Jennifer Galvan v. Anthony Stewart

705 F. App'x 392
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedAugust 23, 2017
Docket16-1441
StatusUnpublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 705 F. App'x 392 (Jennifer Galvan v. Anthony Stewart) 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
Jennifer Galvan v. Anthony Stewart, 705 F. App'x 392 (6th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

SUHRHEINRICH, Circuit Judge.

Petitioner Jennifer Galvan appeals the district court’s denial of her § 2254 habeas petition, asserting that the Michigan Court of Appeals unreasonably applied Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), in holding that there was sufficient evidence in support of her Michigan first-degree felony murder conviction. We affirm.

I.

Petitioner and Joe Galvan (Petitioner’s husband) were both charged with first-degree felony murder, Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.316(l)(b), based on the predicate felony of first-degree child abuse, Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.136b(2), or torture, Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.85, which resulted in the death of Joe’s biological daughter, and Petitioner’s, step-daughter, Prhaze Galvan. At a joint trial, a jury found both Petitioner and Joe guilty. 1 Both Petitioner and Joe appealed, challenging, among other things, the sufficiency of the evidence sustaining their convictions. We repeat verbatim the relevant facts as found by that court, which we presume correct on habeas review. See 28 U.S.C, § 2254(e)(1).

Prhaze Galvan died on January 15, 2010, The medical examiner, Daniel Spitz, M.D., concluded that the death was a homicide and that she died of “multiple blunt force head injuries.” More specifically, Dr. Spitz concluded that she died of “impact involving the right side of the head,” which resulted in “injury to the brain, bleeding over the surface of the brain, and then the reaction of the brain to that bleeding which is brain swelling.” Dr. Spitz noted that Prhaze had injuries and bruising all over her body in various stages of healing. The injuries included pattern injuries, several of which were caused by “a white plastic spatula type spoon with a fairly long handle,” Dr. Spitz estimated that there were 20 or more injuries to her head and neck. Defendants initially reported that Prhaze had fallen in the bathroom and hit her head. However, Dr. Spitz and a pediatric expert both concluded that the bathtub injury story “didn’t fit” and *394 could not account for the type of trauma that existed.
Other evidence indicated that the abuse had been unrelenting. Defendant Jennifer Galvan’s sister, Kathleen "LaFave, had on one occasion seen Prhaze with two black eyes, on another with one black eye, and on still another saw her with a bruise that covered her whole butt cheek. On another occasion she discovered Prhaze in the shower in her clothes; defendant Jennifer Galvan explained that she had wet her pants. Another sister witnessed a scabbed chin with a mark by her eye, a bruise on her lower back and blackened eyes. John Mugnano, a longtime friend of defendant Jennifer Galvan who sometimes watched Prhaze, said that “[a]nytime that I ever had her her left eye was black or her right eye was black.” Further, he once observed Prhaze standing with her nose to the wall for 30 to 40 minutes. Mugna-no testified that defendant Jennifer Gal-van dropped Prhaze off at his home and asked for masking tape. After Jennifer left his home, he called out to Prhaze, but she did not answer. He found Prhaze with her mouth, arms, and knees taped together. He later made an anonymous report to Child Protective Services because he did not see the couple’s treatment of Prhaze improving.
Defendant Jennifer Galvan’s mother twice saw Prhaze with black eyes; Jennifer explained that on one occasion she fell in the tub. She also noted a bruise on Prhaze’s hip and one on her butt. A babysitter, noted “[b]lack eyes, like horrible bruises like on her head,” including “a tennis ball swelling out of her head,” and bruising “[o]n her butt. Bruises everywhere,” including her arms, legs, thighs and back. On one occasion, Prhaze explained the presence of a bruise by saying she had been spanked with a spoon when she tried to get out of a cold shower. When family members questioned defendant Jennifer Galvan about the condition of the child, she claimed that the child was clumsy and received bruises from playing with the family puppy. Other family members never saw Prhaze after they complained about the child’s condition.
There was also evidence that Prhaze was not being fed. She weighed 32 pounds 14 months before her death and 32 pounds at the time of death. Indeed, family members testified that Prhaze frequently woke up at night and would search the home, even the garbage can for food. As a result, defendant Jennifer Galvan would withhold meals from the child as a punishment. The couple would force their children to face a wall as a form of punishment. Witnesses testified that Prhaze was consistently on punishment and for extended periods of time. There was also testimony that defendant Jennifer Galvan’s biological children were not dressed or treated the same as Prhaze. Also, witnesses observed Prhaze transform during the course of the ongoing abuse from a happy child to a child who was withdrawn, non-interactive, not playful, and “emotionless.”
Defendant Jennifer Galvan was a licensed practical nurse. Her co-workers testified that Jennifer hated Prhaze, referred to the child as the devil, blamed Prhaze for the death of the couple’s infant son, and claimed that the child was ruining her marriage'. Defendant Jennifer Galvan testified in her own defense and denied the claims raised by family, friends, and coworkers. She asserted that she loved Prhaze and claimed that the witnesses were mistaken or misconstrued her statements. She denied ever calling Prhaze the devil, but rather mentioned that the child would dress as the devil for Halloween. Addi *395 tionally, she denied withholding meals from the child as a form of punishment or that the duration of time standing at the wall was ever excessive. She also denied ever tying or restraining the child. However, when confronted with a text that she sent to defendant Joe Gal-van wherein she purportedly referred to Prhaze as an expletive brat who could walk while tied up, she could not recall what the text meant. Rather, defendant Jennifer Galvan questioned the conduct of babysitters and family members, claiming that one family member left Prhaze on the porch at night. Defendant Joe Galvan did not testify, but his history of abuse with Prhaze’s half-brother and others was presented during trial, and his admission to hitting Prhaze with a belt to defendant Jennifer Galvan’s coworker was admitted at trial.

People v. Galvan, Nos. 299814, 299822, 2013 WL 5338520, at *1-2 (Mich. Ct. App. Sept. 24, 2013) (per curiam).

Like the district court, we also take particular note that first responders testified that Petitioner showed little to no concern for Prhaze’s condition upon their arrival; and that, when initially questioned on the scene by a detective, Petitioner’s first instincts were to ask whether she needed an attorney, and to manufacture defenses for Prhaze’s injuries.

Furthermore, we highlight the fact that Petitioner’s mother, sisters, and friend testified that, when they first met Prhaze, she was a normal, happy child, and that Petitioner treated Prhaze lovingly, just like her other children. 2

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Bluebook (online)
705 F. App'x 392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jennifer-galvan-v-anthony-stewart-ca6-2017.