Suggs v. Sheldon

• Decision Date: 17 November 2020
• Docket Number: Case No. 5:18-CV-743
• Parties: ANTHONY SUGGS, Petitioner, v. EDWARD SHELDON, Warden Respondent
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

ANTHONY SUGGS, Petitioner, v. EDWARD SHELDON, Warden Respondent

Case No. 5:18-CV-743

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO

November 17, 2020

JUDGE PAMELA A. BARKER

Magistrate Judge George J. Limbert

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

This matter is before the Court upon the Report & Recommendation ("R&R") of Magistrate Judge George J. Limbert (Doc. No. 17), which recommends that Petitioner Anthony Suggs's Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus (Doc. No. 1) be dismissed with prejudice. Petitioner has filed Objections to the R&R. (Doc. No. 20.) For the following reasons, Petitioner's objections to the R&R are overruled. The R&R is adopted and the Petition is DISMISSED.

I. Background

A. Factual Background

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth District of Ohio (hereinafter "state appellate court") summarized the facts underlying Suggs's state court conviction as follows:

{¶2} According to Betty B., on July 24, 201[4]¹, Mr. Suggs, her ex-boyfriend, came to her house looking for her. When she went outside to talk to him, he immediately struck her, causing her to temporarily lose consciousness. When she came to, she was back inside her house, and Mr. Suggs was still attacking her. At some point, Mr. Suggs got a knife from the kitchen and held it to her throat. He then forced her upstairs and into the bathroom. He also allegedly reached into her bra and took money that she was keeping there. By this time, however, police had responded to emergency calls placed by the others in the house. After kicking through the front doorof the house, the responding officers came upstairs with their firearms drawn. Upon seeing the officers, Mr. Suggs attempted to crawl out the bathroom window, but they dragged him back inside. After handcuffing Mr. Suggs, they searched him and found cocaine.

{¶ 3} The Grand Jury indicted Mr. Suggs for aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, kidnapping, felonious assault, possession of cocaine, obstructing official business, and resisting arrest. At trial, the jury found him guilty of kidnapping, the lesser-included offense of assault, possession of cocaine, obstructing official business, and resisting arrest. The trial court sentenced him to a total of 12 years for those offenses. That same day, it also sentenced him in two other cases. Finding that he had violated the community control he was under for a previous offense, the court sentenced him to two years imprisonment. It also sentenced him to three years imprisonment for trafficking in cocaine and heroin offenses that arose out of a separate incident. The court ordered Mr. Suggs to serve his prison terms in each of the three cases consecutively for a total of 17 years.

State v. Suggs, Nos. 27812, 27865, 27866, 2016 WL 4649486, at *1 (Ohio App. 9th Dist. Sept. 7, 2016).

B. Procedural History

1. Relevant Prior State Trial Court Proceedings

Prior to Suggs's July 2014 assault of Betty B., Suggs pleaded guilty to various offenses in two separate state court proceedings.

a) Case Number CR-2012-03-0638

On March 13, 2012, the Summit County Grand Jury indicted Suggs on four counts: robbery, felonious assault, domestic violence, and unlawful restraint. (Doc. No. 17 at PageID# 736.) On March 14, 2013, Suggs retracted his not guilty plea and pleaded guilty to felonious assault and domestic violence. (Id.) The trial court dismissed the remaining changes on the recommendation of the State. (Id.) The trial court sentenced Suggs to two years in prison and a mandatory period of three years of post-release control. (Id.) Suggs would be permitted to file a motion for judicial release after serving six months' imprisonment. (Id.) On December 6, 2013, the trial court granted Suggs'srequest for judicial release. (Id.) The trial court suspended the balance of his prison sentence and placed him on community control for a two-year period. (Id.)

b) Case Number CR-2014-03-0883

On April 4, 2014, the Summit County Grand Jury indicted Suggs on five drug-related counts: trafficking heroin, trafficking cocaine, possession of heroin, possession of cocaine, and possession of drug paraphernalia. (Id.) The State also charged Suggs with violating his community control terms and conditions due to these new charges. (Id.) On July 15, 2014, Suggs waived a community control violation hearing and admitted the violation. (Id. at PageID# 737.) Suggs subsequently pleaded guilty to the trafficking counts, which were amended to lesser felonies. (Id.) The trial court accepted Suggs's plea and dismissed the remaining charges and remaining criminal forfeiture specifications upon the State's recommendation. (Id.)

2. State Trial Court Proceedings

Following his assault of Betty B., the Summit County Grand Jury indicted Suggs on ten counts on August 4, 2014: aggravated robbery (Count One), aggravated robbery (Count Two), aggravated burglary (Count Three), aggravated burglary (Count Four), kidnapping (Count Five), felonious assault (Count Six), felonious assault (Count Seven), possession of cocaine (Count Eight), obstructing official business (Count Nine), and resisting arrest (Count Ten). (Id.) Suggs pleaded not guilty. (Id.) This case was numbered as CR-2014-07-2219. (Id.)

