Reyes v. Nurse
| Decision Date | 29 June 2022 |
| Docket Number | 20-1432 |
| Parties | Juan Reyes, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Mindi Nurse, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
ARGUED OCTOBER 25, 2021
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. No. 16-cv-2346 - Colin S. Bruce, Judge.
Before EASTERBROOK, ROVNER, and WOOD, Circuit Judges.
In 2004, six men decided to rob a marijuana dealer, William Thomas, at gunpoint in his home. Two of the robbers shot Thomas, who died. One of the two shooters also shot Timothy Landon, Thomas's business partner and guest, but Landon survived. In 2007, an Illinois jury convicted Juan Reyes of Thomas's murder, Landon's attempted murder, and home invasion. On the murder and attempted murder counts, the state's evidence against Reyes included Landon's identification of Reyes as the shooter after viewing a photo array. But that identification was far from ironclad. It took the police five attempts to extract it from Landon, and on several occasions, he seemed to confuse Reyes with another man who was not a suspect in the robbery. Reyes moved unsuccessfully, to suppress the identification.
After Reyes exhausted state-court review of his conviction, he moved for federal collateral relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C § 2254.[1] As he had done in state court, he argued that the identification procedure was impermissibly suggestive and that Landon's identification was too unreliable to pass constitutional muster. The district court denied his petition, and Reyes appealed. We agree with Reyes that the identification procedure the state employed was unnecessarily suggestive; the state court also expressed concern on this point. But in the end that court found that these flaws did not taint the conviction. Moreover, error alone is not enough to entitle Reyes to relief. A section 2254 petitioner must also show prejudice. Reyes cannot because the jury that convicted him heard significant evidence of his guilt beyond the identification and, critically, had the opportunity to evaluate most of the evidence bearing on the reliability of the identification. We affirm the district court's judgment.
We draw the details of the events leading to Reyes's conviction from the trial transcripts and the Illinois Fourth Appellate District's order affirming the conviction. See People v. Reyes, No. 4-07-0412 (Ill.App.Ct. Oct 7, 2008).
We begin with the robbery. In January 2004, Troy Hutchins, a marijuana dealer, learned that his supplier, William Thomas had a large supply of drugs and at least $40,000 in cash on hand at his home in Danville, Illinois. Hutchins and Thomas had quarreled after Hutchins gave Thomas counterfeit money for drugs. On January 28, Hutchins told another Danville drug dealer, Kenneth Wright, about the cash and drugs in Thomas's home. At least four other men were visiting Wright that day: Reyes, Alex Garcia, Joseph Hernandez, and Andre Smith. At some point, someone-possibly Hutchins-proposed robbing Thomas. All six men agreed to participate and split the proceeds.
Thomas's friend Timothy Landon-like Hutchins, a marijuana dealer who relied on Thomas for his supply-was visiting Thomas's home that same afternoon. Thomas's two daughters, Emily (nine years old at the time) and Alyssa (four years old at the time), were also in the house.[2] Thomas and Landon spent the afternoon smoking marijuana, drinking beer, and playing video games. Around dinner time, they went out with the girls to get food, but came home a short time later.
Around 9 p.m., the robbers arrived at Thomas's house. They had driven over in two vehicles. Reyes, Garcia, Hernandez, and Smith came in a maroon van, while Wright and Hutchins took a blue (or possibly white) Cadillac. The plan was for the four men in the van to carry out the robbery, because Hutchins and Wright knew Thomas and believed that he would recognize them.
Events from this point on are disputed. We first recount the agreed details, and then we revisit the remainder as we describe the testimony at trial. After parking the van near Thomas's home, two or three of the four men approached the enclosed porch. At least one of them then entered the house through the front door. Inside, Landon was seated on the couch, while Thomas was at a table near the television rolling a joint. Emily was also in the living room, doing homework; Alyssa was taking a bath. The first robber through the door stood inside for a few seconds. Whether, and how soon after, a second robber entered the home is disputed. Putting that point to one side, however, it is clear that the first robber soon pulled out a gun. According to one account, he immediately shot Landon once in the stomach; according to another, either he or a second gunman shot Landon in the stomach a bit later. Thomas jumped over the table and began to struggle with the gunman, while Emily fled down the hallway to find her sister. Landon also fled but glanced back at one point and saw Thomas still struggling with the shooter. As Landon was leaving through the back door, he heard the front door open again, and then heard two more gunshots.
