Robert Earl Badelle v. Curtis Correll

452 F.3d 648, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 15570, 2006 WL 1703068
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJune 22, 2006
Docket04-1602
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 452 F.3d 648 (Robert Earl Badelle v. Curtis Correll) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robert Earl Badelle v. Curtis Correll, 452 F.3d 648, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 15570, 2006 WL 1703068 (7th Cir. 2006).

Opinion

*652 SYKES, Circuit Judge.

Almost thirty years ago, Robert Kanna-pel Sr. was shot and killed while working at an Indianapolis gas station. Robert Badelle was convicted of the murder by an Indiana jury in 1979 and sentenced to sixty years’ imprisonment. Badelle’s conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal. Badelle v. State, 449 N.E.2d 1055 (Ind.1983) (Badelle I).

Four years after the final disposition of his direct appeal, Badelle commenced an action for postconviction relief in state court. For reasons not entirely clear from the record, this petition apparently remained pending for twelve years without substantial action by the Indiana court. 1 An evidentiary hearing was finally convened in the fall of 1999; it lasted four days and 44 witnesses testified. The post-conviction court denied relief, and the denial was upheld on appeal. Badelle v. State, 754 N.E.2d 510 (Ind.App.2001) (Badelle II). The Indiana Supreme Court declined review.

Badelle then filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the district court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 alleging numerous errors in the state court proceedings. The district court denied relief, and this court granted in part Badelle’s request for a certificate of appealability. See 28 U.S.C. § 2253. Badelle argues on appeal that he is entitled to habeas relief because the prosecution withheld evidence contrary to Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), and because his counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate and present the testimony of additional witnesses and for not sufficiently objecting to the admissibility of eyewitness identifications. We affirm.

I. Background

On the snowy afternoon of December 5, 1977, Robert Kannapel Sr. and his son Robert Jr. were working together at a gas station in Indianapolis, Indiana. Robert Sr. was primarily working in the garage repairing automobiles while his son manned the gas pumps and otherwise dealt with customers. Sometime between 3:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., a man unknown to the Kannapels walked into the station’s front office area to escape the heavy snowfall and wait for a ride, which the Kanna-pels permitted him to do for the ensuing three hours.

At approximately 4 p.m., Edwin Kennedy pulled his car into the service station and it stalled in front of the gas pumps. Kennedy, with the assistance of Robert Kannapel Sr., Robert Kannapel Jr., and the loitering stranger, pushed the inoperable vehicle off the premises and onto the city street. Shortly after Kennedy’s car had been moved, Floyd Piles, the owner of the gas station, stopped in to attend to some business for approximately ten minutes. He observed the stranger standing in the front office and exchanged greetings with him.

At approximately 5 p.m., a man named Joe Harris entered the station to visit with his friend Robert Kannapel Sr. Harris would remain at the station for the next hour. The stranger asked Harris for a cigarette, which Harris provided. Shortly after 6 p.m., the younger Robert Kannapel left the station for the evening.

At this point the stranger asked Harris and Robert Kannapel Sr. if they would call him a cab. As Harris and Kannapel *653 searched the telephone book for the appropriate phone number, a man named John Hoffman entered the station and asked to use the telephone. Hoffman saw the stranger standing in the lobby and said hello. Kannapel told Hoffman there was no telephone available for public use and Hoffman promptly left the station.

Kannapel and Harris found a telephone number for a taxi, and Kannapel walked into a room at the rear of the station to place the call. The stranger followed Kan-napel into the back room while Harris remained in the front lobby. Harris then heard the sound of a scuffle followed by a gunshot and Kannapel’s plea for an ambulance. As Harris began moving toward the back room to investigate, the stranger emerged holding a silver handgun with a long barrel. He threatened to shoot Harris if he went any further. Harris then ran from the station and called police from his nearby apartment. The shooter left the station and was observed by a man named Vincent Carrol who had just pulled his vehicle up to the gasoline pumps. Car-rol observed that the man was holding a “long-barreled, silver-colored” handgun as he left the gas station. Help arrived too late to save Kannapel, who died from a gunshot wound.

The Indianapolis Police Department put Detective Dennis Morgan in charge of the investigation, assisted by Detective James Highbaugh. A composite sketch of the killer was created, and the sketch was published in an Indianapolis newspaper. Three and a half months after the murder, the police received a tip that Badelle looked very much like the sketch, and he was arrested on a probation violation.

The case against Badelle was based primarily on positive identifications made at lineups and in court by Robert Kannapel Jr. and Joe Harris, the only two living witnesses who had spent any significant amount of time observing the murderer hanging around the gas station on the day of the murder. Robert Kannapel Jr. identified Badelle as the man who had been loitering in the gas station the afternoon and evening of the murder. Joe Harris likewise identified Badelle as the man who shot and killed Robert Kannapel Sr. and threatened Harris with a gun following the shooting. Floyd Piles, Vincent Carrol, and John Hoffman had shorter looks at the suspect and could not identify Badelle. Edwin Kennedy testified that Badelle was not the man who helped him push his stalled vehicle off the gas station lot before the murder took place.

In addition to the two eyewitness identifications, a man named Charles (“Dick”) Reedus testified that he had known Ba-delle for eight to ten years and that Ba-delle had been in Reedus’s place of business “in the fall of 1977” — just months prior to the murder — brandishing a shiny, chrome-colored handgun. Reedus also testified that Badelle had on that occasion fired a shot into the wall (perhaps accidentally), and that police subsequently searched for, but did not find, any bullet or bullet hole in the wall.

Additional facts and procedural history will be discussed where appropriate. 2

II. Discussion

Prior to enactment of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AED-PA”), a state prisoner seeking a writ of habeas corpus in federal court received plenary review of his federal constitutional claims. Gregory-Bey v. Hanks, 332 F.3d 1036, 1043 (7th Cir.2003); Agnew v. Lei-bach, 250 F.3d 1123, 1129 (7th Cir.2001). *654 This changed in 1996 with passage of AEDPA.

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Bluebook (online)
452 F.3d 648, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 15570, 2006 WL 1703068, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robert-earl-badelle-v-curtis-correll-ca7-2006.