People of Michigan v. Royale Gold Runyon

CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 25, 2020
Docket346601
StatusUnpublished

This text of People of Michigan v. Royale Gold Runyon (People of Michigan v. Royale Gold Runyon) 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. Royale Gold Runyon, (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PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, UNPUBLISHED June 25, 2020 Plaintiff-Appellee,

v No. 346601 Kent Circuit Court ROYALE GOLD RUNYON, LC No. 18-001667-FC

Defendant-Appellant.

Before: TUKEL, P.J., and SERVITTO and BECKERING, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

A jury convicted defendant, Royale Gold Runyon, of first-degree murder, MCL 750.316(1)(a), felony-murder, MCL 750.316(1)(b), and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony (felony-firearm), MCL 750.227b. The trial court sentenced him to serve prison terms of life without parole for each of the murder convictions, and to serve a consecutive two-year term for the felony-firearm conviction. Defendant appeals as of right. We affirm in all respects except with regard to defendant’s valid double jeopardy argument, and we remand to the trial court to correct both the judgment of sentence and the presentence investigation report (PSIR) to reflect one sentence and one conviction for murder based on two theories.

Defendant’s convictions arose from the murder of Eve’vana Galloway in the early hours of December 15, 2012. Defendant’s half-brother, Mahdi Hayes, had lately dated Galloway and recently learned that he might have contracted a sexually-transmitted disease. Hayes apparently hired defendant to do the killing. In 2014, a jury convicted defendant of second-degree murder, MCL 750.317, and felony-firearm for Hayes’s murder, and the trial court sentenced him to a minimum of 30 years in prison.1 A person who had been incarcerated with defendant testified that, while incarcerated, defendant admitted to killing Galloway for Hayes, and to then killing Hayes when he did not pay defendant for the homicide.

1 This Court affirmed his convictions and sentence. People v Royale Gold Runyon, unpublished per curiam opinion of the Court of Appeals, issued May 21, 2015 (Docket No. 320647).

-1- I. INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL

Defendant first argues that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to object to the admission of evidence of crimes other than the murder of Galloway, by failing to object to identification testimony, and by failing to object to hearsay statements from Detective Mark Worch. We find no cause for reversal.

Defendant failed to preserve this issue below by moving for a new trial or a hearing pursuant to People v Ginther, 390 Mich 436; 212 NW2d 922 (1973). See People v Payne, 285 Mich App 181, 188; 774 NW2d 714 (2009). Our review of unpreserved claims of ineffective assistance of counsel is limited to errors apparent from the record. People v Unger (On Remand), 278 Mich App 210, 253; 749 NW2d 272 (2008). We review de novo the constitutional question of whether an attorney’s ineffective assistance deprived a defendant of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Id. at 242.

A defendant’s right to counsel is guaranteed by the United States and Michigan Constitutions. US Const, Am VI; Const 1963 art 1, § 20. This “right to counsel encompasses the right to the effective assistance of counsel.” People v Cline, 276 Mich App 634, 637; 741 NW2d 563 (2007) (quotation marks omitted). The right is substantive and focuses on “the actual assistance received.” People v Pubrat, 451 Mich 589, 596; 548 NW2d 595 (1996). To establish an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, a defendant must show (1) “that counsel’s performance was deficient” and (2) “that counsel’s deficient performance prejudiced the defense.” People v Taylor, 275 Mich App 177, 186; 737 NW2d 790 (2007) (quotation marks and citation omitted). Counsel’s performance is deficient if “it fell below an objective standard of professional reasonableness.” People v Jordan, 275 Mich App 659, 667; 739 NW2d 706 (2007) Deficient performance prejudiced the defense if it is reasonably probable that, but for counsel’s error, “the result of the proceeding would have been different.” Id. The “[e]ffective assistance of counsel is presumed, and the defendant bears a heavy burden of proving otherwise.” People v Rodgers, 248 Mich App 702, 714; 645 NW2d 294 (2001).

A. MRE 404(B)

Defendant first argues that his trial counsel should have objected to evidence of his other criminal acts. Except as allowed by MRE 404(b), evidence of prior crimes by a defendant must be excluded to avoid the danger of a conviction based on a defendant’s history of misconduct. People v Starr, 457 Mich 490, 495; 577 NW2d 673 (1998). MRE 404(b)(1) provides:

Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, scheme, plan, or system in doing an act, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident when the same is material, whether such other crimes, wrongs, or acts are contemporaneous with, or prior or subsequent to the conduct at issue in the case.

This list is not exclusive, People v Sabin (After Remand), 463 Mich 43, 56; 614 NW2d 888 (2000), and evidence is not subject to exclusion just because it discloses a bad act; bad acts can be relevant

-2- as substantive evidence if offered for a proper purpose. People v Houston, 261 Mich App 463, 468-469; 683 NW2d 192 (2004).

Testimony indicated that about five hours before the murder of Galloway, defendant attempted to rob John Breslin and fired a shot at Breslin, using the same gun later linked to the killings of Galloway and Hayes. Breslin testified that two men approached him around 11:15 p.m. on December 14, 2012, as he was walking to a party on College Street. One of the men demanded Breslin’s valuables and indicated that he had a gun. Breslin fled to a nearby house and knocked on the door. He heard a shot. A nine-millimeter Luger shell casing was later found in the area of the shooting and a bullet was lodged in the wall of a nearby home. The shell casing from that crime scene matched a gun linked to the murders of Galloway and Hayes. Breslin later identified defendant in a police lineup and in court as the man who threatened him with a gun. Detective Timothy DeVries testified that defendant admitted to participating in the attempted robbery, but attributed the shooting to Hayes. One of defendant’s friends recalled that defendant mentioned shooting at a man on a porch.

Testimony indicated that Galloway was shot around 4:00 a.m. on December 15, 2012. After the shooting, a silver, four-door Taurus was observed speeding out of Galloway’s apartment parking lot. Two car doors were heard closing before the car sped away. There was testimony that Hayes had borrowed a silver four-door Taurus during this time period, and that defendant and Hayes lived about four miles from the site of Galloway’s murder and one-and-a-half miles from the place of the attempted robbery.

Angel Hardy indicated that at a vigil for Hayes, murdered five days after Galloway’s killing, defendant gave her the gun later associated with all three crimes. After his arrest, defendant called an acquaintance from jail and told him to get the gun from Hardy.

Defendant argues that evidence about his participation in Breslin’s assault was unrelated and irrelevant to the circumstances of Galloway’s murder. Defendant does not argue that evidence of his killing of Hayes was used for an improper purpose or that it was irrelevant to Galloway’s murder, but he argues that the evidence regarding Breslin was irrelevant, claiming that it was not connected to Hayes’s or Galloway’s murders.

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People of Michigan v. Royale Gold Runyon, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-of-michigan-v-royale-gold-runyon-michctapp-2020.