People of Michigan v. Cornell Maine Head Jr

CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 7, 2020
Docket346431
StatusUnpublished

This text of People of Michigan v. Cornell Maine Head Jr (People of Michigan v. Cornell Maine Head Jr) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People of Michigan v. Cornell Maine Head Jr, (Mich. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

If this opinion indicates that it is “FOR PUBLICATION,” it is subject to revision until final publication in the Michigan Appeals Reports.

STATE OF MICHIGAN

COURT OF APPEALS

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, UNPUBLISHED May 7, 2020 Plaintiff-Appellee,

v No. 346431 Kalamazoo Circuit Court CORNELL MAINE HEAD, JR., LC No. 2017-001572-FC

Defendant-Appellant.

Before: MARKEY, P.J., and JANSEN and BOONSTRA, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Defendant appeals by right his jury-trial convictions of second-degree murder, MCL 750.317; being a felon in possession of a firearm (felon-in-possession), MCL 750.224f; two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony (felony-firearm), MCL 750.227b; and carrying a concealed weapon (CCW), MCL 750.227. The trial court sentenced defendant as a fourth-offense habitual offender, MCL 769.12, to concurrent prison terms of 30 to 50 years for the second-degree murder conviction and three to five years each for the felon-in-possession and CCW convictions, those sentences to be served subsequently to the concurrent two-year prison terms for the felony-firearm convictions, with credit for 392 days served. We affirm.

I. PERTINENT FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Defendant shot and killed Gabriel Juarez-Montanez, the ex-boyfriend of defendant’s girlfriend, Kelsey Boodt, in Portage, Michigan, on July 25, 2017. Boodt testified at trial that she had told defendant that Juarez-Montanez had been violent with her in the past and that she was afraid of him. She also testified that defendant said he would kill Juarez-Montanez if he ever hurt her again. Boodt’s coworker, Denise Marie Davis, testified that in July of the previous year Boodt had told her, in the presence of defendant, that Juarez-Montanez’s family was threatening her. According to Davis, defendant was quiet, did not say that he was going to kill Juarez-Montanez, and said something like, “they not going to do nothing [sic].” Davis also testified that, a few days before this conversation, Juarez-Montanez had come to her workplace and that her coworkers had called the police because they were concerned for Boodt’s safety.

-1- Defendant’s friend Elijah Bell and Boodt both testified that the shooting took place around 2:00 a.m. as they were sitting with defendant in a vehicle in the parking lot of his apartment complex, smoking marijuana. Boodt testified that she saw Juarez-Montanez walking toward the car “with his hands in a fist” like “he was going to swing on [defendant]” and warned defendant that Juarez-Montanez was approaching. Boodt testified that within “a blink of an eye,” Juarez- Montanez opened the passenger door of the car where defendant was sitting; Boodt stated that it looked like Juarez-Montanez was going to hit defendant, but she could not see if Juarez-Montanez held anything in his hand. She testified that defendant produced a firearm and fired twice. When the shooting began, Boodt ran from the car to the apartment she shared with defendant. Approximately 20 to 25 minutes later, the police forced the door of the apartment open after they knocked repeatedly and she did not answer. The police later obtained a search warrant for Boodt’s apartment and seized a revolver and two different kinds of ammunition; although defendant’s fingerprints were found on the revolver, a forensic technician testified at trial that the revolver was not the gun used in the shooting, nor was the ammunition found in the apartment of the same caliber as that used in the shooting. The gun used in the shooting was never recovered.

Bell testified that he saw a man he had never seen before walking rapidly up to the car and that it appeared to him that the man had something in his hands that could have been a knife or a stick. He testified that defendant appeared scared when Boodt told him it was Juarez-Montanez, that defendant asked Boodt to drive away, but that she did not do so. Bell testified that he ran from the car when Juarez-Montanez opened the front passenger door and that, although he heard the two gunshots, he did not see who fired them.

Other witnesses at trial testified to hearing two gunshots on the night in question. A forensic technician testified that gunpowder residue was found inside the car, suggesting that at least one of the shots was fired while the gun was inside the car. A forensic medical examiner testified that Juarez-Montanez had died of two gunshot wounds to the chest; one of the bullets had passed through his right hand. The examiner testified that the wound in Juarez-Montanez’s right hand indicated that the gunshot causing that wound was fired from less than three feet away while Juarez-Montanez’s hands were held up in front of his body.

The trial court instructed the jury on the elements of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and voluntary manslaughter; additionally, the trial court gave an extensive self-defense instruction. The jury convicted defendant as described. This appeal followed. After filing his claim of appeal, defendant moved this Court to remand for a Ginther1 hearing on the issue of his trial counsel’s alleged ineffectiveness, which this Court denied without prejudice to a panel of this Court determining whether remand was necessary on plenary review.2

1 People v Ginther, 390 Mich 436; 212 NW2d 922 (1973). 2 See People v Head, unpublished order of the Michigan Court of Appeals, entered June 26, 2019 (Docket No. 346431).

-2- II. SELF-DEFENSE INSTRUCTION/INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL

Defendant argues that the trial court improperly instructed the jury regarding defendant’s claim of self-defense, or in the alternative that his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to object to the instructions and in failing to request an additional instruction regarding defendant’s presence in a vehicle at the time of the shooting. We disagree. We conclude that defense counsel waived appellate review of the instructional issue by affirmatively approving the jury instructions, 3 see People v Kowalski, 489 Mich 488, 503-504; 803 NW2d 200 (2011), but we will review the issue in the context of defendant’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.

Whether effective assistance of counsel has been denied is a mixed question of fact and constitutional law. People v LeBlanc, 465 Mich 575, 579; 640 NW2d 246 (2002). We review for clear error the trial court’s findings of fact and review de novo the ultimate constitutional issue. Id. Because no Ginther hearing was held, our review is limited to mistakes apparent from the record. People v Heft, 299 Mich App 69, 80; 829 NW2d 266 (2012). We review de novo issues of statutory interpretation. See People v Pinkney, 501 Mich 259, 268; 912 NW2d 535 (2018).

To establish that trial counsel was ineffective, a defendant must show that counsel’s performance was objectively unreasonable and that counsel’s deficient performance prejudiced the defense. People v Payne, 285 Mich App 181, 188-189; 774 NW2d 714 (2009). Prejudice exists when a defendant is able to show a reasonable probability that, absent counsel’s error, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Id. at 189. Counsel cannot be deemed ineffective for failing to raise a meritless argument. People v Ericksen, 288 Mich App 192, 201; 793 NW2d 120 (2010).

We conclude that any objection by defense counsel to the jury instructions given by the trial court, and any request for the additional instruction found in M Crim JI 7.16a, would have been meritless; therefore, defendant cannot show that his trial counsel was ineffective or that he was prejudiced.

A defendant is entitled to a properly instructed jury. People v Mills, 450 Mich 61, 80; 537 NW2d 909 (1995).

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People of Michigan v. Cornell Maine Head Jr, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-of-michigan-v-cornell-maine-head-jr-michctapp-2020.