O'Neal v. Ramey
| Decision Date | 16 December 2020 |
| Docket Number | Case no. 4:17cv00765 PLC |
| Parties | CHARLES M. O'NEAL, Petitioner, v. EILEEN RAMEY and ERIC SCHMITT, Respondents. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri |
Petitioner Charles M. O'Neal seeks federal habeas corpus relief from a Missouri state court judgment entered after a bench trial. 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Respondents Eileen Ramey and Eric Schmitt filed a response to the petition, along with copies of the materials from the underlying state court proceedings. Petitioner replied and addressed only Grounds One and Five. With respect to Ground Five, Petitioner requests an evidentiary hearing. See Pet'r reply at 10 [ECF No. 19]. For the reasons set forth below, the Court denies the petition, as well as Petitioner's request for an evidentiary hearing.2
Prior proceedings
In April 2007, the State filed an "Information in Felony Case" charging Petitioner with being a prior offender under Missouri Revised Statutes § 558.016 and committing on February 10,2007, in Howard County, Missouri: murder in the first degree in violation of Missouri Revised Statutes § 565.020 by knowingly causing Dawn Kelly's ("Victim's")3 death by shooting her (Count I); assault in the first degree in violation of Missouri Revised Statutes § 565.050 by pointing "a loaded .22 cal[iber] rifle at Jared Forbes" in an attempt to kill Mr. Forbes and, while doing so, inflicting serious physical injury on Mr. Forbes (Count II); and armed criminal action in violation of Missouri Revised Statutes § 571.015 related to the first-degree murder offense charged in Count I (Count III). By a signed by Petitioner, his attorneys, and the prosecutor on August 31, 2007, the State withdrew the death penalty, Petitioner waived his right to a jury trial, and both parties agreed "that venue may be changed to Randolph County, Missouri." Subsequent proceedings occurred in the Circuit Court of Randolph County, Missouri.
In September 2008, the State filed a "First Amended Information in Felony Case" ("first amended information") charging Petitioner (not as a prior offender) with committing on February 10, 2007, in Howard County, Missouri: murder in the second degree in violation of Missouri Revised Statutes § 565.021 by shooting and killing Victim "as a result of the attempted perpetration of the class C felony of Felonious Restraint under" Missouri Revised Statutes § 565.120 (Count I); the Class A felony of first-degree assault in violation of Missouri Revised Statutes § 565.050 by pointing "a loaded .22 cal[iber] rifle" at Mr. Forbes in an attempt to kill him and resulting in the infliction of serious physical injury on him (Count II); and armed criminal action in violation of Missouri Revised Statutes § 571.015 related to the second-degree murder offense charged in Count I (Count III). Materials from Petitioner's guilty plea proceeding and his first post-conviction proceeding challenging that plea, which occurred between the filing of the first amendedinformation in September 2008 and the filing of the motion to withdraw that information in August 2010, are not available in the record. Based on Petitioner's statements in his petition, the State's statements in its response and the Missouri Court of Appeals' opinions in Petitioner's appeals, as well as a review of the docket sheets for Petitioner's criminal case resulting in the plea, Case No. 07H5-CR00058-02, and Petitioner's first post-conviction proceeding, Case No. 09RA-CV00820, it appears that:
(1) Petitioner pleaded guilty to the three offenses charged in the first amended information;
(2) on November 19, 2008, the plea court imposed consecutive terms of imprisonment of thirty years, fifteen years, and ten years for the three offenses;
(3) Petitioner challenged his plea through a pro se motion seeking post-conviction relief ("PCR") under Missouri Supreme Court Rule 24.035 that he filed in May 2009 and then through an amended PCR motion filed by Petitioner's first post-conviction motion attorney in August 2009;
(4) the post-conviction motion court held a hearing on the amended PCR motion in April 2010; and
(5) on July 30, 2010, the post-conviction motion court "found in favor of [Petitioner] and vacated [Petitioner]'s guilty plea[] in this case."
After Petitioner's successful challenge to his guilty plea, the State moved to withdraw the "first amended information," which the State argued had been "predicated upon [Petitioner]'s guilty plea and the plea agreement entered into by the State and [Petitioner]." See also Trial Tr., Resp'ts Ex. A, at 94 ().
