United States ex rel. Adams v. Butler
| Decision Date | 29 February 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 14 C 8324,14 C 8324 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EX REL. RON ADAMS, K52347, Petitioner, v. KIMBERLY BUTLER, Warden, Menard Correctional Center, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Ron Adams was convicted of first degree murder and battery with a firearm, and is serving consecutive prison terms for those crimes of 45 and 15 years, respectively, at the Menard Correctional Center in Menard, Illinois, where he is in the custody of Warden Kimberly Butler. See R. 1. Adams seeks a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. See id. The Warden answered the petition arguing that it should denied. R. 12-1. For the following reasons, Adams's petition is denied, and the Court declines to issue a certificate of appealability.
Shortly after midnight on July 5, 2002, Aaron Newman was shot and killed, and Martice Chapman was also shot but survived, at a party attended by about 50-100 people in the alley bounded by the blocks of West Douglas Boulevard, South Millard Avenue, West 13th Street, and South Central Park Avenue, in Chicago. Adams was discovered shortly after the shooting on the same block of South Millard Avenue where the party occurred, having suffered multiple gunshot wounds himself, and was taken to the hospital. Adams and his co-defendants, brothers Terrance and Harvey Space, were charged with shooting Newman and Chapman, and simultaneously tried before three separate juries. Pursuant to motions in limine, either one or two of the three juries were removed from the courtroom for the presentation of evidence that the trial court previously determined would be prejudicial to the defendant for whom the jury was responsible for rendering a verdict. Adams's jury heard the following testimony:
Derrick Smith testified that he was at the party talking to Newman. R. 12-8 at 83-85. Chapman, the shooting victim who survived, testified that he was also at the party standing near Newman. R. 12-7 at 14. Smith testified that Terrance Space rode through the alley on a bike and stopped to talk with Newman. R. 12-8 at 86-89. According to Smith, Newman and Space had an unfriendly conversation, and Space rode off back down the alley. Id. at 92. According to both Smith and Chapman, about 20 minutes later a person wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up and covering his face walked down the alley with his hands in his pockets. Id. at 93-95; R. 12-7 at 17. Smith testified that when the man got within four or five feet of him and his friends, he took off his hood and pulled a handgun out of his pocket. Id. at 95. Smith identified Adams as the shooter, and said that he had a 9 mm Ruger gun. Id. at 95-96, 157. Chapman also testified that the person wearing the hood had a gun, but Chapman did not identify the shooter. R. 12-7 at 18. After Chapman was shot he ran into the backyard of one of the houses on the alley and was helped inside. Id. at 20-21. He was eventually taken to the hospital. Id. Chapman testified that he did not see any other shooter besides the person in the hood before he took cover in the house. Id. at 22.
Smith testified that he ran and took cover behind some garbage cans. From that vantage point he saw Terrance Space enter the area through a vacant lot holding a Tech 9 gun. R. 12-8 at 97-98. Smith then saw Terrance Space fire his gun at Newman. Id. at 98-99. Smith also saw the third co-defendant, Harvey Space, in the alley firing a "large caliber handgun" in Newman's direction. Id. at 99-100, 102. Smith testified that when Adams and the Space brothers left that particular section of the alley, Smith came out from behind the garbage cans and went down a "gangway," or a passageway between buildings, to where Newman was and found that he had been shot and was unconscious. Id. at 103-04. Smith continued to hear gunshots back in the alley. Id. at 104. Smith did not inform police that he knew who the shooters were until he identified Adams and the Space brothers from photo arrays at the police station on July 22, 2002. Id. at 114-17, 176-77. Smith also identified them from line-ups on August 8 and November 13, 2002, and September 12 and October 1, 2003. Id. at 117-23.
Smith was cross-examined with prior statements he made to police and the grand jury. Before the grand jury, Smith testified that he either did not know what caliber or brand of guns the shooters used, or identified the brand as something other than what he testified to at trial. Id. at 150-60. Smith's statement to the police also referenced "another guy in the vacant lot," but at trial Smith testified that this was incorrect. Id. at 167. At trial Smith testified both that he was not given the opportunity to review "each individual page" of the written statement he signed, id. at 168, and that he read the statement and signed every page. R. 12-9 at 15.
