Williams v. Noble

• Decision Date: 25 August 2022
• Docket Number: 1:20-CV-00805-BMB
• Parties: REGINALD WILLIAMS, Plaintiff, v. WARDEN JEFF NOBLE, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

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REGINALD WILLIAMS, Plaintiff, v. WARDEN JEFF NOBLE, Defendant.

No. 1:20-CV-00805-BMB

United States District Court, N.D. Ohio, Eastern Division

August 25, 2022

BRIDGET MEEHAN BRENNAN, JUDGE.

REPORT & RECOMMENDATION

Jonathan D. Greenberg, United States Magistrate Judge.

This matter is before the magistrate judge pursuant to Local Rule 72.2. Before the Court is the Petition of Reginald Williams (“Williams” or “Petitioner”), for a Writ of Habeas Corpus filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Williams is in the custody of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction pursuant to journal entry of sentence in the case State v. Williams, Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CR-16-612202. For the following reasons, the undersigned recommends that the Petition be DENIED.

I. Summary of Facts

In a habeas corpus proceeding instituted by a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a state court, factual determinations made by state courts are presumed correct unless rebutted by clear and convincing evidence. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1); see also Franklin v. Bradshaw, 695 F.3d 439, 447 (6th Cir. 2012); Montgomery v. Bobby, 654 F.3d 668, 701 (6th Cir. 2011). The state appellate court summarized the facts underlying Williams' conviction as follows:

{¶ 2} In 2016, Williams was charged as follows: Count 1, rape in violation of R.C. 2907.02(A)(2), with one- and three-year firearm specifications; Count 2, complicity in violation of R.C. 2923.03(A)(2), with one- and three-year firearm specifications; Count 3, aggravated robbery in violation of R.C. 2911.01(A)(1), with one- and three-year firearm specifications; Count 4, kidnapping in violation of R.C. 2905.01(A)(2) with one- and three-year firearm specifications; and Count 5, kidnapping in violation of R.C. 2905.01(A)(4), with one- and three-year firearm and sexual motivation specifications.

{¶ 3} During pretrial proceedings, Williams filed a motion to dismiss based on preindictment delay. The trial court held a hearing on the motion and denied it. Williams also requested a competency evaluation, and the trial court referred Williams to the court's psychiatric clinic. The parties subsequently waived the competency hearing and stipulated to the court's psychiatric report in which the evaluating doctor opined that Williams refused or was unable to cooperate with the evaluation, so the doctor was unable to render an opinion as to Williams's competency. The trial court then ordered Williams to undergo an inpatient competency evaluation. Williams requested an independent competency evaluation. Both evaluating doctors opined that Williams was competent to stand trial, and the parties stipulated to the competency evaluations.

{¶ 4} Williams twice requested that his appointed counsel be disqualified and he be appointed new counsel, claiming that he had not seen discovery documents, his counsel was not arguing what he wanted in pretrial motions, and he did not “feel comfortable” with trial counsel. The trial court denied Williams's motion.

{¶ 5} The matter proceeded to a trial by jury, at which the following pertinent evidence was presented.

{¶ 6} T.B. testified that on May 18, 1997, she left work and headed to the bus stop at East 125th Street and St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland. As she waited for the bus, two unknown males approached her. One of the males had a scar on his face. One of the males pulled out a short shotgun. T.B. thought she might be shot if she tried to leave. The men demanded her belongings, and she gave them her cell phone and necklace. The men left, but came back. T.B. tried to run, but the men caught up to her and, with the gun pointed at her, told her to come with them or they would kill her.

{¶ 7} The men took T.B. to a nearby alley and put her in the backseat of a car. One of the men then sat in the front seat of the car and pointed the gun at T.B. while the other man vaginally penetrated her. Then, the men switched places: the man who had been raping her got into the front seat and pointed the shotgun at her while the other man vaginally penetrated her. Neither man used a condom.

{¶ 8} T.B. testified that she did not try to fight the men because she was scared the men would kill her. T.B. approximated that the assault lasted about “15 or 20” minutes.

{¶ 9} After the rape, the men let T.B. leave. She ran to a nearby gas station where she saw a friend, Sam, who took her to her mother's house. T.B.'s mother took her to the hospital where T.B. underwent a sexual assault examination.

