, and Petitioner dragged her into his foreman's office and raped her. (Id. at 371-72; Doc. 26-2 at 24-33). Robin reported the rape to the police and she went to Magee Women's Hospital for an examination. (Id. at 135-40).
The police arrested Petitioner on September 2, 1997. He waived his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) and agreed to give a taped statement to Wilkinsburg Police Detective Doug Yuhouse. Petitioner admitted that he raped Robin and said that he did so because he was in a "rage" due to the fact that she was seeing another man. The audio recording of Petitioner's confession to Det. Yuhouse was played for the jury at his trial. (Trial Tr. at 217-18; see also Doc. 26-2 at 24-33).
The Commonwealth charged Petitioner with rape and related counts. He was arraigned and remained in jail pending a preliminary hearing, which was scheduled for September 9, 1997. Robin filed for a Protection from Abuse ("PFA") order and the court granted a temporary order that prohibited Petitioner from having any contact with her for the next ten days. It scheduled the final PFA hearing for September 10, 1997.
At the September 9, 1997, preliminary hearing, Petitioner waived the charges to court in exchange for a nominal bond with a condition that he seek immediate in-patient treatment for alcohol abuse at St. Francis Hospital. (Id. at 453-55, 466-67, 472). For reasons disputed at trial, Petitioner was not admitted to St. Francis Hospital. Later that afternoon, Robin, afraid and in tears, telephoned her mother and said that Petitioner had called her several times. (Id. at 172-73). Petitioner eventually convinced Robin to permit him to visit. He arrived at her home just after 4:00 p.m. and this visit, during which they argued again because she was seeing another man, lasted around three hours. (Id. at 375-76).
Very early the next day, at approximately 1:00 a.m. on September 10, 1997, Petitioner called Robin, apologized to her and once again convinced her to let him come to her home. (Id. at 378-80). Later that same morning, Petitioner attended the 9:00 a.m. PFA hearing. Robin did not appear and, as a result, the court dismissed the PFA order. Around that same time, Robin's unclothed body was discovered in a vacant lot near her Hamilton Avenue home. She had been stabbed multiple times in the neck and once in her abdomen and had injuries to her neck consistent with strangulation. (Id. at 280-88).
Homicide detectives immediately began searching for Petitioner. At the time, he was living with his mother at her Pittsburgh home located on East Liberty Boulevard. He took the bus there after the PFA hearing, and as soon as he arrived his mother told him that she had just learned that Robin had been murdered. She urged Petitioner to go to the emergency room at St. Francis Hospital, which he did around noon. When he was discharged around 2:00 p.m., detectives with the Pittsburgh Police Department, Dennis Logan and Richard McDonald, were there waiting for him. Petitioner agreed to accompany them to the police station. (Id. at 358-59).
Petitioner again waived his Miranda rights and gave a statement to Det. Logan. He confessed that earlier that morning he vaginally and anally raped Robin while he stabbed and choked her to death. At Petitioner's trial, Det. Logan testified that Petitioner "showed no signs of being intoxicated" when he gave his confession. (Id. at 360). Det. Logan asked Petitioner if he was under the influence of any drugs or alcohol, and Petitioner replied that he was not. According to Det. Logan, Petitioner "appeared to be in control of his emotions and...of his faculties." (Id.) He said that Petitioner "was very alert and very articulate in how he spoke." (Id. at 364).
Det. Logan recounted to the jury what Petitioner stated in his confession, and his notes and report were introduced as trial exhibits. Petitioner admitted once again that he raped Robin on September 1, 1997. (Id. at 371-72). Petitioner then described to Det. Logan the events leading up to, during and following the September 10, 1997, rape and murder. (Id. at 375-94).
Petitioner told Det. Logan that on September 9, 1997, after he left Robin's home around 7:00 p.m., he hung out with friends and "had a couple drinks[.]" (Id. at 377). He returned to his mother's house around 1:00 a.m., called Robin, apologized to her, and asked her to allow him to see her again. (Id. at 378-79). Robin was hesitant, Petitioner told Det. Logan, but he eventually convinced her to let him come over. Petitioner walked from his mother's house to Robin's Hamilton Avenue home. (Id. at 380). When he arrived there around 1:30 a.m., Robin was sitting on the front porch with another man, who fled the scene after Petitioner confronted him. (Id. at 380-81).
Once they were alone, Petitioner told Det. Logan, he punched Robin in the face and stomach. When she tried to run from him, he grabbed her and continued to beat her as he dragged her toward a vacant lot about two doors down from her home. (Id. at 382-83). According to Petitioner, Robin screamed "He's going to kill me" (id. at 383), and her last words were pleas begging for someone to help her. (Id. at 389).
Petitioner told Det. Logan that as he dragged Robin toward the vacant lot, he saw a knife located on the porch of nearby house. He punched Robin "as hard as he could two or three time in the face and midsection[,]" which disabled her while he grabbed the knife from the porch. (Id. at 383-84). He returned to Robin, stabbed her in the stomach, tore her clothes off, wrapped his hands around her neck and then raped her, first vaginally and then anally. (Id. at 384-86). After doing so, he stabbed Robin multiple times in the neck. (Id. at 386-87).
In his confession to Det. Logan, Petitioner said that after he killed Robin, he took her clothes and left her naked body in the vacant lot. (Id. at 387-88). He did so because "[i]f she wanted to f—k everybody, now everybody could see her f—cking body." (Id. at 387). Petitioner stated that during his walk back to his mother's house, he disposed of Robin's clothing in a sewer on Kelly Street. (Id. at 388-89). Based on this information, the police searched the sewers on Kelly Street and recovered Robin's clothing. (Id. at 77, 84-88).
Several hours later, Petitioner took a bus to the 9:00 a.m. PFA hearing. He told Det. Logan that, as he walked to the bus stop, he disposed of the clothing...
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