Thompkins v. Trierweiler

• Decision Date: 17 February 2021
• Docket Number: CASE No. 2:18-CV-11775
• Parties: DESEANTA R. THOMPKINS, #500757, Petitioner, v. TONY TRIERWEILER, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan

DESEANTA R. THOMPKINS, #500757, Petitioner, v. TONY TRIERWEILER, Respondent.

CASE No. 2:18-CV-11775

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION

February 17, 2021

PAUL D. BORMAN United States District Judge

OPINION AND ORDER DENYING THE PETITION FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, DENYING A CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY, AND DENYING LEAVE TO PROCEED IN FORMA PAUPERIS ON APPEAL

I. Introduction

This is a habeas case brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Michigan prisoner Deseanta R. Thompkins ("Petitioner") challenges his conviction for first-degree premeditated murder, MICH. COMP. LAWS § 750.316(1)(a), which was imposed following a jury trial in the Wayne County Circuit Court. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in 2015. In his pleadings, Petitioner raises claims concerning the non-disclosure of evidence, the exclusion of a co-defendant's statement, and the admission of witness testimony relating a co-defendant's statements, and the effectiveness of trial counsel. For the reasons set forth herein, the Court denies the petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The Court also denies a certificate of appealability and denies Petitioner leave to proceed in forma pauperis on appeal.

II. Facts and Procedural History

Petitioner's conviction arises from a fatal shooting at a bus stop in Detroit, Michigan in 2013. Petitioner was tried in a joint trial with co-defendants Leander Stacey Thompkins ("Leander") and William Roy Lee ("Lee"). Petitioner and Lee were tried before the one jury and Leander was tried before a separate jury. The Michigan Court of Appeals described the underlying facts, which are presumed correct on habeas review, see 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1); Wagner v. Smith, 581 F.3d 410, 413 (6th Cir. 2009), as follows:

The twenty-five year old victim in this case, Jonathon Michael Stokes (a/k/a "Slim"), was found shot to death near a bus stop in the City of Detroit on July 31, 2013. The victim's identification was found next to his body. His front pockets were turned inside out as though someone had rummaged through his pockets and his Cartier glasses were nowhere to be found. The victim had been shot five times—four times in the legs and once in his head; all shots were from behind. The four bullets recovered from the victim's body revealed that all bullets came from the same barrel of a .38 caliber weapon.

Defendants were charged in the victim's murder and were tried together. Deseanta and Leander are cousins. Deseanta was also known as "D," "De" or "Day." Leander was sometimes referred to as "Le Le." Although tried together, there were two juries—one for Leander and another for Deseanta and Lee. At trial, it was the prosecutor's theory that defendants were upset with the victim and thought he was a "snitch." In contrast, defendants argued that this was a case of mistaken identity and that the shooter was actually Leander's cousin, Dejuan Griffin (Griffin), whose street name was similar to Deseanta's—"Da Da."

Jeffrey Pursey testified that on the night of the murder he was on his way to a liquor store on Seven Mile between Grand River and Telegraph to meet a friend and go to the casino. Pursey was unable to pull into the driveway of the liquor store because there were three individuals in the way. One individual had on dark pants and a black hoody. Another had on dark pants and a white shirt. Pursey was not entirely sure what the third individual was wearing, but knew he was wearing dark clothing. At trial, Pursey identified Lee as the one in the white t-shirt and Deseanta as the one in the hoody. Pursey testified that Lee actually waved Pursey into the parking lot. Pursey's friend arrived within a couple of minutes. Pursey put his phone and charger on his friend's front seat and was planning to go into the liquor store to grab a drink when he heard five gunshots.

Pursey went up to Seven Mile and saw the same three individuals running toward him. Pursey grabbed his phone from his friend's car and dialed 911 while driving to the area. He saw a body lying on the ground. Pursey called 911 and later gaveDetective Detrick Mott a written statement and identified Lee from a photo array as the individual who waved him into the parking lot and the one he later saw running towards him. Pursey identified Deseanta from another array as the individual in the black hoody.

