Richie v. Sirmons, No. 98-CV-482-TCK-SAJ.
| Decision Date | 21 May 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-CV-482-TCK-SAJ. |
| Parties | Lonnie RICHIE, Petitioner v. Marty SIRMONS, Warden, Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Oklahoma |
Lonnie Richie, McAlester, OK, pro se.
Randy Alan Bauman, Scott Wilson Braden, Federal Public Defender, Oklahoma City, OK, for Petitioner.
Brant Matthew Elmore, Jennifer L. Strickland, William L. Humes, Preston Saul Draper, Oklahoma City, OK, for Respondent.
This matter comes before the Court on remand from the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals for further proceedings consistent with its July 25, 2005, opinion. See Richie v. Mullin, 417 F.3d 1117, 1125 (10th Cir. 2005). By Order entered April 27, 2004 (Dkt. #55), this Court adopted and affirmed the Report and Recommendation of the Magistrate Judge (Dkt. #52), conditionally granting Petitioner's petition for writ of habeas corpus. Respondent appealed (Dkt. # 56), and the Circuit Court reversed and remanded for further proceedings (Dkt. # 69). Accordingly, all remaining issues presented by death row inmate Lonnie Wright Richie, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, are now before the Court.
Petitioner, who appears through counsel, challenges his murder conviction and death sentence in Tulsa County District Court Case No. CF-91-3676. See Dkt. # 6. Respondent, Marty Sirmoms, has filed a response to the Petition denying its allegations (Dkt. # 7). Petitioner has replied (Dkt. # 8). This Court has reviewed: (1) the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus; (2) the Response to the Petition filed by the State of Oklahoma; (3) the Reply to the Response filed by the Petitioner; (4) all supplemental materials, arguments and authorities filed by Petitioner, together with responses by Respondent and replies by Petitioner; (5) transcripts of Preliminary Hearing proceedings (Volumes I-V); (6) transcripts of various pretrial hearings and proceedings held November 22, 1991, January 31, 1992, March 22, 1993, March 31, 1993, April 29, 1993, May 3, 1993, and September 20, 1993 (seven separate volumes); (7) transcript of the jury trial proceedings, Volumes I-III, held September 20-27, 1993; (8) all documents and exhibits admitted in jury trial proceedings, with the exception of State's ex. # 17 (handgun), and ex. #27 (ammunition); (9) transcript of the sentencing proceedings held on October 18, 1993; (10) Original Record in Tulsa County Case No CF-91-3676, Volumes I-IV; (11) all other records before the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals which were transmitted to this Court; and (12) the records and transcripts from the evidentiary hearing held before Magistrate Sam Joyner in this habeas corpus matter. The Court has also taken into account the opinion and mandate of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richie, 417 F.3d at 1117.
For the reasons stated below, the Court finds that Petitioner is entitled to habeas corpus relief on his fifth ground. All other grounds for relief shall be denied.
On September 1, 1991, Tulsa police found the body of Mrs. Laura Launhardt in an abandoned house in rural Pawnee County. Petitioner and co-defendant Daniel Waller were charged with her murder, in addition to charges of kidnaping for extortion, robbery with a firearm and several counts of unauthorized use of a credit/debit card. The following evidence was presented during the guilt phase of Mr. Richie's trial.
On August 28, 1991, Mrs. Launhardt went to a K-Mart store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to have a prescription filled and do some shopping. On the same day several witnesses observed Mr. Richie and Mr. Waller hanging around outside the K-Mart store. Later in the afternoon, Clyde Huffines, an oilfield pumper, was checking leases near Mannford, Oklahoma, when he noticed three people in the area near a van on one of the leases. One of the two men approached Huffines and stated that they had "come up here to relieve ourselves." Huffines also noticed a woman standing in short weeds approximately 35 feet from him. The woman came up to Huffines and said that he had interrupted her from relieving herself and Huffines told her to "go ahead." The woman then said something to Huffines in a much softer voice which he was unable to understand. She repeated the statement, but Huffines was again unable to understand her. The woman turned and walked away from Huffines. Huffines subsequently identified the man he had spoken to as Mr. Richie, and the woman as Mrs. Launhardt.