Laquita Thomas lived in an apartment building on the alley and attended the party. R. 12-6 at 75-78. Thomas was friends with Newman and standing near him in the moments before he was shot. Id. at 79, 89. Thomas testified that she saw a person walk down the alley wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up. Id. at 80, 92. Thomas also testified that soon after she saw this person, at about 12:15 a.m., "a lot" of gunshots were fired in the alley, but she did not see who fired the shots. Id. at 80-81, 91, 97. When the gunshots started, Thomas testified that she ran and did not see who the shooter was or who was shot. Id. at 92. Thomas also testified that she knew Adams from the neighborhood, and that he was at the party, but denied that he shot Newman. Id. at 93-94, 96-97.
On July 10, several days after the shooting at the party, Thomas spoke with Sergeant Don Jerome (who was a detective at that time) about the shooting. Id. at 99-100. Thomas denied telling Sergeant Jerome that she saw Adams shoot Newman. Id. at 101. On July 21, Thomas went to the police station to view a photo array from which she identified Adams as the person who shot Newman. Thomas signed the photo array document with an arrow identifying Adams, but at trial she denied making this identification. Id. at 102-05. Thomas testified that Sergeant Jerome told her who to identify and where to sign the photo array document. Id. at 110-11. Contrary to Thomas's testimony, Sergeant Jerome testified that Thomas told him that Adams shot Newman, and that she identified him from a photo array on July 21 and from a line-up on August 8. R. 12-10 at 148-50, 161-62.
Thomas also denied viewing a line-up at the police station on August 8 and identifying Adams as the person who shot Newman. R. 12-6 at 111-12. Thomas also denied giving a written statement to Assistant State's Attorney Tony Garcia on September 2. Id. at 114-15. During Thomas's testimony the State impeached Thomas with a written statement dated September 2, 2002, with Thomas's signature, also signed by Detective Jerome and ASA Garcia. Id. at 119-20.
ASA Garcia testified that on September 2 he spoke with Thomas at the police station, and helped her prepare a handwritten statement. Id. at 168-72. In that statement Thomas identified Adams as the person who shot Newman. Id. at 180. She also told ASA Garcia that she was able to recognize Adams because the hood of his sweatshirt was pulled back. Id. She also stated that she viewed a photo array and a line-up and identified Adams as the shooter in both instances. Id.
Sergeant Jerome arrested Adams on August 8 based on Thomas's identification. R. 12-10 at 164-69. Adams was using crutches when he was arrested. Id. at 168. Sergeant Jerome's colleague read the Miranda warnings to Adams and Adams agreed to speak with them. Id. at 169. Sergeant Jerome testified that Adams told him that he was robbed and shot on the night of July 4 and went to the UIC Hospital. Id. Sergeant Jerome contacted UIC and learned that Adams was not admitted there that night. Id. at 169-70. When Sergeant Jerome confronted Adams with that information, Adams admitted that he was shot while walking to a party near Millard and Douglas Avenues and was taken to Cook County Hospital. Id. at 170.
Terrell Collier testified that the night of the party, he was driving on the block of Millard Avenue where the party occurred, when he heard gun shots. See People v. Adams, 914 N.E.2d 490, 496 (Ill. 2009); R. 15 at 5. He then saw Adams on the ground wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but not a hooded sweatshirt. See Adams, 914 N.E.2d at 496; R. 15 at 5. He also saw that Adams had been shot, so he took him to the hospital. See Adams, 914 N.E.2d at 496; R. 15 at 5. He also testified that Adams did not have a gun when he found him. See Adams, 914 N.E.2d at 496.1
Faran Bokhari, a surgeon at Cook County Hospital, testified that he treated Adams on July 5, 2002 for four gunshot wounds—one each to his legs, his left arm, and right back. R. 12-10 at 35-37. Adams received a chest tube on his right side due to a collapsed lung, had multiple x-rays and cat scans, and an angiogram of his left leg to determine whether the leg had sufficient blood supply. Id. at 38.
Kathleen Gahagan was a forensic investigator at the scene of the shooting. R. 12-7 at 77, 80-81. She testified that a shotgun and many bullet casings of five different calibers were recovered from the scene. Id. at 93-113. Kurt Zielinski, a forensic scientist with the Illinois State Police, analyzed the ballistics evidence recovered at the scene. R. 12-10 at 43-44, 52. He testified that he determined that there were at least five guns used during the shooting: a .380 automatic handgun; .45 automatic handgun; 9 millimeter Luger handgun, a .40 Smith and Wesson handgun; and a shotgun. Id. at 73-74. Julie Wessel, another forensic scientist with the Illinois State Police, testified that she found fingerprints on the shotgun, but none of the prints belonged to Adams or the Space brothers. R. 12-10 at 89, 96-102.
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