Nields v. Bradshaw

• Decision Date: 06 April 2007
• Docket Number: No. 05-4001.,05-4001.
• Citation: 482 F.3d 442
• Parties: Richard NIELDS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Margaret BRADSHAW, Warden, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

482 F.3d 442

Richard NIELDS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Margaret BRADSHAW, Warden, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 05-4001.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: February 1, 2007.

Decided and Filed: April 6, 2007.

ARGUED:

T. Kenneth Lee, Public Defender's Office, Ohio Public Defender Commission, Columbus, Ohio, for Appellant. Carol Ann Ellensohn, Attorney General's Office of Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, for Appellee.

ON BRIEF:

T. Kenneth Lee, Kyle E. Timken, Public Defender's Office, Ohio Public Defender Commission, Columbus, Ohio, for Appellant. Carol Ann Ellensohn, Anna Marie Franceschelli, Attorney General's Office of Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, for Appellee.

Before BOGGS, Chief Judge; GILMAN and SUTTON, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge.

In 1997, an Ohio jury convicted Richard Nields of aggravated murder with prior calculation and design, aggravated felony murder, and aggravated robbery. At the conclusion of the penalty phase, the state trial court imposed the jury's recommended sentence of death. Nields appealed, but both the Ohio Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court found his claims to be without merit. Subsequently, Nields filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal district court that raised 30 alleged constitutional errors in the state-court proceedings. Adopting the Report and Recommendation of the designated magistrate judge in its entirety, the district court both denied the petition and declined to certify any of Nields's claims for appeal. This court, however, granted Nields a Certificate of Appealability (COA) as to five of his claims. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

The Ohio Supreme Court set forth the following facts and procedural history of this case in State v. Nields, 93 Ohio St.3d 6, 752 N.E.2d 859, 870-73 (2001):

On the night of March 27, 1997, Patricia Newsome was found strangled on her kitchen floor. Police arrested Richard Nields, defendant-appellant, Newsome's frequent live-in companion, at Newsome's home that night, not long after Springfield Township Police had transported him there. Defendant was indicted for aggravated murder and aggravated robbery, found guilty as charged, and sentenced to death.

Prior to 1997, defendant and Patricia Newsome had an on-again, off-again relationship for approximately ten to twelve years. In the year leading up to the murder, they lived together at Newsome's home in Finneytown, Springfield Township, in Hamilton County. Newsome worked as a realtor in Fairfield, and defendant was a keyboard musician who was out of work most of the time. On March 27, 1997, Newsome had lunch with her friend, Dorothy Kiser. Newsome told Kiser that she asked defendant to move out. Even though defendant had packed his clothes in his car in order to move out, "he kept coming back to the house."

In the weeks leading up to March 27, defendant would call Newsome with hostile messages. On one occasion, an angry call for Newsome was received by the office receptionist, Floanna Ziegler, from a man identifying himself as a musician. Newsome wrote the incident down and told Ziegler, "I'm trying to file charges against him and I want to document everything that he said to you."

During the afternoon of March 27, Dorothy Alvin had a conversation with defendant, who was a stranger to her, at Lulu's bar in Springfield Township. Defendant told Alvin that the lady whose house he lived in was throwing him out. Defendant further told Alvin, "I'd like to kill her, but I guess I won't do that because I don't want to go to prison."

Later, during the evening of March 27, Barbara Beck and Patricia Denier were dining at the Briarwood Lounge on Hamilton Avenue. At approximately 10:30 p.m., defendant entered the bar and approached the two women, both of whom he knew. Both women noticed blood on his right hand and asked him what happened. Defendant said to them, "[Y]ou'll hear it on the news tomorrow." Defendant also kept repeating, "I'm in serious, serious trouble." Both women thought that he was in shock and was acting strange. Neither smelled any alcohol on his breath.

As Beck and Denier left the lounge, defendant walked them to their car and asked to go with them. After they declined to take defendant with them, defendant told them, "I'm going to be driving home in a Cadillac." They saw defendant walk across the street to a white Cadillac. Friends of Patricia Newsome testified that she owned a white Cadillac but never let anyone else drive it, especially defendant, "because of the way he drank."

