Barrett v. Secretary, Department of Corrections(Citrus County)

CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedAugust 11, 2020
Docket5:18-cv-00639
StatusUnknown

This text of Barrett v. Secretary, Department of Corrections(Citrus County) (Barrett v. Secretary, Department of Corrections(Citrus County)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barrett v. Secretary, Department of Corrections(Citrus County), (M.D. Fla. 2020).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA OCALA DIVISION

ADAM ANTHONY BARRETT

Petitioner,

v. Case No. 5:18-cv-639-Oc-02PRL

SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, et al.,

Respondents. _____________________________________/

ORDER On December 17, 2018, Petitioner Adam Barrett filed a petition and a supplementary memorandum under 28 U.S.C. § 2554 for a writ of habeas corpus by a person in state custody. Dkts. 1 & 2. Petitioner seeks relief from a May 13, 2016, Florida state court conviction. Dkt. 1 at 1. Respondents filed a response in opposition. Dkt. 12. With the benefit of full briefing, the Court finds that a hearing is unnecessary and denies the instant petition. Background On the night of November 14, 2014, Petitioner and Victim went to Victim’s apartment after work. Dkt. 12-2 at 174. There, Petitioner and Victim engaged in recreational drug use with two of Victim’s neighbors. Id. What happened next is a matter of dispute. According to Petitioner, Victim’s neighbors left at around 11:00 p.m., only fifteen minutes after dropping off cocaine. Dkt. 2 at 7; Dkt. 12-2 at 20, 179.

Petitioner claims that he and Victim then engaged in additional drug use and consensual oral sex before Petitioner left around 12:30 a.m. Dkt. 12-2 at 21–22, 179. Petitioner further alleges that he and Victim had intimate relations prior to the night

of November 14, 2014, including vaginal sex on November 13, 2014. Id. at 28, 180. Victim denies any form of consensual intimate relations with Petitioner. Dkt. 12 at 1–2. According to Victim, the neighbors stayed until around 2:00–3:00 a.m., at which time Victim told Petitioner that he could sleep on the couch due to his

intoxication. Id. at 2. Victim then went to her room alone and fell asleep. Id. Victim claims that she awoke at approximately sunrise to Petitioner on top of her vaginally penetrating her. Id. Victim began yelling at Petitioner to stop and get out. Id.

Petitioner subsequently grabbed his clothes and left. Id. Sometime between 8:00–9:00 a.m., November 15, 2014, Victim called her friend who immediately came over. Id. 2–3. Victim told her friend what happened and that she did not want to call the police. Id. at 3. Victim’s friend then called the

police for Victim. Id. Petitioner was charged with sexual battery upon a physically helpless person after a brief investigation. Dkt. 12-1 at 4. On May 13, 2016 Petitioner was convicted of sexual battery upon a physically

helpless person at a jury trial in the Fifth Judicial Circuit (Citrus County). On July 16, 2016 Petitioner was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment with two years of community control. Dkt. 1 at 1. Petitioner directly appealed his conviction. Id. at 2.

The state appellate court affirmed Plaintiff’s conviction and sentence per curiam on March 14, 2017. Barrett v. State, 224 So. 3d 240, 240 (Fla. 5th DCA 2017). The mandate was issued April 7, 2017. Dkt. 12-2 at 207.

On February 12, 2018, Petitioner filed a Rule 3.850 motion for post- conviction relief. Dkt. 12-2 at 209. Petitioner raised four claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel in his motion: 1) failure to investigate all DNA donors, 2) failure to call a toxicology expert, 3) failure to object to improper closing arguments,

and 4) failure to test exculpatory DNA evidence. Id. at 210–14. On March 1, 2018, the trial court summarily denied Petitioner’s motion on all four grounds. Id. at 230– 36. On November 6, 2018, the state appellate court affirmed the trial court’s denial

of Petitioner’s motion per curiam. Dkt. 12-3 at 15. Petitioner was not granted a rehearing. Id. at 23. On December 17, 2018, Petitioner filed the instant petition claiming ineffective assistance of counsel for a failure to 1) investigate all DNA donors, 2)

call a toxicology expert, 3) object to improper closing arguments, and 4) test all DNA evidence in a DNA evidence-based case. Dkt. 2 at 4–11. On April 2, 2019, a response was ordered which Respondents then filed on July 1, 2019. Dkts. 10 & 12. Standards of Review This petition is governed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”). Wilcox v. Fla. Dep’t of Corr., 158 F.3d 1209, 1210 (11th

Cir. 1998). AEDPA “establishes a highly deferential standard for reviewing state court judgments.” Parker v. Sec’y for Dep’t of Corr., 331 F.3d 764, 768 (11th Cir. 2003). This type of review does not allow relief of a state court conviction:

on a claim “that was adjudicated on the merits in the State court proceedings” unless the state court’s decision was “(1) . . . contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or (2) . . . based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” Nejad v. Attorney Gen., State of Ga., 830 F.3d 1280, 1288 (11th Cir. 2016) (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)). “Clearly established Federal law” means holdings of the U.S. Supreme Court “as of the time of the relevant state-court decision.” Id. at 1288–89. “Contrary to” requires a state court conclusion “opposite to that reached by [the Supreme] Court on a question of law or if the state court decides a case differently than [the Supreme Court] has on a set of materially indistinguishable facts.” Id. at 1289 (citations omitted) (alterations in original). The “unreasonable application” clause applies only “if the state court identifies the correct governing legal

principle from [the Supreme] Court’s decisions but unreasonably applies that principle to the facts of the prisoner’s case.” Id. (citation omitted) (alterations in original).

Moreover, a state court’s factual determination “is not unreasonable merely because the federal habeas court would have reached a different conclusion in the first instance.” Id. (citation omitted). Indeed, “even if reasonable minds reviewing

the record might disagree about the [fact] finding in question, on habeas review that does not suffice to supersede the [state] trial court's determination.” Wood v. Allen, 558 U.S. 290, 301 (2010) (internal quotation omitted). Further, this standard

applies even if the state court does not provide the reasoning behind its decision because “the summary nature of a state court’s decision does not lessen the deference that it is due.” Wright v. Sec’y for Dep’t of Corr., 278 F.3d 1245, 1254 (11th Cir. 2002). Only if this Court determines that the state court’s adjudication of

Petitioner’s claim was unreasonable under § 2254(d), must a de novo review of the record be undertaken. See McGahee v. Ala. Dep’t of Corr., 560 F.3d 1252, 1266 (11th Cir. 2009).

Discussion A. Timeliness and Exhaustion Federal habeas petitions are subject to a one-year statute of limitation. 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1). Time begins running on “the date on which the judgment

became final by the conclusion of direct review or the expiration of the time for seeking such review.” Id. § 2244(d)(1)(A).

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