Richie, Waller and Mrs. Launhardt ended up at an abandoned, storm-damaged house near Keystone Lake which was in close proximity to the above-mentioned oil lease. Once inside the abandoned house, Mrs. Launhardt's wrists and ankles were bound and a long strap was tied around her neck and attached to a clothes rod in a walk-in closet. Richie and Waller left the abandoned house in Mrs. Launhardt's van and proceeded to engage in a series of transactions utilizing the victim's ATM card and other credit cards which had been stolen from her.
That evening, Mrs. Launhardt's husband reported her missing to the Tulsa Police. The officer who took the initial missing person report was not helpful, so Mr. Launhardt began his own investigation. Mr. Launhardt learned that his wife's debit and credit cards had been used, so he again contacted the Tulsa Police. When Mr. Launhardt discovered that a Git-n-Go store in Muskogee, Oklahoma, had a video tape of one of the ATM transactions, he contacted the Muskogee Police. The Muskogee Police retrieved the tape. Mr. Launhardt reviewed it and saw two men on the tape using his wife's ATM card. The Tulsa Police then became more actively involved, and eventually arrested Daniel Waller at a motel in Muskogee. Waller led the police to the house in Pawnee County where Mrs. Launhardt's body was found. Richie was later apprehended in New Orleans, Louisiana, where Mrs. Launhardt's van was also found. At trial the prosecution argued that Mrs. Launhardt was deliberately killed by Richie because he lifted her by her feet causing her strangulation death from the strap around her neck. Richie's defense was that the victim was left alive in the abandoned house and died sometime later.
Petitioner, Lonnie Richie, a/k/a Lonnie Wright Richie, was convicted following a jury trial in the District Court of Tulsa County, Oklahoma, Case No. CF-91-3676, of one count of kidnaping for extortion, one count of robbery with a firearm, one count of unauthorized use of a debit card, one count of larceny of an automobile, and one count of murder in the first degree (malice aforethought and felony murder). At the conclusion of the sentencing stage of the trial, the jury found the existence of three aggravating circumstances: (1) continuing threat; (2) avoiding arrest or prosecution; and (3) murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel. The jury recommended a term of ninety-nine (99) years imprisonment for the kidnaping charge, sixty (60) years for the robbery with a firearm, twenty (20) years for the unauthorized use of a debit card, thirty (30) years for larceny of an automobile, and a death sentence as punishment for first degree murder. The trial court adopted the jury's recommendations and sentenced Petitioner accordingly on October 18, 1993. See S. Tr. at 2.
Petitioner filed a direct appeal of his conviction and sentence to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ("OCCA") in Case No. F-93-1095. Represented by attorney Cindy Brown, Petitioner raised fifteen (15) propositions of error2 on direct appeal:
Proposition I: Mr. Richie was tried for murder in Tulsa County in derogation of his rights under Article II, Section 20, of the Oklahoma Constitution, which guarantees trial in the county in which the crime occurred, and in violation of his right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Proposition II: The trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury that it was required to find the State had proven venue in Tulsa County by a preponderance of the evidence.
Proposition III: Mr. Richie was denied a fair trial and due process of law under the Federal and State Constitutions because the information failed to sufficiently describe the first degree felony murder underlying felony of kidnaping, nor was the jury instructed on the crime charged; further the information did not adequately describe the charged crimes of kidnaping for extortion and robbery by firearm. This defect in the information deprived Mr. Richie of the ability to determine the nature of the charges against him and adequately defend himself in violation of State and Federal Constitutional due process principles.
Proposition IV: The evidence was insufficient to sustain Mr. Richie's convictions for the charged crimes under Federal and State Constitutional principles.
Proposition V: The trial court's failure to issue a second degree murder instruction violated Mr. Richie's Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to a fair jury trial under the United States Constitution and Article 22, §§ 7, 9 and 20 of the Oklahoma Constitution, and his right to be free from the arbitrary imposition of the death penalty.
Proposition VI: The flight instruction given in this case violated Mr. Richie's fundamental presumption of innocence and denied him a fair and reliable trial, all in violation of the Fourteenth and Eighth Amendments to the United States Constitution and similar provisions of the Oklahoma Constitution.
Proposition VII: The trial court committed reversible error violating Appellant's Sixth Amendment right to confrontation and by not granting a new trial to Appellant when the State Medical Examiner made reference to the confession of the co-defendant during his...
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