United States ex rel. Garcia v. Pfister, 11 C 1973

• Decision Date: 14 August 2012
• Docket Number: No. 11 C 1973,11 C 1973
• Parties: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ex rel. DANIEL GARCIA, Petitioner, v. RANDY PFISTER, Acting Warden, Pontiac Correctional Center, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ex rel. DANIEL GARCIA, Petitioner,

v.RANDY PFISTER, Acting Warden, Pontiac Correctional Center, Respondent.

No. 11 C 1973

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION

DATE: August 14, 2012

Judge James B. Zagel¹

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Petitioner Daniel Garcia ("Garcia" or "Petitioner") is incarcerated at the Pontiac Correctional Center in Pontiac, Illinois and is identified as prisoner number K53187. On January 9, 1997, a jury in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois found Petitioner guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, and robbery. Petitioner was sentenced to concurrent prison terms of eighty years for first-degree murder, fifteen years for aggravated kidnapping, and seven years for robbery. Garcia now petitions for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. For the following reasons the petition for a writ of habeas corpus is DENIED.

I. BACKGROUND

a. Facts

The facts as determined by the state court are presumed to be correct in the absence of clear and convincing evidence to the contrary. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1); Daniels v. Knight, 476 F.3d 426, 434 (7th Cir.2007). Petitioner has disclaimed any argument under § 2254(e)(1). Itherefore largely adopt the background facts and procedural history as laid out by the Illinois Appellate Court, First District; see United States ex rel. Hemphill v. Hardy, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75519, 2011 WL 2712592 (N.D. Ill. Jul. 13, 2011):

The record reveals the following facts. On February 9, 1992, at approximately 11:40 a.m., police found the body of 78-year old Margaret Anderson under a viaduct abutting the west sidewalk of the 3000 block of North Sacramento and the Kennedy expressway, in Chicago Illinois. Anderson was naked from the waist down, and police found no purse or identification near her body. [Petitioner] and co-defendant [Benjamin Kirk] were arrested on February 14, 1992. The trial court granted Kirk's motion to sever his case from that of [petitioner's], and [petitioner] and Kirk were tried before separate juries. This appeal pertains only to petitioner's trial.

After a pre-trial hearing, the trial court denied [petitioner's] motion to quash arrest and suppress evidence, and to present evidence of alleged police misconduct in other cases at trial. [Petitioner] also filed a motion to suppress statements in which he alleged that his handwritten statement was the product of physical coercion, but [petitioner] later withdrew this motion.

At trial, Bolivar Lopez testified he worked installing medical equipment in nursing homes. On Saturday, February 8, 1992, he returned the company vehicle to a suburban office, and returned to Chicago via public transportation. At approximately 11:30 a.m., Lopez got off of a bus at Belmont and Sacramento and walked his usual route home. As he reached Sacramento Boulevard under the Kennedy Expressway overpass, he looked up to note the presence of pigeons, because "sometimes they get messy," and noticed what appeared to be a human hand on the ledge under the viaduct. Lopez climbed the incline and discovered Anderson's body. Lopez stated that Anderson's face was "bashed and bloody," and that she was undressed from the waist down. Lopez further stated that there was a lot of blood around the body. Lopez went immediately to his sister's house located approximately 200 to 300 feet away and called the police. Lopez then returned to the scene with police. At trial, Lopez identified photographs of the area where he discovered Anderson's body.

Several Chicago Police Officers testified as to their observations at the scene. Officer Dusan Puhar stated that Sacramento is a two-lane street running north and south under the Kennedy Expressway. There are sidewalks on both sides of the street. Onthe west side of the street there is a steep incline, and a ledge at the top. Anderson was lying on her back on that ledge, approximately 30 to 40 feet above the sidewalk, her slacks and underwear pulled down around one of her legs. The officers who viewed Anderson's body at the scene were unable to determine her race or age because of the condition of her face, and she was initially listed as "Jane Doe" in the police reports. The officers noted that it was a "brutally cold February day."

Photographs taken by Chicago Police Officer James Hogan revealed that Anderson was dressed in winter clothing except that "her lower clothing was all down and wrapped around her ankle." Officer Hogan inventoried property recovered at the scene including a set of keys, and clothing later determined to belong to a homeless man living under the viaduct. Police subsequently determined that the keys opened the doors at 2912 North Whipple, Anderson's address. Mary Wentland, Anderson's niece[,] confirmed Anderson's identity when she identified the body at the officer of the Cook County Medical Examiner. Wentland testified that Anderson wore eyeglasses.

