Williams v. Folino, 090215 FED3, 12-2468
| Opinion Judge | SHWARTZ, Circuit Judge. |
| Party Name | VERNON WILLIAMS, Appellant v. LOUIS S. FOLINO; THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA |
| Attorney | Lisa B. Freeland, Esq. [ARGUED] Counsel for Appellant Kelly D. Tomasic, Esq. [ARGUED] Keaton Carr, Esq. Ronald M. Wabby, Jr., Esq. Allegheny County Office of District Attorney Counsel for Appellee |
| Judge Panel | Before: SMITH, VANASKIE and SHWARTZ, Circuit Judges. |
| Case Date | September 02, 2015 |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals, U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
NOT PRECEDENTIAL
Argued May 13, 2014
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA (D.C. No. 2-12-cv-00008) District Judge: Hon. Arthur J. Schwab
OPINION [*]
Vernon Williams seeks relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 claiming that the introduction of his codefendant's redacted confession at their joint trial allowed the jury to infer that the confession referred to him in violation of Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123 (1968). We agree that the admission of the confession violated Williams' Confrontation Clause rights but conclude that it did not have a substantial and injurious effect on the verdict. We will therefore affirm.
I
A
Williams and his codefendant, Curtis Mahaffey, were convicted of the 2002 murder of Lanel Buckner. On September 26, 2002, Buckner and others attended a birthday party at a Pittsburgh bar. Buckner traveled in one car and others traveled via limousine. On September 27, 2002, at 2:30 a.m., the vehicles parked and Buckner exited his car and started talking with the limousine passengers. At that point, a man exited a pickup truck parked nearby and shot Buckner several times. The man then returned to the pickup truck and the truck fled. Buckner died of his injuries.
Pittsburgh Police Department Detective Dennis Logan received an anonymous tip about the murder that incriminated Curtis Mahaffey. Logan interviewed Mahaffey, who was being held in jail on unrelated robbery charges, and Mahaffey confessed, implicating himself and Williams.
At trial, Detective Logan testified about Mahaffey's confession without using Williams' name. Instead, he used the phrase "his boy" in place of Williams' name. Logan first testified about Mahaffey's statements about the pickup truck driven to the murder scene and then recounted Mahaffey's statements about the murder. As to the pickup truck, Logan testified in part:
Mr. Mahaffey said that he and his boy were down on Brighton Road near Dave's Barber Shop at which point they saw this white guy looking to buy some crack. . . . [T]hey made an arrangement whereas [sic] Mr. Mahaffey and his boy would drive around in a white guy's truck for a set period of time. When that time period was up the white guy was to call Mr. Mahaffey on his cell phone . . . and that Mr. Mahaffey and his boy [would] return the truck back to the white guy. . . . [A]fter, shortly after they got the truck the white guy start[ed] calling before the time was even up and for that reason they got into an argument and Mr. Mahaffey said he was not going to return the guy's truck at all. . . . [B]ecause in Mr. Mahaffey's view the white guy kept calling before his time was up, he kept the truck.
App. 715-17.
As to the murder, Logan testified in part:
Mr. Mahaffey said he was still driving that same grey truck which belonged to the white guy with the crack deal. . . . Mr. Mahaffey said he ran into his boy once again and that he and his boy got into the truck, the grey truck that belonged to the white guy and dr[ove] around, smoking some weed. As Mr. Mahaffey and his boy are driving around he said that they saw the limousine which there was a guy named Burger1 inside the limousine. Mr. Mahaffey said both him and his boy knew this Burger. . . . [A]s they went the same route as the limousine, the limousine pulled over at some spot at which point Mr. Mahaffey said his boy told him pull over. So Mr. Mahaffey said they drove past the limousine and he pulled over as he was told by his boy. At the same time Mr. Mahaffey said that his boy had a gun . . . . Mr. Mahaffey also said he knew what his boy was about to do with the gun. After Mr. Mahaffey pulled the truck over his boy got out of the . . . truck . . . and walked back to the limousine. Moments later Mr. Mahaffey said he hears four or five gunshots at which point he said he waited in the truck, waited in the truck, waited for his boy to return back. His boy jumped into the . . . truck . . . and the two of them drove off. . . . [H]e knew what his boy was about to do, but in Mr. Mahaffey's view he was afraid of his boy and he stayed and he waited [during the shooting].
App. 717-20.