All three defendants attacked the credibility of Pursey's testimony because the victim's family had given Pursey $12,000 before trial as a reward for his cooperation. The victim's mother, Dorothy Strong-Stokes, testified that she and her husband had originally put up a $27,500 reward with Crime Stoppers, hoping to apprehend their son's killers. Although Pursey provided critical information in the case and had testified at several preliminary examinations, Crime Stoppers informed Strong-Stokes that Pursey did not qualify to receive the reward because he had not made a tip directly to them. Crime Stoppers told Strong-Stokes that if she wanted Pursey to have the money, she would have to do it herself. They returned the Stokes' money. Strong-Stokes testified that she felt $12,000 was a fair reward. She did not intend the payment as a bribe for Pursey's testimony. Pursey denied that the $12,000 influenced his testimony at a later preliminary examination or at trial. In fact, when Pursey gave his statement to police and positively identified Lee and Deseanta, he was unaware that there was a reward through Crime Stoppers.

The only witness at the bus stop the night of the murder was Castro Pettway. Pettway saw three individuals approaching from the east. One had on a black hoody and another was wearing a white t-shirt. They stopped about 40 feet before the bus stop and were talking amongst themselves. They continued to approach the bus stop when theindividual wearing the hoody mentioned something to the victim about a bus and pulled out a gun. Pettway heard and saw the first shot fired and then ran. He heard three or four more shots. Pettway waited approximately five minutes and then went back to retrieve his bag. Pettway could not identify the shooters at trial.

Walter Williams was doing some maintenance in the area where the murder occurred. He heard four gunshots in the distance. From a window, Williams could see that there was a man on the ground and four others around him. Three of the men were kneeling down and appeared to be going through the man's pockets. Like Pettway, Williams could not identify any of the individuals at trial.

Another key witness for the prosecution was Diamond Ruff (Ruff), who testified that she was with all three defendants the night of the shooting. Ruff testified that she had known the victim for seven years and he was once her best friend. She knew Lee as "Will," Deseanta as "De" (the letter), and Leander as "Lee" or "Lee Lee." Ruff testified that both the victim and defendants sold marijuana.

On the day of the murder, Ruff had been drinking Cognac since the morning. She also had been smoking "kush," which she described as a more "exotic" and "stronger" form of weed. Ruff was riding around with defendants in Lee's Yukon or Suburban. She probably "dozed off" in the car from smoking and drinking. At approximately 10:00 p.m., Deseanta went to the store to buy more liquor and blunts. Lee received a phone call and told the caller, "be there in a minute." All three defendants then got out of the car. Defendants returned after approximately 10 minutes. They seemed "hypedup" so Ruff asked them what was happening. Leander said, "I got that n* * * * *, I got that n* * * * *." In her statement to police, Ruff said that Defendant Leander Thompkins said, "I got that n* * * * *, I got that n* * * * * ... I had to pop a n* * * * * a couple of times. That n* * * * * got handled."

Ruff did not know what Leander was talking about. Defendants dropped her off at a friend's house. While at her friend's house, Ruff received a call that the victim was dead. Ruff put together a candlelight vigil, which defendants attended. Although Ruff could have contacted the victim's parents with information about the murder, she was scared to do so. Ruff eventually gave Mott a statement and identified defendants from photo arrays.

As part of his investigation, Mott went to the liquor store to see if there was useable surveillance footage. Because the footage ran a ten hour loop, Mott had to capture the video on his phone's camera. Therefore, as the parties acknowledged, the footage was not good. The jury watched the surveillance video from inside and outside the store.

Mott testified that Lee gave police a statement on November 22, 2013. The video was played for the Deseanta/Lee jury, only. In the statement, Lee told Mott that Leander was there at the time of the shooting, but blamed the shooting on "Day" or "Day Day" (Griffin), who shot the victim because "he was snitching or being an informant in the neighborhood."

Mott testified that Leander also made an informal statement to police on November 22, 2013 at which time Leander indicated he was with his cousin at the time of the shooting. Mott spoke with Leander asecond time on November 25, 2013. Leander denied that he was present during the murder, but implicated his cousin, Griffin, saying "that's the kind of person he is." Leander demonstrated for Mott how Griffin shot the victim. Griffin had asked Dwayne Haywood to borrow a weapon, but Leander did not think Griffin was going to kill the victim. Leander vehemently denied being part of the crime. He was released from custody shortly after making his statement, but was later re-arrested after Mott had a chance to interview Ruff and learned that Leander admitted to shooting the victim.

In front of the Deseanta/Lee jury, only, Hasheem Beamon testified that, on the night of the murder, he was with defendants, as well as Haywood, "Da Da" (Griffin) and "50." At some point, Leander, "Da Da" and "50" left; neither Lee nor Deseanta went

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