* * *

Assistant Chief Medical Examiner Mitra Kalelkar testified regarding the autopsy performed by Dr. Debra Kay. Dr. Kay's report revealed that Anderson had multiple injuries on her head and face including various abrasions, bruises around both eyes, a fractured nose, and lip lacerations. Anderson also had bruises and abrasions on her knees and "drag marks" on her right thigh. The pathologists found evidence of hemorrhages to the brain and determined that Anderson's neck was broken. At the time of her death, Anderson was a well-developed, well-nourished elderly lady who weighed 105 pounds and stood five-feet-one inch tall.

Dr. Kalelkar agreed with Dr. Kay that Anderson died from multiple injuries sustained as a result of blunt trauma, consistent with being struck in the face and with her head being struck against a concrete ledge. Dr. Kalelkar opined that Anderson's head was hit against the concrete so hard that her neck broke.

Police Officers Cruz Reyes and Nathaniel Hill testified that on February 13, 1992, they were working in plain clothes in an unmarked Chevy. Reyes and Hill began a systematic canvass of the area surrounding Anderson's murder to investigate their "sources." In Logan Square outside of Johnnie's Grill, the officers interviewed Rosie Cintron, a prostitute and drug user with whom they had spoken on prior occasions. Officer Reyes testified that drug addicts, drug dealers, and prostitutes frequent Johnnie's Grill.

The officers stated that Cintron reacted as if taken aback when the officers asked her if she had any information about a murder involving an elderly woman at Sacramento underneath the Kennedy Expressway. Cintron agreed to accompany the officers in their squad car to the parking lot of a muffler shop to discuss the murder. Afterward, Officer Reyes called Officer Anthony Wojcik from a pay phone, and drove Cintron to Grand and Central. The officers later turned the investigation over to Detectives William Dorsch and Richard Schak.

Rosie Cintron testified that she lived in Chicago in February 1992, and that she knew [Petitioner] and codefendant. At that time, Cintron was a serious drug user, and she supported herself by working as a prostitute and by selling drugs. She was also receiving public aid, and was twice convicted for possession of a controlled substance.

On February 7, 1992, Cintron got high with [Petitioner] and co-defendant at a crack house on Albany. She was high all that day and into the night. In the early morning hours, Cintron and [Petitioner] left the crack house in a cab. They had no drugs left at that time. When it was almost daylight, [Petitioner] told Cintron to get out of the cab because "they were going to score."

Later that morning, Cintron saw [Petitioner] and codefendant running into the crack house. Their clothes were "messed up." When they emerged from the crack house, [Petitioner] had some "rocks" of crack cocaine and a gold bracelet. [Petitioner] said he had to sell the bracelet.

A few days later, Cintron saw [Petitioner] at a hotel located at Fullerton and Pulaski late at night. [Petitioner] told Cintron that he and co-defendant were watching an old lady from their position on a viaduct, and that codefendant grabbed her as she was walking by and started beating up on her. [Petitioner] said that co-defendant was "nothing but an animal," and that "he was brutal." [Petitioner] stated that the lady was wearing glasses, and that co-defendant took the glasses and threw them on the expressway. They took her gold bracelet, the same one [Petitioner] had previously shown to Cintron.

Cintron stated that she voluntarily told this story to the police, and that she identified [Petitioner] and codefendant from police photographs. Cintron stated that she later testified before a grand jury. Cintron admitted that she was not completely forthright in her testimony to the grand jury. Cintron also admitted that she usednumerous aliases and that she was on mandatory supervised release [from] prison at the time of trial.

Carmen Rivera testified pursuant to an arrest warrant that in February 1992, she was living at 2852 North Albany in a first floor apartment with co-defendant. Rivera and co-defendant had been asked to vacate the apartment. At that time, Rivera was a cocaine addict, using about $100 of cocaine a day. On February 7, 1992, Rivera and co-defendant smoked cocaine, and Rivera went to sleep at approximately 2 or 3 a.m., after telling codefendant to wake her at 9 a.m. Co-defendant left the apartment without keys. At that time, co-defendant had no more cocaine, and had no money to buy cocaine.

Rivera next saw co-defendant at 1 p.m. that afternoon. Co-defendant was wearing the same clothes as the night before, his face was swollen and his hands were "kind of scratched up. Rivera and co-defendant engaged in a quarrel, and Rivera left the apartment, returning later that evening. Upon her return, co-defendant had some cocaine and was preparing it on the stove for smoking. Rivera looked at the floor, because while cocaine is

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