Thompson v. Belleque, 99C15857
| Decision Date | 31 December 2014 |
| Docket Number | 99C15857,A140461. |
| Citation | 268 Or.App. 1,341 P.3d 911 |
| Parties | Matthew Dwight THOMPSON, Petitioner–Appellant, v. Brian BELLEQUE, Superintendent, Oregon State Penitentiary, Defendant–Respondent. |
| Court | Oregon Court of Appeals |
268 Or.App. 1
341 P.3d 911
Matthew Dwight THOMPSON, Petitioner–Appellant
v.
Brian BELLEQUE, Superintendent, Oregon State Penitentiary, Defendant–Respondent.
99C15857
A140461.
Court of Appeals of Oregon.
Argued and Submitted May 20, 2013.
Decided Dec. 31, 2014.
Daniel J. Casey argued the cause and filed the briefs for appellant.
David B. Thompson, Senior Assistant Attorney General, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Mary H. Williams, Deputy Attorney General, Anna M. Joyce, Solicitor General, and Susan G. Howe, Senior Assistant Attorney General.
Before ARMSTRONG, Presiding Judge, and NAKAMOTO, Judge, and EGAN, Judge.
Opinion
ARMSTRONG, P.J.
Petitioner was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to death. He sought post-conviction relief challenging his conviction and sentence on a number of grounds, which the post-conviction court denied. He appeals the resulting judgment, contending that the post-conviction court erred in rejecting his claims that his trial and appellate counsel provided him with constitutionally deficient representation in the guilt and penalty phases of his trial and on appeal. For the reasons explained below, we affirm.
I. THE UNDERLYING CRIMES
We begin with the facts of the underlying crimes, as taken from the Oregon Supreme Court opinion on direct review of petitioner's conviction and death sentence.
“About 10:30 p.m. on November 18, 1994, Andrew McDonald and his wife, Debra Oyamada, were at the Driftwood Tavern in Portland. Defendant and his companion, Paul Whitcher, entered the tavern and ordered a pitcher of beer. Oyamada was sitting at a video poker machine and McDonald was sitting at the bar. Defendant was wearing a plaid shirt. Defendant and Whitcher approached Oyamada. Defendant asked Oyamada if she was from ‘the “samurai family” ’ or ‘from samurai blood.’ She responded, ‘As a matter of fact, yes, I am.’ Defendant continued, but Oyamada said she did not want to talk. Oyamada turned her back to defendant because she thought those were ‘weird questions' and that defendant was ‘overbearing.’ Defendant persisted, saying, ‘I need to know about it. I'm a warrior and I want to know about this.’ Oyamada replied that she did not want to talk about it. Defendant then sat next to Oyamada. She said, ‘You're sitting in someone else's seat.’ After that, defendant got up from the seat and started to walk toward the door. As they walked, McDonald approached defendant and Whitcher and said, ‘Please leave her alone, she doesn't want to talk about it.’ Pat Disciascio, the bartender, became concerned, and he directed
defendant and Whitcher to leave the tavern. When defendant and Whitcher did not leave immediately, Disciascio said ‘Good night, you guys,’ and pointed toward the door. As defendant and Whitcher left the tavern, one of the two men said, ‘I feel like killing somebody tonight.’ Defendant and Whitcher then stood outside, where defendant said to Whitcher, ‘I'm going to go
back in there and kick that guy's ass.’ Defendant stated to Whitcher, ‘If we do this, you know, we're going to jail.’
“Between five and ten minutes after leaving, defendant ran into the tavern alone, grabbed McDonald from behind, began stabbing him, and dragged him outside. Oyamada tried to pry defendant off of McDonald. Defendant then turned on Oyamada, hitting her in the head, throwing her to the ground, and stabbing her in the head and neck. Bill Jones, another tavern patron, grabbed defendant. Defendant stabbed Jones six times. Defendant then ran away. Ambulances took McDonald, Oyamada, and Jones to the hospital. McDonald died as a result of his wounds.
