Winfield v. Roper

• Citation: 460 F.3d 1026
• Decision Date: 22 August 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-2478.,05-2478.
• Parties: John E. WINFIELD, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Don ROPER, Superintendent, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)

460 F.3d 1026

John E. WINFIELD, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Don ROPER, Superintendent, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 05-2478.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: June 13, 2006.

Filed: August 22, 2006.

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Joseph W. Luby, argued, Kansas City, Missouri (Kent E. Gipson, on the brief), for appellant).

Andrew W. Hassell, Assistant Attorney General, argued, Jefferson City, Missouri (Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, on the brief), for appellee.

Before MURPHY, MELLOY, and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.

MURPHY, Circuit Judge.

John Winfield was convicted in Missouri state court of multiple counts of murder, assault, and armed criminal action and was sentenced to death. After his conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Missouri Supreme Court on direct appeal, he moved for post conviction relief in the state circuit court. That motion was denied after an evidentiary hearing, and the Missouri Supreme Court affirmed. Winfield then petitioned the federal district court¹ for a writ of habeas corpus. The petition was denied, and Winfield was granted a certificate of appealability on three issues, all of which have been briefed and argued. We now affirm.

I.

John Winfield met Carmelita Donald in 1987, and she and her son Mykale Donald eventually moved in with him. They subsequently had a daughter, Symone Winfield. They had a difficult relationship, which Carmelita ended in the spring of 1996. She moved into a second floor apartment on Page Street in St. Louis, Missouri with her sister, Melody Donald, and their friend Arthea Sanders. Winfield lived with his family about one block away on Liberty Street.

On the night of September 9, 1996 Carmelita went out with her then boyfriend Tony Reynolds. Winfield was unaware of this relationship and called her apartment numerous times between 10:00 and 11:00 pm that evening trying to reach her. He spoke with Melody and asked where Carmelita was. Melody replied that she did not know, and Winfield told Melody to have Carmelita call him when she got home. Later that evening Winfield went to Carmelita's apartment looking for her. By that time Melody had learned from Arthea that Carmelita was out with Reynolds, so the two women decided to lie to Winfield and told him that she was with Arthea's mother. Melody then went downstairs to Shawnee Murphy's apartment in order to call Arthea's parents to let them know what had been said to Winfield. When Melody returned to her apartment, she discovered that Winfield had destroyed some of her furniture. As he was leaving the apartment, Winfield remarked that he would "kick [Carmelita's] ass."

When Carmelita returned home around midnight, Winfield was waiting for her. He forced her into an adjacent parking lot to talk and repeatedly asked Carmelita whether she was having a relationship with Reynolds, which she denied. Melody and Shawnee watched the altercation from Shawnee's apartment, but Arthea went outside and slashed the tires on Winfield's car. Then Arthea returned to Shawnee's apartment and told the others to call the police.

Winfield, seeing that his tires had been slashed, went to his car, retrieved his gun, and went into Shawnee's apartment. He shot Arthea in the head from close range, killing her. He then turned the gun on Carmelita, said "[f]uck you bitch" and shot her numerous times. Carmelita did not die, but she suffered multiple gunshot wounds and underwent emergency brain surgery. She was left completely blind and facially disfigured. Winfield then shot and killed Shawnee and turned the gun towards Shawnee's guest, James Johnson, and Melody. Melody escaped out of the back door of the apartment and ran next door to call the police. Johnson struggled with Winfield in an effort to gain control of the gun. Winfield tried to shoot him, but the gun either jammed or was empty so he hit Johnson on the head with the gun and fled the scene.

The police arrested Winfield the following day. After being informed of his rights, Winfield told the police that he had thrown the gun in a creek near a newly constructed bridge. The gun was not found, but officers searched Winfield's home and discovered .380 caliber bullets in his bedroom, the same type of ammunition used in the shooting.

Winfield retained attorneys Scott Rosenblum and Brad Kessler to represent him. At that time the two attorneys worked together in Rosenblum's law firm. They agreed that Kessler was to handle the guilt phase of the trial and Rosenblum was to handle the penalty phase. The relationship between the lawyers deteriorated, and Kessler left the firm three months prior to trial. He took case files with him, but not any of the penalty phase materials necessary for Rosenblum's portion of the defense.

