Teleguz v. Kelly

• Decision Date: 01 August 2011
• Docket Number: Case No. 7:10CV00254.
• Citation: 824 F.Supp.2d 672
• Parties: Ivan TELEGUZ, Petitioner, v. Loretta KELLY, Warden, Sussex I State Prison, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Virginia

824 F.Supp.2d 672

Ivan TELEGUZ, Petitioner,
v.
Loretta KELLY, Warden, Sussex I State Prison, Respondent.

Case No. 7:10CV00254.

United States District Court, W.D. Virginia,Roanoke Division.

Aug. 1, 2011.

[824 F.Supp.2d 680]

Matthew C. Stiegler, Philadelphia, PA, and Elizabeth Peiffer, Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, Charlottesville, VA, for Petitioner.

Katherine Baldwin Burnett, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General, Richmond, VA, for Respondent.

OPINION JAMES P. JONES, District Judge.

A Virginia jury convicted Ivan Teleguz of the murder for hire of Stephanie Sipe, his former girlfriend and the mother of his child, and sentenced him to death. After unsuccessfully challenging his conviction

[824 F.Supp.2d 681]

and death penalty on direct appeal and in state collateral proceedings, Teleguz now petitions this court for a writ of habeas corpus.

Through his appointed attorneys, Teleguz raises a number of claims asserting that his conviction and sentence were unconstitutionally obtained. Among these claims, Teleguz contends that his trial counsel was ineffective at both the guilt and penalty phases, that prosecutors knowingly presented false evidence and failed to disclose exculpatory evidence, and that the prosecution unfairly denied him access to consular assistance from the Ukraine, his native country. He also asserts that he is actually innocent of the murder.

After a careful review of the record, I find that Teleguz's claims are without legal merit and accordingly deny his petition.

The reasons for my decision follow.

I. Facts.

In affirming Teleguz's conviction and sentence on direct appeal, the Supreme Court of Virginia summarized the facts in the light most favorable to the prosecution as follows:

During the summer of 2001, Teleguz hired Edwin Lee Gilkes, Jr., and Michael Anthony Hetrick to kill Sipe, who was Teleguz's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his young child. On July 21, 2001, Teleguz, driving his car, took Gilkes and Hetrick from their apartment in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Harrisonburg, Virginia, where Sipe lived. Teleguz told Hetrick he wanted Sipe's “throat cut” and “to make sure she was dead.” Once in Virginia, Teleguz waited in the car while Gilkes and Hetrick went into a Wal–Mart. Hetrick purchased a fillet knife, which Teleguz approved as a suitable murder weapon. Teleguz took the men to Sipe's apartment complex and pointed out her apartment. They then drove the car to a parking lot near Sipe's residence, where Gilkes and Hetrick got out of the car. Teleguz told the men to “wait until he had time to get back to Pennsylvania.”

After waiting several hours, Gilkes and Hetrick walked back to Sipe's apartment complex. Hetrick approached Sipe's apartment alone and gained entry by asking to use the telephone. Once in the apartment, Hetrick killed Sipe by cutting her throat. In the course of the attack, Hetrick injured his hand. Hetrick went to the bathroom to clean his hand and was surprised to find Sipe's infant son “in the bathtub with the water running.” Hetrick turned off the water and left the apartment. Gilkes and Hetrick returned to Pennsylvania by bus.

On the evening of July 23, 2001, Sipe's mother, Pamela Y. Woods, went to her daughter's apartment because she had not heard from Sipe during the previous two days and was unable to reach her by telephone. When Woods entered the apartment, she found Sipe's body in the front room and began screaming for help. Woods then found Sipe's twenty-three month-old son in the bathroom of the apartment, with the bathtub full of water. The child was unharmed. In response to Woods' screams, Mark Edwin Moore, a neighbor, went to Sipe's apartment and, after placing a blanket over Sipe's body, took Woods and her grandson out of the apartment.

The medical examiner testified that Sipe suffered a number of cuts described as defensive wounds, as well as three other wounds. The first, according to the medical examiner, was a superficial wound. The second wound was a “stabbing wound,” which affected the area “all the way from the left side of the neck ... to the right side of the neck” and consisted of a cut to Sipe's windpipe and esophagus. The medical examiner also testified that the third wound, the fatal wound, was a “cutting

[824 F.Supp.2d 682]

wound” which consisted of a cut approximately two and one-half inches deep into Sipe's trachea, larynx, and a major artery on the right side of Sipe's neck, which was completely severed.

At the crime scene, the Harrisonburg police discovered blood that did not belong to Sipe. Investigator Kevin A. Whitfield learned from Sipe's family members that Teleguz was the father of Sipe's son and that he was currently living in Pennsylvania. Investigator Whitfield also learned that relations between Sipe and Teleguz had been strained, and that Teleguz was upset about a court order requiring him to pay child support. On July 24, 2001, Investigator Whitfield interviewed Teleguz at Teleguz's residence in Pennsylvania. Teleguz denied any involvement in the murder, and stated he had been in Pennsylvania since July 20, 2001.