In addition to Mahaffey's statements, the jury heard from the owner of the pickup truck, Dean Geiger, as well as those who observed the shooting and those who heard about it. Geiger testified that he had loaned his pickup truck to "two guys" in exchange for crack. App. 157. He testified that one of the men was "heavier set" and one was "skinnier, " and that the skinnier man's name began with "C" and he drove the truck. App. 161, 191. He testified that the two men did not return his truck and he reported it stolen. Law enforcement showed Geiger a photo array and he identified Mahaffey as being one of the men who took his truck, but he did not identify anyone else. A defense investigator testified that he showed Geiger the same photo array and that Geiger identified the men who took his truck. One of the men Geiger identified was Mahaffey, but the other was not Williams. On cross-examination, Geiger testified that he had been drinking the day his truck was taken, and that at the time of trial he did not "really have a clear memory of who was in the truck." App. 211.
Another witness, Willie Olds, testified that he saw Williams shoot Buckner and flee toward the pickup truck. Olds testified that he attended the party on the night of Buckner's murder, that he parked across the street from the limousine, and that he saw someone wearing a hooded sweatshirt fire "four or five shots" at Buckner. App. 656-57, 660. He said that the shooter turned and faced him, and that he recognized the shooter as Williams. Olds acknowledged that he had not told anyone about his identification of Williams until he was "confronted with going to prison, " App. 662, but stated that he "was on the run" at the time and did not want to "roll over" on anyone by incriminating them, App. 690.2
Tosha Peterson, who also attended the birthday party and who had a daughter by Buckner, and her cousin, Jequetta Bledsoe, both testified that they observed the pickup truck on the night of the murder. Peterson testified that, the night of the murder, a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt (who she claimed at trial that she did not recognize) got out of a pickup truck, which she said Mahaffey was driving, and told her to "tell [her] baby's dad it's on." App. 255-57. She testified that she called Buckner and told him, "[d]on't go home, " App. 259-60, but that she did not tell him who she thought would be awaiting him there.3
Bledsoe also testified about the men in the pickup truck she and Peterson encountered. She testified that she recognized the driver of the pickup truck as Mahaffey, but did not recognize the man who got out of the pickup truck and spoke with Peterson. Unlike Peterson, however, Bledsoe testified that Peterson specifically told Buckner "[t]hat Curtis and D-Bo" were the ones waiting for him. App. 289. Bledsoe testified that she did not know who "D-Bo" was, App. 289, but other witnesses testified that this was a nickname for Williams.
Diana Pennybaker testified that she was with Buckner at the birthday party on the night of his murder. She testified that while Buckner's car and the limousine were parked near each other, a pickup truck stopped and two men, one of whom "was just bigger than the other, " got out. App. 387-88. She first testified that the shooter, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, got out of "the passenger side" and then said he exited from " -- the driver's side, I'm sorry" and fired "twice, maybe three times." App. 388-90. She testified that she was unable to see either man's face and had never met Mahaffey or Williams, but that she believed the shooter was the smaller of the two men.4
Joseph Ritter, the limousine driver, testified that he saw someone wearing "a black or a blue hooded sweatshirt" approach the limousine and fire "like five shots into the back of the young man leaning in the car, " App. 436-37, but that he did not get a good look at the shooter, although he "assumed [the shooter] was a little bit of a hefty guy, around 200, maybe more, " App. 458. Ritter testified that the shooter got into a white pickup truck, although he later testified he was unsure, stating that the night of the murder was "a bit of a blur." App. 454.
During trial, several individuals who had been incarcerated with Williams also testified. David Fitzgerald5 participated in a taped interview in which he said that Williams had admitted participating in the murder, but at trial, Fitzgerald denied that Williams had ever discussed it, and said that the detectives who interviewed him "suggest[ed]" what he should say. App. 534-35; see App. 536-37. The tape was played at trial. During the taped interview, Fitzgerald said "[Williams] didn't really say how he came in contact with [Buckner]. He just, just said like, I mean he followed him from the club, you know what I mean, he followed him, he laid on him, followed him from the club and once they got to the hood, you know what I mean, then once they got to the hood, you know what I mean, it was over." App. 572. During the interview, Fitzgerald also stated that he had known Williams since childhood, that Williams had discussed Bledsoe's relationship with Buckner, and that Williams believed that Bledsoe had identified him as a murder suspect. The detective who conducted the taped interview testified that Fitzgerald told her...
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