Johnson v. Premo

370 P.3d 553, 277 Or. App. 225, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 375
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMarch 30, 2016
Docket06C16178; A154129
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 370 P.3d 553 (Johnson v. Premo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. Premo, 370 P.3d 553, 277 Or. App. 225, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 375 (Or. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

FLYNN, J.

This is a post-conviction case in which the court vacated the judgment in the underlying criminal case on the basis of inadequate and ineffective assistance of trial counsel, under Article I, section 11, of the Oregon Constitution and the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and remanded the case for a new trial. The state1 appeals, arguing that the post-conviction court erred in determining that counsel failed to adequately investigate a morphine overdose defense by not obtaining an expert opinion from a toxicologist, and that petitioner was prejudiced by his attorneys’ inadequacy. Petitioner cross-appeals, contending that the post-conviction court erred in determining that the other claims alleged in his petition do not provide alternative bases for granting post-conviction relief. Because we agree with the post-conviction court’s determination that petitioner was denied adequate representation, and that he was prejudiced as a result, we affirm on the appeal. We dismiss the cross-appeal as moot.2

The right to counsel guaranteed by Article I, section 11, and by the Sixth Amendment, is a right to “‘adequate performance by counsel’ concerning the ‘functions of professional assistance which an accused person relies upon counsel to perform on his behalf.’” Montez v. Czerniak, 355 Or 1, 6, 322 P3d 487, adh’d to as modified on recons, 355 Or 598, 330 P3d 595 (2014) (quoting Krummacher v. Gierloff, 290 Or 867, 872, 627 P2d 458 (1981)); see also Strickland v. Washington, 466 US 668, 686, 104 S Ct 2052, 80 L Ed 2d 674 (1984) (United States Constitution requires not just counsel, but “effective” counsel). Oregon has a legislatively created post-conviction process that provides relief when there has been a “substantial denial” of the state or federal constitutional right to counsel, “which denial rendered the [228]*228conviction void.” ORS 138.530(1)(a). To prevail on a claim for post-conviction relief, a petitioner must “show, by a preponderance of the evidence, facts demonstrating that trial counsel failed to exercise reasonable professional skill and judgment and that petitioner suffered prejudice as a result.” Trujillo v. Maass, 312 Or 431, 435, 822 P2d 703 (1991).

We review the post-conviction court’s determination for errors of law. ORS 138.220; Montez, 355 Or at 8. In doing so, however, we are bound by the post-conviction court’s findings of fact if they are supported by evidence in the record. Id. (citing Lichau v. Baldwin, 333 Or 350, 359, 39 P3d 851 (2002)). Moreover, “[i]f the post-conviction court failed to make findings of fact on all the issues—and there is evidence from which such facts could be decided more than one way—we will presume that the facts were decided consistent with the post-conviction court’s conclusions of law.” Id. The state does not challenge any of the post-conviction court’s factual findings as unsupported by the evidence, and we therefore quote from those findings extensively.3

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. The Underlying Criminal Proceedings

The investigation underlying this case “began at 6:30 a.m. on February 24, 1998, when a young woman’s body was discovered in the surf on a beach near Warrenton. Within a few days, the Clatsop County Sheriffs Office positively identified the body as that of [the victim], a Portland-area teenager.” Dr. Nikolas Hartshorne, a forensic pathologist and deputy medical examiner, concluded that the victim had died by strangulation.

After interviewing the victim’s family and friends, investigators learned that the victim “had left her Washington County home around 2:30 a.m. on February 23, 1998, ostensibly to go to the home of her friend ‘Marty’ to play on his computer.” Investigators found a telephone number for a [229]*229“Marty” in the victim’s bedroom and learned that the number belonged to petitioner, whose first name is “Martin.” A friend of the victim told investigators “that ‘Marty’ was an ‘older guy’ who always was ‘hitting on’ [the victim] and who sometimes provided [her] with alcohol and drugs.”

Further investigation revealed that petitioner “was on probation for federal drug crimes, that he drove a black Acura with distinctive vanity plates, and that, at 1:54 a.m. on February 24,1998, a police officer had stopped him as he drove south on Highway 30, a principal road between the Warrenton area and the Portland area (where [petitioner] lived).” A few days later, investigators executed warrants to search petitioner’s home and car, and to obtain DNA samples from his person. That same day, investigators attempted to interview petitioner at the local sheriffs office, but petitioner cut the interview short and asked to go home. The next day, investigators learned that petitioner had absconded with his brother’s car and credit cards, and that his whereabouts were unknown. Petitioner remained missing until police arrested him in Florida approximately one year later.

In the meantime, the murder investigation continued. Forensics technicians matched a bloodstain on the hatchback of petitioner’s car to the victim’s DNA. Investigators learned that petitioner “habitually preyed on underage girls, taking them to nightclubs, providing them with alcohol and drugs, engaging them in consensual sexual relations when possible and, most significantly, sexually abusing them while they were rendered unconscious by drugs that he had provided to them.” Investigators also learned that the victim “had a significant amount of morphine in her system when she died and that her vaginal cavity contained semen whose DNA matched [petitioner’s] DNA.”

Based on that evidence, a Washington County grand jury issued an indictment alleging that petitioner had committed six counts of aggravated murder in Washington County. Petitioner told his defense lawyers that the victim died in Washington County from a drug overdose, that he found her “dead in bed and wrapped her body in a blanket, put her in the trunk of his car and drove her body to the coast and threw her in the water from the middle of the [230]*230Astoria Bridge.” However, neither Hartshorne (the state’s expert), nor the expert hired by the defense, provided an opinion regarding the victim’s cause of death that supported petitioner’s account of how and where the victim had died.

Shortly before trial, a grand jury issued a new indictment charging petitioner with additional counts of aggravated murder and alleging that petitioner had lived in, and had been extradited to, Washington County, thus implicating the presumptive venue provision of ORS 131.325. Under that statute, if it could not “readily be determined” where petitioner had committed the acts that caused the victim’s death, venue would lie in Washington County, as petitioner’s county of residence at the time of the offense or as the county to which petitioner had been extradited.4

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Related

State v. Johnson
Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2023
Johnson v. Premo
Oregon Supreme Court, 2017
Holcomb v. Taylor
397 P.3d 517 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2017)
Baranovich v. Brockamp
379 P.3d 702 (Washington County Circuit Court, Oregon, 2016)
Richardson v. Belleque
373 P.3d 1113 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
370 P.3d 553, 277 Or. App. 225, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 375, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-premo-orctapp-2016.