“Defendant and Whitcher went to defendant's grandmother's home, where defendant lived. Defendant introduced Whitcher to his grandmother, then she went to her room to sleep. About 1:30 a.m. on November 19, 1994, defendant's grandmother awoke and went downstairs because she heard a lot of noise. She saw Whitcher cleaning up broken glass and defendant cleaning grape juice off the rug. She asked Whitcher to leave. Defendant said that he was going to see that Whitcher got home safely, and the two men left the house. When defendant returned shortly, his grandmother was still cleaning grape juice. Defendant said he would clean the grape juice and told his grandmother to go to bed, which she did. Before she fell asleep, she heard the washing machine running.
“About 1:30 a.m. on November 19, 1994, Sally Woolley called 9–1–1 to report that she heard loud, angry, male voices outside her home. Woolley reported that a man was lying face down in the street. Another man, wearing a plaid shirt, was kneeling over him and rolled him partially onto his side. The man in the plaid shirt rummaged through the other man's pockets, then ran away.
“The police arrived. The man on the street was identified as Whitcher. He had been stabbed 16 to 20 times and was dead. One pocket had been turned inside out.
“About 2:00 a.m. on November 19, 1994, the police found defendant walking nearby. He smelled of alcohol and was nervous and evasive. His shoes were untied and, although it was a cold night, he was sockless. One eye was swollen. The police thought that defendant might have witnessed Whitcher's stabbing and questioned him. After denying that he had been in an altercation, defendant stated that
he lived nearby with his grandmother, but gave the police his mother's address. He denied ever having been arrested or being on probation. After a record check indicated that he had been arrested and that currently he was on probation, defendant was taken into custody.
“The police first contacted defendant's mother, who stated that defendant did not live with her. She gave the police defendant's grandmother's address. The police contacted defendant's grandmother at her home. She invited the officers into her home and gave them permission to look around. Defendant's grandmother then led them to the washing machine in the basement and opened the lid. Blood was smeared on the outside of the machine. The washed clothing in the machine had stains consistent with blood. The grandmother told police that the clothing in the machine was defendant's. The state's criminologist concluded that the DNA recovered from the top of the washing machine, and from jeans, a shoelace, and a sock found in the washing machine, was consistent with Whitcher's.
“At 12:30 p.m. on November 19, 1994, detectives returned to defendant's grandmother's home with a search warrant. After finding no weapons, the police left. They returned around 5:00 p.m. that day. With defendant's grandmother's consent, the detectives searched her basement. A detective found a bloody knife on a cross-
beam and a blood-smeared wallet inside a wood stove. The knife was consistent with defendant's grandmother's description of a knife defendant owned. The state's criminalist concluded that the blood on the knife and wallet matched Whitcher's blood type.”
State v. Thompson, 328 Or. 248, 250–52, 971 P.2d 879, cert. den., 527 U.S. 1042, 119 S.Ct. 2407, 144 L.Ed.2d 805 (1999).
Petitioner was charged in a 22–count indictment with the murders of McDonald and Whitcher and related crimes. Petitioner pleaded not guilty to all counts and proceeded to a jury trial, in which petitioner was represented by attorneys Lynne Dickison and Jon Martz. The jury ultimately convicted petitioner of four counts of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, two counts of felony murder, one count of first-degree robbery, two counts of first-degree burglary, and two counts of first-degree assault. Id. at 252–53, 971 P.2d 879. After a penalty-phase proceeding, petitioner was sentenced to death. Id. at 253, 971 P.2d 879. On automatic and direct review,
the Oregon Supreme Court affirmed petitioner's death sentence, and the United States Supreme Court denied review.
II. THE POST–CONVICTION CASE AND APPLICABLE LAW
In a petition for post-conviction relief, petitioner alleged 22 claims of ineffective assistance of counsel before and during the guilt and penalty phases of his trial, and on appeal. Following the post-conviction trial, the post-conviction court issued a 60–page letter opinion, as well as an additional 19–page memorandum detailing further findings and conclusions, and rejected each of petitioner's claims. On appeal, petitioner raises 26 assignments of error, many of which contain multiple arguments regarding trial counsel's allegedly deficient performance and the ways in which those deficiencies affected the outcome of petitioner's trial...
To continue reading
Request your trial