Aaron Gipson v. Ed Sheldon

659 F. App'x 871
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 14, 2016
Docket15-3605
StatusUnpublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 659 F. App'x 871 (Aaron Gipson v. Ed Sheldon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aaron Gipson v. Ed Sheldon, 659 F. App'x 871 (6th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

SUHRHEINRICH, Circuit Judge.

Petitioner-Appellant Aaron Gipson (Gip-son) appeals the district court’s judgment denying his habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Gipson was convicted by a state court jury of complicity to aggravated murder and complicity to aggravated robbery under Ohio law. The issue on appeal is whether the Ohio Court of Appeals unreasonably applied the standard of Jackson v . Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), and unreasonably determined the facts in concluding there was sufficient evidence of intent for those crimes. We AFFIRM.

I. BACKGROUND

Gipson’s convictions arise from the robbery and murder of Calvin Harper, Jr. at 2136 Parkview Boulevard, Sandusky, Ohio on March 11-12, 2008, as part of a drug deal between Harper and Thomas Ricks, the shooter. Gipson was allegedly complicit *873 in the robbery and murder by setting up the drug deal, introducing Ricks to Harper, acting as the getaway driver, and sharing in the proceeds. Gipson received a sentence of life in prison with parole after thirty years. 1

A. Facts

The State’s theory was that Gipson and Ricks traveled from Detroit to Sandusky on March 11, with a plan to rob and murder Harper, that Gipson dropped Ricks off near Harper’s residence between 5:30 p.m. and 5:45 p.m., and that Gipson picked Ricks up after the offense was committed. Chanel Harper, the victim’s sister and Gip-son’s inmate friend, testified that Gipson and Ricks drove from Canton, Michigan to Sandusky, Ohio on the evening of March 10, 2008, visiting Harper’s home before arriving at Chanel’s. Chanel, owed Gipson some money for a drug debt. They played cards, along with Chanel’s best friend, Crystal Pool. Gipson and Ricks left Chanel’s home around 1:00 a.m. Chanel called Gipson the next morning, March 11. He told her that he was returning to San-dusky that day, March 11, and would bring her some marijuana. He never showed.

Chanel and Harper’s mother, Queen Amison, testified that on March 11, at 2:30 p.m., Harper stopped by her house to pick up $3,000 she was holding for him, because “soipeone had some keys [cocaine] and he needed that money.” Amison knew that her son dealt drugs. Amison said that she knew Gipson, treated him like a son, and that he called her “mother, ma.”

Around 5:18 p.m. on March 11, Harper called Rhonda Farris, a neighbor and close friend, to collect the $20 she had asked to borrow earlier in the day. Farris noticed a large stack of money in Harper’s house, which Harper said was worth about $20,000. 2 Farris knew that Harper was preparing for a drug deal and left. Chanel and Amison also called Harper several times that evening but received no response.

About half an hour later, Farris saw a man she later identified as Ricks mistakenly come to her door looking for Harper. At 5:42 p.m., Farris called Harper to alert him, but Harper told her that he was expecting this individual. After she saw Ricks leave, Farris called Harper again, but he did not answer his phone.

Jessica King, Harper’s girlfriend, testified that she left Harper’s house around 4:30 p.m. that day and went to Chanel’s, because she knew that Harper was meeting with Gipson and another individual. King was supposed to spend the night, so *874 she returned around 10:30 p.m. The doors were locked and King banged on the doors and windows, but she got no response. She called Harper multiple times that night but he did not answer.

The next morning, March 12, 2008, Far-ris called Amison. Amison knew that Far-ris had access to Harper’s house and she asked Farris to check on Harper. Farris found his body and called the police.

Harper was pronounced dead by EMS at approximately 10:00 a.m. on March 12, 2008. Harper had two gunshot wounds to his head, described by the coroner as a homicide. The coroner set the time of injury between 5:42 p.m. and 5:53 p.m. on March 11, 2008, based on the information provided by the investigators. The police did not find any large sums of cash in the house. They found a digital scale with dried blood on it near Harper’s body.

When Chanel heard about her brother’s death on the morning of March 12, she named Gipson as a suspect. Prior to the murder Gipson and Chanel spoke frequently by phone. After the murder, Gip-son refused to answer or return Chanel’s calls (including 16 phone calls on March 12). Gipson changed his cell phone number on March 14, even though he had just changed it on March 7.

Cell phone records showed that Gipson and Harper spoke numerous times on March ll. 3 Gipson’s cell phone records and cell tower data tracked the route that Gip-son took from Canton, Michigan to San-dusky, Ohio and back on March 11, 2008. At 5:15 p.m. Gipson’s cell phone registered at a cell phone tower near Port Clinton, Ohio. At 5:48 p.m., six minutes after Farris called Harper to tell him that Ricks was heading to his house, Gipson’s phone registered to a cell phone tower at Bell and Campbell Street in Sandusky, Ohio, which Detective Gary Wichman estimated was roughly one-half mile from Harper’s residence. At 5:52 p.m., Gipson’s phone registered a phone call on a cell phone tower at State Route 2, heading out of the San-dusky area. 4

At 7:06 p.m., when he arrived back in Michigan, Gipson called his wife. At 7:08 p.m., he called Stanley Pierce, his drug supplier. Gipson called his mother at 7:12 p.m. At that point he was heading towards downtown Detroit. He called his mother again, and this call hit off a cell tower northwest of the Greektown Casino near the Strathmoor Street residence where Ricks had been staying. He called his wife again at 8:02 p.m., on his way southeast towards downtown Detroit.

Gipson later admitted to investigators that he owed Pierce money. He also told investigators that on March 11, the day of the murder, Pierce had gone to Gipson’s mother’s residence on Strathmoor Street looking for Gipson and that between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m., someone was pounding *875 on. his apartment door. In fact, on March 11, Gipson had called the Canton Police Department, and reported that a suspicious vehicle was circling his apartment. 5

Surveillance cameras showed Gipson walking into the Greektown Casino at 8:13 p.m. on March 11. The casino tracked Gip-son’s bets and bdy-ins through his Pantheon membership card. That night Gipson bought in for $1,150 and his average bet was $145. By contrast, his buy-ins on his three previous visits were $40, $100, and $0, and his average bets were $30, $33, and $25. Gipson remained at the casino for six hours and 48 minutes; his previous visits lasted for 80 minutes, 19 minutes, and three and one-half hours.

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