Montgomery v. Bagley

• Decision Date: 31 March 2007
• Docket Number: No. 3:00 CV 7298.,3:00 CV 7298.
• Citation: 482 F.Supp.2d 919
• Parties: William T. MONTGOMERY, Petitioner v. Margaret BAGLEY, Warden, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

482 F.Supp.2d 919

William T. MONTGOMERY, Petitioner v. Margaret BAGLEY, Warden, Respondent.

No. 3:00 CV 7298.

United States District Court, N.D. Ohio, Eastern Division.

March 31, 2007.

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Lori A. McGinnis, Loudonville, OH, Richard M. Kerger, Kerger & Associates, Toledo, OH, for Petitioner.

Daniel R. Ranke, Michael L. Collyer, Office of the Attorney General, Jon W. Oebker, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Cleveland, OH, for Respondent.

MEMORANDUM OF OPINION AND ORDER

OLIVER, District Judge.

This matter is before the court on William Montgomery's ("Montgomery" or "Petitioner") Petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 for Writ Of Habeas Corpus By A Person In State Custody (ECF No. 13) (the "Petition.") Montgomery alleges forty-eight grounds for relief in his Petition.

Also before the court are Respondent's Return of Writ (ECF No. 25) ("ROW") and Montgomery's Traverse To Respondent's Return Of Writ. (ECF No. 85) ("Traverse.")

For the reasons that follow, Montgomery's petition for a writ of habeas corpus is granted. The Respondent shall either: (1) set aside Montgomery's convictions and sentences as to all counts in the indictment, including the sentence of death; or (2) conduct another trial. This shall be done within 180 days from the effective date of this Opinion. On this court's own motion, the execution of this Opinion, and hence its effective date, is stayed pending appeal by the parties.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Montgomery appeals from his convictions and death sentence for the aggravated murder of Debra Ogle and Cynthia Tincher. The facts leading to Montgomery's conviction are as follows:

Between 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. on March 8, 1986, Cynthia Tincher was found dead, shot in the head, in her car at the corner of Angola and Wenz Roads in Toledo, Ohio. That same morning, Tincher's roommate, Debra. Ogle, did not show up for work and was declared missing. Four days later, on March 12, 1986, Ogle was also found dead, also shot in the head, in a wooded area off of Hill Avenue. William Terry Montgomery was charged with two separate counts of aggravated murder with capital specifications for these killings.

The State relied on testimony by Glover Heard ("Heard"), Montgomery's co-defendant. The State's theory was that Montgomery murdered Ogle while robbing her using a deadly weapon, and then, in one continuous criminal enterprise, murdered Tincher because she was the only person who could place Montgomery with Ogle that morning. To prove its theory, the State presented, in the form of testimony and exhibits, evidence to support the following factual propositions:

• Montgomery had purchased a .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol and ammunition just weeks before the murders (See Blackburn, Tr. IV at 1411-31; Cleland, Tr. IV at 1433-42);

• Montgomery was wearing a dark hooded jacket with the hood tied tight around his face when he entered the gun shop to purchase the pistol (Blackburn, Tr. IV at 1419, 1423-24);

• Montgomery and the young women were acquaintances (See Heineman, Tr. IV at 1176-84; Earl, Tr. IV at 1186-97; Roberts, Tr. IV at 1198-1205);

• Both young women were alive the night of March 7th and the early morning hours of March 8th (See Glaze, Tr. IV at 1209-20; Bailey, Tr. IV at 1281-93; Heard, Tr. V at 1769; Snyder, Tr. V at 1810);

• Montgomery, Heard, another friend, Bruce Ellis, and Montgomery's then girlfriend, Louren, went out drinking On the night of March 7th (Ellis, Tr. IV at 1445);

• The group did not stop partying until the bar closed in the early morning of March 8th (Id. at 1446);

• Montgomery Was wearing a blue pin striped suit jacket' and jeans that night (Id.; Randleman, Tr. IV at 1462);

• Later in the morning of March 8th, Montgomery, Louren, and Heard went to Montgomery's uncle's house, where a very drunk Montgomery was arguing with Louren until his uncle broke it up (Randleman, Tr. IV at 1463-66; Heard, Tr. V at 1767);

• After defusing the argument, Montgomery's uncle, Randleman, took a gun away from Montgomery and put it and its clip on top of the refrigerator (Randleman, Tr. IV at 1466);

• The gun Randleman took from Montgomery was a black automatic (Id.);

• Montgomery and Heard then left the Randleman residence, both passing through the kitchen where the gun was on top of the refrigerator, to get in a cab (Id. at 1488);

• Montgomery was armed with a .380 caliber pistol the morning of March 8th (Snyder, Tr. V at 1807);

• The cab took Montgomery and Heard to Ogle and Tincher's apartment on Hill Avenue at Montgomery's direction (Heard, Tr. V at 1767-68; Reed, Tr. V at 1517);

• Both Montgomery and Heard entered the apartment (Heard, Tr. V at 1769; Snyder, Tr. V at 1810);

• Ogle was getting ready to go to work and Tincher, although she popped out to say hello, was still in bed (Snyder, Tr. V at 1810);