On December 14, 2001, Investigator Whitfield, assisted by Pennsylvania State Police, executed a search warrant on Teleguz. Police collected samples of Teleguz's blood, hair, and saliva. Testing revealed that Teleguz was not the source of the blood found at Sipe's apartment.

Also in 2001, Investigator Whitfield interviewed Mark Moore who told Whitfield that he had seen an unknown person around Sipe's apartment prior to her murder. When shown a photograph array that included a photograph of Teleguz, Moore told Investigator Whitfield he was about 70 percent certain Teleguz was the person he had seen at Sipe's apartment. Investigator Whitfield also interviewed Ryan Ferguson, who was with Moore the night he saw the individual leave Sipe's apartment. Ferguson was also shown a photograph array. Although Ferguson initially failed to identify Teleguz, he subsequently identified the photograph of Teleguz as the one which “most” resembled the person he had seen leaving Sipe's apartment. No arrests were made on the basis of these interviews.

The investigation stalled until February 2003, when Michael Nelson, a deputy marshal with the United States Marshal [sic] Service, contacted Investigator Whitfield with information about the Sipe murder. Aleksey Safanov, who was facing federal criminal charges, told Deputy Marshal Nelson that Teleguz had hired a black male from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to kill Sipe because Teleguz was angry about having to pay child support. According to Safanov, Teleguz said that Sipe had been murdered, and that Teleguz was upset because “[w]hoever killed her left blood evidence.” Safanov also told investigators that after Sipe's murder, Teleguz wanted to rob Sipe's parents, and that he and Teleguz had driven to Harrisonburg but ultimately did not commit the robbery.

Safanov's information led the police to Edwin Gilkes, who told the police that he refused Teleguz's offer to murder Sipe for pay but that Michael Hetrick accepted the offer. The police then contacted Hetrick who ultimately confessed to murdering Sipe. Hetrick said Teleguz had hired him to kill Sipe for $2,000, with half to be paid before the murder. When Teleguz received confirmation of Sipe's death, he paid Gilkes and Hetrick the remaining $1,000 plus an additional $500 for expenses. Subsequent testing revealed that Hetrick was the source of the unidentified blood found at Sipe's apartment.

Teleguz v. Commonwealth, 273 Va. 458, 643 S.E.2d 708, 714–15 (2007) ( “ Teleguz I ”).

II. Procedural History. A. State Proceedings.

Following Hetrick's confession, Teleguz was arrested in Pennsylvania on July 1,

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2004, and subsequently extradited to Virginia. A Rockingham County, Virginia, grand jury indicted Hetrick for the willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of a person by another for hire as an accessory before the fact, a Class 1 felony punishable by death. Va.Code Ann. § 18.2–31(2) (Supp.2010). Teleguz was appointed counsel and tried by a jury over four days in the Circuit Court of Rockingham County. The jury found Teleguz guilty of capital murder for hire on February 9, 2006. Following a separate penalty proceeding on February 13 and 14, 2006, the jury fixed Teleguz's punishment at death.

At the penalty hearing, the state presented evidence of Teleguz's prior criminal convictions and of the likely resulting pain from Sipe's injuries in the attack, as well as testimony by her relatives. Teleguz presented mitigation evidence, including testimony from his family members, and testimony regarding his background as an immigrant to the United States and his childhood in the Ukraine. The trial court entered a final judgment on July 20, 2006, sentencing Teleguz to death in accordance with the jury's verdict.

Teleguz appealed his conviction and sentence to the Supreme Court of Virginia, presenting twenty-six assignments of error.¹ Teleguz I, 643 S.E.2d at 708. The court unanimously affirmed the conviction and sentence on April 20, 2007. Id. at 732. On May 21, 2007, Teleguz filed a petition for rehearing, which was denied on June 22, 2007. Thereafter, Teleguz sought a writ of certiorari from the United States Supreme Court, which was denied on February 19, 2008, Teleguz v. Virginia, 552 U.S. 1191, 128 S.Ct. 1228, 170 L.Ed.2d 78 (2008), and moved for a rehearing, which was denied on April 14, 2008, 552 U.S. 1332, 128 S.Ct. 1927, 170 L.Ed.2d 785 (2008).

Post-conviction counsel was appointed, and Teleguz filed his petition for a writ of habeas corpus with the Supreme Court of Virginia on April 21, 2008. ² Teleguz also filed a motion for leave to exceed the court's fifty-page petition limit established by its rules, which the court denied. Teleguz's state habeas petition asserted twenty claims and requested expert assistance, discovery, and an evidentiary hearing.

The state ³ filed a...