The docket sheet for Petitioner's underlying criminal case, State v. O'Neal, Case No. 07H5-CR00058-03, states in relevant part that: (1) the trial court granted Petitioner's plea attorneys leave to withdraw; (2) on December 7, 2010, two attorneys entered an appearance for Petitioner; (3) at a hearing on December 13, 2010, Petitioner advised that he "ha[d] no objections to [the] Motion to file the second amended charges providing [the] death penalty is still waived and [a] jury trial [is] waived," and the prosecuting attorney argued the "[s]ame"; (4) on January 26, 2011, the State filed the "Second Amended Information in Felony Case" ("second amended information"); and (5) the then-presiding trial judge "recuse[d himself] due to prior guilty plea/bench trial issue." On February 4, 2011, the Missouri Supreme Court assigned a state court trial judge to preside over Petitioner's case.
By the second amended information, the State charged Petitioner, as a prior offender under Missouri Revised Statutes § 558.016, with committing on or about February 10, 2007, in Howard County, Missouri: murder in the first degree in violation of Missouri Revised Statutes § 565.020 (Count I); the Class A felony of assault in the first degree in violation of Missouri Revised Statutes § 565.0504 (Count II), and armed criminal action in violation of Missouri Revised Statutes § 571.015 related to each of the offenses charged in Counts I and II (Counts III and IV). With respect to the first-degree murder offense in Count I, the State alleged that Petitioner, "after deliberation,knowingly caused the death of [Victim] by shooting her." With respect to the Class A felony of first-degree assault charged in Count II, the State alleged that Petitioner "pointed a loaded .22 cal[iber] rifle at Jared Forbes and then fought with him,"5 which conduct constituted "a substantial step toward . . . attempting to kill" Mr. Forbes and "inflicted serious physical injury on" him. With respect to the armed criminal action offenses in Counts III and IV, the State alleged that Petitioner committed the related felony (of either first-degree murder or first-degree assault) "by, with and through the use, assistance and aid of a deadly weapon."
The day of the shooting, which was also the day of Petitioner's arrest, Sergeant David Rice, an investigator with the Missouri Highway Patrol, interviewed Petitioner at the Howard County Sheriff's Department on three occasions. Petitioner filed a motion to suppress statements elicited by Sergeant Rice, arguing that any statement he made after he "indicated he no longer wanted to speak" resulted in a violation of his rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. In particular, Petitioner focused on statements he made during the third interview where Sergeant Rice: (1) reviewed Petitioner's Miranda rights;6 (2) questioned Petitioner until he "indicated that he no longer wanted to talk"; (3) turned off the recorder "while questioning continued for fifteen minutes," and then (4) turned the recorder "back on . . . [with] questioning resum[ing]" without another review of Petitioner's Miranda rights.
In November 2011, the trial court conducted a hearing on Petitioner's motion to suppress. The State presented Sergeant Rice and introduced, without objection, the "Notification of Rights" form Petitioner initialed and signed at the start of each of the three interviews, as well as the cd recording and transcript for the three interviews. Petitioner presented Jeff Glandon, who at thetime of the shooting was an officer with the City of New Franklin, Missouri, Police Department and who assisted the Howard County Sheriff's Department in responding to the shooting.
At the suppression hearing, Sergeant Rice testified that he, alone, interviewed Petitioner three times on February 10, 2007, with all interviews focused on the shooting incident at Victim's home. Sergeant Rice conducted each interview in a private interview room at the Howard County Sheriff's Department and audiotaped each interview as it occurred (except for a period of approximately fifteen minutes during the third interview). At the beginning of each interview, Sergeant Rice reviewed with Petitioner his Miranda rights and Petitioner initialed and signed a "Notification of Rights" form. At some point during the course of the interviews Petitioner told Sergeant Rice that he had consumed approximately twenty beers and a pint of vodka at an undisclosed time earlier "that day."7
The first interview began at approximately 4:00 a.m. and lasted approximately seventy minutes. Sergeant Rice testified that, during the first interview, they spent time discussing background information, such as information about Petitioner, his relationship to Victim, and his relationship to her family. Petitioner told Sergeant Rice that Victim "was the mother of his on-again/off-again girlfriend," Amanda Kelly, and Petitioner went to Victim's home the night of February 9, 2007, to find Amanda.
Petitioner provided during the first interview two different versions of his reasons for going into Victim's home with a gun. For the first version, Petitioner told Sergeant Rice he went to Victim's residence...
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