On April 13, 2015, the jury found Suggs guilty of kidnapping (Count Five), a lesser included offense of assault (Count Six), possession of cocaine (Count Eight), obstructing official business (Count Nine), and resisting arrest (Count Ten). (Id. at PageID# 738.) The trial court sentenced Suggs to eleven years for Count Five, 180 days for Count Six, one year for Count Eight, 90 days for CountNine, and 90 days for Count Ten. The trial court ordered the sentences imposed on Count Five and Eight to be served consecutively to each other, and ordered the sentences imposed in Counts Six, Nine, and Ten to be served concurrently with each other and concurrently with Counts Five and Nine.² (Id.)

That same day, the trial court in CR-2012-03-0638 revoked Suggs's community control and imposed a two-year prison term for Count Two (felonious assault). (Id.; see also Doc. No. 7-1, Ex. 15, PageID# 107.) The trial court in CR-2014-03-0883 sentenced Suggs to eighteen months in prison for amended Count One (trafficking heroin) and eighteen months in prison for amended Count Two (trafficking cocaine), to be served consecutively to each other. (Doc. No. 17, PageID# 738; see also Doc. No. 7-1, Ex. 16, PageID# 109.) The trial court ordered that the twelve-year sentence imposed in CR-2014-07-2291 be served consecutively to the five total years imposed in CR-2012-03-0638 and CR-2014-03-0883. (Doc. No. 17, PageID# 738.)

3. Direct Appeal

Suggs, through appellate counsel, filed notices of appeals in each of his three criminal cases, as well as notices of delayed appeal in CR-2012-03-0638 and CR-2014-03-0883. (Id.) The state appellate court granted the delayed filings and consolidated the three appeals. (Id.)

Suggs, through counsel, filed an appellate brief on March 9, 2016. In his brief, Suggs raised the following assignments of error:

I. The trial court erred by entering a judgment of conviction as to Count Five, Kidnapping as a felony of the 1st degree, and sentencing accordingly, as the verdict form was sufficient only for a felony of the 2^nd degree.

II. The trial court erred by not granting Suggs [sic] motion for mistrial based on the prosecutor's statement during the closing argument.

III. A. Mr. Suggs was denied his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel at trial when the trial counsel failed to ask for the jury instruction for lesser included offenses of Kidnapping.

B. Mr. Suggs was denied his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel at trial when his trial counsel failed to object to the inadequate verdict form.

IV. Conviction of Suggs for Kidnapping was against the manifest weight of the evidence, as the jury clearly lost its way in determining that Suggs committed Kidnapping offense.

V. The trial court erred when it improperly impose [sic] maximum and consecutive sentence [sic].

(Doc. No. 7-1, Ex. 26, PageID# 126, 137.) On September 7, 2016, the state appellate court overruled Suggs's assignments of error on the merits and affirmed the judgment of the trial court. (Doc. No. 7-1, Ex. 29.)

4. Appeal to Ohio Supreme Court

On January 13, 2017, Suggs, proceeding pro se, filed a delayed notice of appeal of the state appellate court's September 7, 2016 ruling with the Ohio Supreme Court. (Doc. No. 17, PageID# 739; Doc. No. 7-1, Ex. 31.) On March 15, 2017, the Ohio Supreme Court granted Suggs's motion for delayed appeal and ordered Suggs to file a memorandum in support of jurisdiction within thirty days. (Id.) On April 20, 2017, the Ohio Supreme Court noted that "[t]he records of this court indicate that appellant has not filed a memorandum in support of jurisdiction, due April 14, 2017, in compliance with the Rules of Practice of the Supreme Court of Ohio and therefore has failed to prosecute this cause with the requisite diligence." (Doc. No. 7-1, Ex. 34.) The Ohio Supreme Court thus dismissed Suggs's case. (Id.)

5. Post-Conviction Relief Proceedings

On November 29, 2017, Suggs executed a petition in the trial court to vacate or set aside judgment of conviction or sentence, which was filed on December 11, 2017. (Doc. No. 17, PageID# 740.) Suggs set forth a single claim:

I. A violation of Amendment IV, V, VI, and XIV

A witness for the state was giving [sic] a leanient [sic] sentence to testify. The prosecution did not tell the court or defense about the "deal." As required by Crim. R. 16(B)(1)(e). Since this happened Crim. R. 33(A)(2) is the remedy. This is a Brady violation, prosecutorial misconduct.

(Doc. No. 7-1, Ex. 35, PageID# 218.) Suggs also filed motions for appointment of counsel and for expert assistance. (Doc. No. 7-1, Exs. 36, 37.) The trial court denied Suggs's motion as untimely. See State v. Suggs, Case Nos. CR 2012-03-0638, CR 2014-03-0883, CR 2014-07-2219, Doc. No. 4 (Summit Cty. Ct. Common Pleas Feb. 13,...