During the struggle, Thomas was hit seven times by bullets from two different guns. He wound up outside, where he collapsed in the driveway before dying from his wounds. Landon escaped to a neighbor's porch. He survived but had to undergo surgery and spent over two weeks in the hospital recovering. Both of Thomas's daughters also survived. The robbers fled after the shooting without taking anything.
Police undertook a protracted investigation. On the night of the shooting, they collected physical evidence from the scene, including blood, bullets, spent casings, and clothing. They also took a statement from Emily. She described only one intruder, whom she characterized as "large," "fat," possibly Black, and wearing a hat or mask. They were not able to interview Landon right away-he had been sent straight into surgery-but police took a statement from him a few days later. In that statement, he described two intruders, one of whom he characterized as Black with a light complexion and the other as large and probably also Black. Landon was likely quite impaired by medication and the after-effects of surgery when he gave that statement; he later testified that he did not recall speaking to the police at all. Investigators also interviewed several neighbors and Thomas's girlfriend (Emily and Alyssa's biological mother).
About a week after the shooting, Keith Garrett, one of the investigating officers, paid a follow-up visit to Landon in the hospital. Landon was able to self-administer morphine at the time, but the record does not establish how muddled or clearheaded he was. Garrett showed Landon four 3-by-2 photo arrays, one of which was built around Reyes. Landon did not identify Reyes or anyone else as the man who had shot him.
Around ten days later, shortly after Landon was discharged but while he was still medicated, Garrett visited him and showed him the same arrays. Again, Landon did not identify a shooter.
Another ten days later, on February 23, Garrett showed Landon two new 3-by-2 arrays. One of the two included a more recent photo of Reyes. Landon again failed to identify anyone in the arrays as the shooter. He did, however, comment on a photo of a man named Peaslee (who was not a suspect) that he wasn't "the guy" but was "close." Peaslee's photo was in the same array as Reyes's photo, directly below it. A week after that, Garrett showed Landon five new arrays, none of which included Reyes. For the fourth time, Landon made no identification.
Nearly five months later, and six months after the robbery and shooting, Garrett made a fifth attempt to procure an identification from Landon. This time, he showed Landon a single 3-by-2 array that included the older photo of Reyes, as well as photos of Hernandez and Garcia. Peaslee's photo was not included. It seems Reyes's inclusion in the array was a mis-take-Garrett had meant to build it around Hernandez. But for the first time, Landon identified Reyes as the shooter. That same day, Landon showed Emily-the only other surviving eyewitness to the events inside the house-an array including the same picture of Reyes, but she did not make an identification.
In August, the state presented its evidence to a grand jury. It also secured arrest warrants for Reyes, Smith, and the other conspirators. Smith was arrested soon after, and in January 2006 he pleaded guilty to one count of murder, for which he received a 20-year sentence. Reyes was not located until February 2006, when he was arrested in Detroit. He was charged with Thomas's murder, Landon's attempted murder, home invasion, and several other offenses related to the robbery.
Before trial, Reyes moved to suppress Landon's identification. Landon testified at the suppression hearing. His cross-examination by defense counsel resulted in several confusing, still-disputed exchanges about Reyes's and Peaslee's photos. Counsel asked Landon several times whether Landon recognized Reyes in his photo. Sometimes Landon seemed to respond that the man in the photo was "not the individual [he] picked out"; sometimes he said that the picture "look[ed] like" the guy sometimes he responded "yeah" to counsel's question whether he said the photo "looks like him but it's not him" (referring to the Peaslee picture). Eventually he identified the "gentleman in the lower left-hand-corner" (i.e. Reyes) as the shooter. It is fair to say that the entire exchange was a muddle.
Reyes's counsel argued that Landon's identification had been a product of suggestive procedures and was unreliable, and he urged that the hearing colloquy illustrated the point. But the court disagreed and...
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