Anthony Studenka was at DJ's Pub on Winton Road on the night of March 27, a little before midnight and sat down next to a person at the bar who "told me he killed somebody." That person was defendant. Defendant showed Studenka his hands, which had cuts on them, and told Studenka that he had killed some kid who was a drug pusher. Defendant then suddenly became belligerent and started calling Studenka insulting names. Kimberly Brooks, a friend of Studenka, also heard defendant declare that he had killed someone and noticed that defendant had "dried blood all over" his hands. However, defendant then denied that he had killed anyone, and said that he had helped drag the body away. Brooks called 911 to report defendant's statements.

Springfield Township Police Officer Greg Huber was in front of DJ's Pub when he heard a radio call that a male at the bar was bragging that he had killed someone. Huber encountered defendant inside the bar and asked him to step outside because of the noise. After initially refusing to do so, defendant went outside and spoke with Huber, who then noticed blood on both of defendant's hands. When asked about the blood, defendant told Huber that he was in a fight across the street at Lulu's bar. At that time, Police Sgt. Ken Volz arrived on the scene. Huber then went to Lulu's to investigate and discovered that there had been no fight there.

Sgt. Volz and another officer, Clayton Smith, spoke with defendant outside of DJ's Pub. Defendant told the officers that the story of the killing he was telling inside the bar was really about a Clint Eastwood movie. Smith, who was familiar with such movies, asked defendant questions to find out to which movie defendant was referring. However, defendant could not sufficiently answer any of his questions. Sgt. Volz then instructed Smith to drive defendant home due to his "intoxication level."

Defendant pointed to the white Cadillac across the way as "his girlfriend's car" that he drove, which Volz learned was registered to Patricia Newsome. Volz then went to Newsome's house on 8527 Pringle Avenue, "to check on [her] well being." When he peered through the front window, he could see that the television and some lights were on, and he could hear the dog barking inside.

As Officer Smith drove up to the Pringle Avenue residence with defendant, Sgt. Volz was standing on the front porch area. Defendant "became very uptight and aggressive and verbal and almost yelling" at Smith. Defendant declared that they were not going into the house without a search warrant. Defendant eventually calmed down, and the officers let him enter the house and hoped he would calm down for the night. However, after defendant entered the house, the officers could see defendant through the front window "waving his hands * * * in an erratic fashion."

As the officers were leaving, they noticed the door on the attached garage was open. Officer Smith entered the open lit garage and peered in a window that looked into the kitchen. Smith saw "a female * * * on the ground [who] * * * was obviously deceased." The officers went to the front door and saw defendant through the front window still waving his arms. They knocked on the door, and as defendant opened the door, they grabbed his arm, pulled him outside, and handcuffed him. Police arrested defendant and advised him of his Miranda rights. Sgt. Volz entered the house to check on the victim but could not detect a pulse.

While defendant was detained in the police cruiser, he kept asking Officer Smith, "[I]s she alive?" During the arrest, police found fifteen traveler's checks in defendant's possession, all of which bore Patricia Newsome's name. Police Chief David Heimpold arrived at the scene and readvised defendant of his Miranda rights. Defendant told Heimpold that he and Newsome had been in an argument. She hit him with the telephone, he then pushed her, and she hit her head on a bookcase. Defendant also mentioned that someone named "Bob" was also there, but shortly thereafter, he admitted that this was a lie. Defendant admitted that he had choked Newsome after they had had a fight. The assistant medical examiner, who performed the autopsy on Newsome concluded that she had died from asphyxia due to manual strangulation.

Defendant was incarcerated at the Hamilton County Justice Center. Two days after the murder, he talked with Timothy Griffis, who was serving time that weekend for nonpayment of child support. Defendant told Griffis that "he had killed his girlfriend," that they had argued, and that he "jumped on top of her, started beating her up." Defendant said that he then went to a bar. He came back to Newsome's home to see if she was breathing and started strangling her. He laid the phone on top of Newsome's chest, called her either "bitch" or "baby," and told her, "Call me from heaven." According to Griffis, defendant at times appeared to be remorseful, but at other times, he exhibited a carefree attitude while recounting the details of the murder. Defendant also told Griffis that he took money, jewelry, and traveler's checks out of Newsome's purse. According to Griffis, defendant was kind of upset because he could not use the traveler's checks.

On May 2, 1997, the grand jury indicted defendant for aggravated robbery, aggravated murder with prior calculation and design, and aggravated felony-murder...