Gonzalez v. Stone

CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedApril 13, 2016
DocketCivil Action No. 2013-1647
StatusPublished

This text of Gonzalez v. Stone (Gonzalez v. Stone) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gonzalez v. Stone, (D.D.C. 2016).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA _____________________________________ ) GUILLERMO SOMARRIBA GONZALEZ, ) ) Petitioner, ) ) v. ) ) Civ. Action No. 13-1647 (ABJ) STACEY STONE, WARDEN, ) ) Respondent. ) _____________________________________ )

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Petitioner Guillermo Somarriba Gonzalez seeks a Writ of Habeas Corpus Pursuant to

28 U.S.C. § 2254. He claims that his appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise

“specified claims through a D.C. Code § 23-110 [motion] during the course of the direct appeal,”

and that as a result, he lost his opportunity to pursue a claim of ineffective assistance of trial

counsel. Pet. at 3. The record establishes, though, that petitioner raised the claim that his lawyer

was ineffective on multiple occasions, and that his claim was reviewed. In any event, for the

reasons explained below, the Court finds the petition untimely under the applicable statute of

limitations, and it finds no grounds for equitable tolling. Accordingly, the petition will be

dismissed as time-barred.

I. BACKGROUND

Following a jury trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, petitioner was

convicted of three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, three counts of possession of a

firearm during a crime of violence, and one count of carrying a pistol without a license. See

Resp’t’s Ex. 1, Somarriba-Gonzalez v. United States, No. 05-CF-1011, Mem. Op. and J. (D.C.

1 Mar. 14, 2007) [Dkt. # 15-1]. Petitioner was sentenced on July 20, 2005, to an aggregate prison

term of fifteen years, followed by three years of supervised release. The convictions arose from

gun shots petitioner fired in the area of 13th and Clifton Streets, N.W., in the District of Columbia.

Id. at 2. On direct appeal to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals (“DCCA”), petitioner,

through counsel, argued that plain error occurred when the prosecutor was allowed “to refer to

animosity and events between two ‘groups’ in the neighborhood, to explain the motive for the . . .

shooting.” Id. Petitioner also raised errors with regard to (1) the identification testimony of a

government witness; (2) the government’s impeachment of another of its witnesses (a target of the

shooting); (3) a “concurrent intent” instruction 1; and (4) the trial judge’s response to a jury note

during deliberations. Mem. Op. and J. at 2–4. The DCCA, “discerning no error,” affirmed

petitioner’s convictions on March 14, 2007. Id. at 1.

Petitioner subsequently filed two separate collateral motions in Superior Court to attack his

convictions and two separate motions in the DCCA to recall the mandate affirming the convictions.

A. Collateral Motions

Petitioner filed his first collateral motion on March 14, 2008. The Superior Court

construed the filing captioned “Motion Under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct

Sentence By a Person in Federal Custody” as brought under D.C. Code § 23-110, and it denied

relief on October 5, 2009. Pet., Ex. 2, U.S. v. Somarriba-Gonzalez, No. F-770-04, Order (Super.

Ct. Oct. 5, 2009) [Dkt. # 1-1] at 11-14. Petitioner raised “two claims of prosecutorial misconduct

and four claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel,” which the court found were procedurally

1 The DCCA found the giving of this instruction to be harmless error since petitioner was acquitted of assault with intent to kill and the evidence supported the lesser-included conviction of assault with a dangerous weapon.

2 barred since petitioner had not demonstrated “cause for, and prejudice from, his failure to raise

[those then-available claims] on direct appeal.” Order at 1–2. Nevertheless, the court proceeded

to address petitioner’s claims and found them “substantively insufficient to warrant relief on their

merits.” Id. at 2. The court determined that the “presumption” under DCCA precedent to hold

a hearing on the ineffective assistance claim did not apply because petitioner’s “arguments [were]

vague and conclusory, and . . . belied by the evidentiary record.” It added: “[m]ost importantly,

[petitioner] [has made] no specific showing as to how he was prejudiced by his counsel’s alleged

deficiencies.” Id. at 3, applying standard of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687 (1984).

The court found petitioner’s prosecutorial misconduct claims based on alleged Brady violations

“equally unavailing.” Id. at 3–4.

The DCCA affirmed the Superior Court’s denial of petitioner’s first section 23-110 motion,

on both procedural and substantive grounds, in an unpublished decision issued on December 20,

2011. Pet., Ex. 2, Somarriba-Gonzalez v. United States, No. 09-CO-1443, Judgment (D.C. Dec.

20, 2011) [Dkt. # 1-1] at 16.

Petitioner filed a second motion under D.C. Code § 23-110 in Superior Court on February

28, 2012, in which he again claimed that his trial counsel was ineffective. He also claimed that a

new trial was warranted because the government “failed to timely disclose potentially exculpatory

evidence, as is required by Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963).” Pet., Ex. 2, United States v.

Somarriba-Gonzalez, No. 2004-FEL-770, Order at 2 (D.C. Super. Ct. Apr. 9, 2012 [Dkt. # 1-1] at

17–22. Despite finding the motion “procedurally barred as successive” and variations of the

previously raised claims “barred as an abuse of procedure,” the court explained that it would deny

the motion in any event because the “allegations are vague, conclusory, and wholly incredible.”

Id. at 6. The court noted that petitioner’s counsel was “an experienced and highly skilled trial

3 attorney,” and other than his “own conclusory assertions,” petitioner had “presented no evidence

that trial counsel failed to request Brady material, failed to investigate, or was unprepared for trial.”

Id.

The DCCA affirmed the Superior Court’s denial of petitioner’s second section 23-110

motion in an unpublished decision issued on December 21, 2012, and it denied petitioner’s motion

for reconsideration on March 28, 2013. See Resp’t’s Ex. 5. In its affirmance, the DCCA

determined that petitioner’s motion was “properly denied . . . as procedurally barred as a successive

motion.” Pet., Ex. 2, Somarriba-Gonzalez v. United States, No. 12-CO-684, Judgment (D.C. Dec.

21, 2012) [Dkt. # 1-1] at 23. It also observed that the Superior Court had “properly rejected”

petitioner’s claims since “he failed to demonstrate cause or prejudice in failing to raise these claims

in his direct appeal or prior collateral attack,” and that “the trial court correctly concluded that

petitioner’s claims were vague and conclusory. Therefore a hearing on the motion was not

required.” Id.

B. Recall Motions

On July 23, 2009, petitioner filed his first motion to recall the mandate issued on April 5,

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