Two months prior to trial Winfield filed a malpractice action against his attorneys, alleging that they had failed to consult with him adequately regarding the defense, that they had failed to investigate in preparation for his defense, and that they had failed to prepare a meaningful defense.² Winfield nevertheless continued to allow Kessler and Rosenblum to represent him. He never informed the court of his lawsuit or of any problems with counsel, and he never asked the court to appoint new counsel.

Trial began on July 13, 1998, and from the outset the defense admitted Winfield's acts on the night of September 9, 1996. The theory of the defense was that Winfield's actions that evening were not deliberate, but rather that he had acted in the heat of the moment. Winfield testified in his own defense and admitted his acts, but claimed that he had not planned "on hurting nobody" and that he had just "snapped." He also admitted initially lying to the police when he claimed that another person had used his gun. The jury found him guilty of two counts of first degree murder, two counts of first degree assault, and four counts of armed criminal action in violation of state law.

At the penalty phase of the trial the state presented a certified copy of Winfield's prior conviction for receiving stolen property. Carmelita also testified that Winfield had abused her in the past, including an incident where he put a gun to her head until she submitted to his sexual demands. The state also called Arthea's mother, Melody Sanders, and Shawnee's mother, Gerry Murphy. The penalty defense was presented by Rosenblum who sought to portray Winfield as an otherwise law abiding family man who just "snapped" the night of the murders. The defense called four witnesses: Winfield's father John Edmund, his stepmother Marsha Edmond, his brother David Winfield, and a family friend from church, Rosalie Bell. These witnesses testified that Winfield had a good relationship with his children, that he provided for the family, that he was a great family man, and that he had generally been law abiding. Winfield did not testify during the penalty phase. After deliberating for almost six hours, the jury recommended a sentence of death which was imposed by the court. The circuit court also sentenced Winfield to life imprisonment plus fifteen years on the two assault counts and to seventy five years on each count of armed criminal action.

Winfield filed a direct appeal of his conviction and sentence, which the Missouri Supreme Court affirmed. State v. Winfield, 5 S.W.3d 505 (Mo.1999). Winfield then changed defense counsel and filed a motion for post conviction relief in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County pursuant to Missouri Supreme Court Rule 29.15. He raised various claims in his motion including ineffective assistance of counsel based on many grounds, but conflict of interest was not among them. He later sought to amend his filings to include a conflict of interest claim alleging that the falling out between his lawyers had created divided loyalties and that his pending lawsuit against them created an actual conflict of interest. The circuit court ruled that the amendment was not timely and was thus procedurally barred.

The circuit court held an evidentiary hearing at which various witnesses testified, including Attorneys Kessler and Rosenblum, Kessler's assistant Linda Bates, Lisa Jones and Melissa Niehoff from the state prosecutor's office. The circuit court later issued its decision denying Winfield's motion for post conviction relief. He appealed the decision to the Missouri Supreme Court and attempted to include his tardy conflict of interest claim in a separate pro se brief. The court clerk refused to accept the pro se brief for filing because Winfield was represented by counsel and the claim had not been raised by his counsel in his submission. The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed Winfield's conviction and sentence. Winfield v. State, 93 S.W.3d 732 (Mo. banc 2002).

Winfield then filed this petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, alleging fourteen errors. Many of these claims asserted ineffective assistance of counsel, especially of penalty counsel, but they also included a separate claim of conflict of interest based on the malpractice suit Winfield had lodged against his attorneys as well as the problems between the two lawyers. The district court denied the petition. It concluded that Winfield's counsel had not been ineffective and that his conflict of interest claim was procedurally barred because Winfield had failed to include that claim in his initial motion for post conviction relief and had only asserted it in the rejected pro se brief. The district court concluded that the state circuit court had thus disposed of the claim on an independent and adequate state ground. Winfield sought to appeal, and we certified the following issues: whether Winfield's counsel was ineffective in the penalty phase for failure to investigate, to present particular witnesses, and to call him to testify, and whether Winfield's conflict of interest claim was procedurally barred from...