{¶ 10} Cleveland Police Officer Bobby Rose (“Officer Rose”) testified at trial that he and his partner at the time, Officer Gerald Wolf, were dispatched to the hospital to respond to a report of rape. The officers interviewed T.B. and Officer Rose recalled that T.B. was very shaken and crying when he first encountered her. T.B. described the suspects and reported that one of the males had a scar on his face. She did not know the men. T.B. told the officers the men initially approached her at the bus stop and demanded money and took her necklace. She also reported that she was raped in a church parking lot in the area of E. 124th Street and St. Clair Avenue, the men had a sawed-off shotgun, and they fled in a burgundy Oldsmobile.

{¶ 11} In 2016, Dan Clark (“Clark”), an investigator with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office Sexual Assault Kit Task Force, was assigned to investigate the case. As part of his investigation, Clark reviewed the original police report and discovered that, in 2006, a preliminary DNA association was made between Williams's DNA and the forensic evidence in T.B.'s sexual assault kit. Clark secured a search warrant, took a buccal swab of DNA from Williams, and submitted the swab to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (“BCI”) to: (1) compare to the evidence contained in T.B.'s sexual assault kit and (2) confirm the preliminary association of Williams's DNA to the DNA profile contained in the kit.

{¶ 12} Clark testified that as part of the investigation, a blind administrator, who was another investigator not associated with the case, showed T.B. a “six-pack” photo array that included a photo of Williams to see if T.B. recognized anyone as one of the men who assaulted her. T.B. was unable to identify anyone as one of her assailants.

{¶ 13} Stacy Violi (“Violi”), a BCI forensic scientist, compared the buccal swab of DNA extracted from Williams and the biological evidence extracted from T.B.'s sexual assault kit. Violi's DNA report, dated December 29, 2016, identified Williams as a major contributor to the seminal fluid extracted from a cutting of the thigh area of T.B.'s pants and from the skin-stain swabs lifted from T.B. An unknown male DNA profile was identified as a major contributor to the seminal fluid found on a swab and a cutting of T.B.'s underwear; Williams and T.B.'s boyfriend at the time were excluded as the major contributor of those samples.

{¶ 14} Williams testified that he had been to prison six times and had convictions for drug offenses, felonious assault, and aggravated robbery, improper handling of firearm in a motor vehicle, having a weapon while under disability, and carrying a concealed weapon. According to Williams, he knew T.B. and had known her since the summer of 1995 when he met her at a festival in his neighborhood and asked for her pager number. He testified that he and T.B. started having sex that summer and the relationship lasted for one or two months. He lost touch with her until 1997 when he saw her where she worked and the two started having sex again.

{¶ 15} According to Williams, he picked T.B. up from work on May 18, 1997, with his friend Wayne. Williams did not know Wayne's last name or where he lived in 1997 or currently. They drove to Williams's house and he and T.B. had sex inside his house while Wayne waited in the car. They then drove T.B. to the corner of her street and let her out.

{¶ 16} Williams testified that he saw T.B. again in 2010 and T.B. told him about the “DNA hit” but that he “ain't got nothin' to worry about.” According to Williams, T.B. was telling people Williams had raped her in retaliation for money he had borrowed from her and refused to pay back. T.B. also sent him letters in jail, but he did not keep any of the letters. He had to throw them out or other inmates would steal them.

{¶ 17} Williams testified that he told Clark that he did not remember anything that happened in 1997 because he was doing too many drugs at the time. He also testified that he tried to hang himself while he was in jail the night before his first trial date because he was stressed and had a lot of responsibilities, and it was not the first time he tried to kill himself. He also admitted that he lied to a doctor previously about claiming that he tried to kill himself as a teenager.

{¶ 18} The jury acquitted Williams of aggravated robbery and convicted him of the remaining charges and specifications. The trial court sentenced him to a total of 23 years in prison.

State v. Williams, 2018-Ohio-3368, 2018 WL 4043306, at **1-3 (Ohio Ct. App. Aug. 23, 2018).

II. Procedural History

A. Trial Court Proceedings

On December 7, 2016, the Cuyahoga County Grand Jury indicted Williams on the following charges: one count of rape in violation of O.R.C. § 2907.02(A)(2); one count of complicity in violation of O.R.C. § 2923.03(A)(2); one count of aggravated robbery in violation of O.R.C. § 2911.01(A)(1); one count of kidnapping in violation of O.R.C § 2905.01(A)(2); and one count of kidnapping with a sexual motivation specification in violation of O.R.C. § 2905.01(A)(4). (Doc. No. 11-1, Ex. 1.) All counts carried a one-year and a three-year firearm specification. (Id.) These offenses were committed in May 1997. (Id.) White plead not...