• Ogle agreed to give Montgomery and Heard a ride to Montgomery's mom's apartment on Airport Road (Heard, Tr. V at 1770; Snyder, Tr. V at 1810);

• Montgomery, sitting in the front seat, gave Ogle the directions and eventually told her to stop on the side of the road on Hill Avenue (Heard, Tr. V at 1770-72);

• Ogle and Montgomery got out of her car and walked roughly forty yards into a field or wooded area off Hill Avenue (Id. at 1771-72);

• Once in that area, Ogle was in the squat position (Id. at 1772);

• Heard heard two gunshots (Id. at 1773);

• Heard saw Ogle's body laying on the ground (Id.);

• Montgomery rushed back to Ogle's car and motioned for Heard to get in the front passenger's seat as Montgomery got into the driver's seat (Id.);

• Montgomery drove Ogle's car back to the victims' apartment complex (Id. at 1774);

• Montgomery picked a gun up off the floor of the car, exited the vehicle, and told Heard to take the car (Id.);

• Heard then left in the car and took Ogle's wallet as he abandoned the car roughly one block from his home (Id. at 1774-75);

• A black person wearing a dark hooded jacket with the hood tied tight around her or his face left Tincher's car the morning Tincher was found at Angola and Wenz Roads (Rank, Tr. IV at 1249-51; Gomell, Tr. IV at 1263, 1265; Mauder, Tr. IV at 1402-03);

• On March 9th, Montgomery, with Heard and Armstead, took the blue pin striped suit jacket he wore the night before to the cleaners (Armstead, Tr. V at 1544-46; Grove, Tr. V at 1573-74; Fisher, Tr. V at 1586-87; Heard, Tr. V at 1778; St. Ex. 31);

• The gun Randleman put on top of the refrigerator was not there the next morning, March 9th (Randleman, Tr. IV at 1472);

• A bullet, consistent with the type that could be used in Montgomery's gun which was identified as the murder weapon, was found in Tincher's room in Tincher and Ogle's apartment (RKeith, Tr. IV at 1303; PKeith, Tr. IV at 1317.)

• Ogle's car was found roughly one block from Heard's home by police on March 9th (See Ragans, Tr. IV at 1334-41);

• Ogle's wallet was found in Heard's dresser drawer (See Marok, Tr. IV at 1344-51; Mallory, Tr. IV at 1363-1379);

• A black hooded jacket and a semi automatic pistol manual were found in Montgomery's mother's apartment (Przeslawski, Tr. V at 1670; Marx, Tr. V at 1844);

• Tincher died from a gunshot wound to the head, which entered from the right side (passenger side since Tincher was sitting in the driver's seat of her car) (Patrick, Tr. IV at 1389-91);

• Ogle died from a gunshot wound to the head (Desley, Tr. V at 1633);

• All the discharged bullets and casings at both scenes were fired from the .380 caliber semi automatic pistol that Montgomery's mother gave police, which was the same gun Montgomery purchased just weeks earlier — the .380 caliber Bursa semi automatic pistol (See Alexander, Tr. VI at 1870-1902); and

• Montgomery led the police to the wooded area where Ogle's body was discovered (Marx, Tr. V at 1851-55).

The defense did not present any witnesses. Rather, the defense relied on cross-examination in an attempt to raise reasonable doubt about Montgomery's guilt. The defense was able to elicit testimony that impeached some of the State's witnesses, including:

• Not all of the witnesses that saw the person leaving the area where Tincher was found could determine the gender of the fleeing individual (Gomell, Tr. IV at 1265; Mauder, Tr. IV at 1409) • Those witnesses could not determine the color or the material of the hooded jacket (Rank, Tr. IV at 1249-51; Gomell, Tr. IV at 1273-75; Mauder, Tr. IV at 1409-11);

• No fingerprints were found on Ogle's car (Mallory, Tr. IV at 1380.)

• Besides Tincher's, no identifiable fingerprints were found on Tincher's car (Id. at 1381);

• No fingerprints were found on the pistol Montgomery's mother gave police, which was identified as the murder weapon (Marx, Tr. V at 1851);

• The clerk who sold Montgomery the .380 caliber pistol, who remembered what he was wearing the day he purchased the gun, admitted she never remembered what any other customers were wearing (Blackburn, Tr. IV at 1426-29);

• Ellis never saw Montgomery with a gun on March 7th, the night the group went out drinking or any other time (Ellis, Tr. IV at 1459-60);

• Montgomery did not have a dark hooded jacket with him that night (Heard, Tr. V at 1794);

• Montgomery always had money, had money March 7th, and paid for the entire group to go out on March 7th (Ellis, Tr. IV at 1453; Randleman, Tr. IV at 1502; Heard, Tr. V at 1785);

• Montgomery and Heard both left through the kitchen where the pistol Randleman took from Montgomery was located (Randleman, Tr. IV at 1488.)

• Montgomery was not angry when he and Heard arrived at Ogle and Tincher's apartment (Heard, Tr. V at 1787);

• Montgomery and Heard had never discussed robbing anyone that night (Id. at 1789);

• Montgomery, despite giving various accounts, always maintained to police that Heard, not he, killed the young women...