State v. Buckingham

2019 WI App 5, 925 N.W.2d 792, 385 Wis. 2d 513
CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedDecember 4, 2018
DocketAppeal No. 2017AP1852-CR
StatusPublished

This text of 2019 WI App 5 (State v. Buckingham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Buckingham, 2019 WI App 5, 925 N.W.2d 792, 385 Wis. 2d 513 (Wis. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

DUGAN, J.

¶1 Steven L. Buckingham appeals from the judgment of conviction, following a jury trial, convicting him of one count of first-degree reckless injury with use of a dangerous weapon, and two counts of felony bail jumping. He also appeals the order denying his postconviction motion.

¶2 On appeal, Buckingham argues that trial counsel was ineffective because trial counsel: (1) failed to object to testimony about two handguns that were unrelated to the charges; (2) failed to obtain the testimony of a police officer who would have testified that the victim initially said he did not know who shot him; (3) failed to object to an in-court identification by a witness who failed to identify Buckingham in a photo array; (4) failed to object to a detective's nonresponsive hearsay testimony that a person whose DNA was found on a T-shirt said he knew Buckingham; and (5) failed to alert the jury to the lack of corroborative evidence regarding the alleged motive for the shooting, a feud on Facebook. Buckingham maintains that he was prejudiced by each of these deficiencies and by their cumulative effect. He also contends that he is entitled to postconviction discovery.

¶3 We assume, without deciding, that the alleged failures constituted deficient performance. However, we conclude that based on the strong identification evidence Buckingham has not established that he was prejudiced by them. We also conclude that Buckingham has not established that he is entitled to postconviction discovery. Therefore, we affirm the judgment and order.

BACKGROUND

The incident and the investigation

¶4 On August 19, 2013, D.F. and his friends A.C. and A.G. were waiting at a bus stop at 51st Street and North Avenue in Milwaukee. Two men approached D.F. at the bus stop and, when they were about an arm's-length away from him, one of the men shot D.F. with a handgun.

¶5 Detective James Campbell was dispatched to the scene of the shooting and found D.F., who had a single gunshot wound to his chest. D.F. told Campbell that he did not know the name of the shooter, but he had seen him before. D.F.'s breathing became more labored and the paramedics took over.

¶6 Campbell then began interviewing witnesses and investigating nearby businesses for video footage. Campbell interviewed K.W., who witnessed the shooting from the front passenger seat of a car and gave a detailed description of the shooter and the other man.

¶7 Detective Walter Cappelli interviewed A.G., who gave a detailed description of both men. A.G. said that both men had small black semiautomatic handguns, and each man had fired one round.

¶8 Based on all the witness reports, detectives believed that the men fled north past a school that had security cameras. One witness also reported seeing a suspect discard a white T-shirt as he ran.

¶9 The video recovered from the school's surveillance cameras showed two men running from the scene. One man had an Afro and was wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants, and the other man was wearing dark pants and white tennis shoes. However, the video was too grainy to identify either man's face. Detectives also recovered the T-shirt, and it was sent for DNA testing. Detective Marco Salaam also recovered two .380 caliber shell casings from a semiautomatic weapon at the scene, and the casings were sent to the State Crime Laboratory for testing.

¶10 After D.F. was stabilized at the hospital, D.F. told the police that he did not know the shooter personally, but he knew him as Lil Lo. The morning of August 20, 2013, Detective Shannon Lewandowski showed D.F. a photo array at the hospital, and D.F. identified Buckingham as Lil Lo in the photo array and as the shooter.1

¶11 On August 21, 2013, Salaam showed K.W. a photo array and she identified Buckingham as the shooter. On August 21, 2013, that photo array was reshuffled and Salaam showed it to A.G.; the photo array was again reshuffled and Salaam showed it to T.A., K.W.' fiancé who was driving the car in which K.W. was riding on the day of the shooting. Neither A.G. nor T.A. identified anyone in the photo array.

¶12 On January 31, 2014, the State charged Buckingham with one count of first-degree reckless injury with use of a dangerous weapon for the incident that occurred on August 19, 2013, and two counts of bail jumping.2 Buckingham was subsequently arrested on those charges on July 5, 2014.

The trial and eyewitness testimony

¶13 In early March 2015, the trial court presided over a four-day jury trial. Buckingham's consistent defense was that the shooting of D.F. was horrific, but he was not the shooter.

¶14 In its opening statement, the State outlined its theory of the case that Buckingham shot D.F., while D.F. and two friends, A.G. and A.C., were waiting for a bus.

¶15 In his opening statement, trial counsel told the jury that the State had the burden of proof and that Buckingham was presumed to be innocent. Trial counsel asked the jury to consider who had a motive to shoot D.F. and to consider that at the scene D.F. told Campbell that he did not know who shot him or know the man's name.

¶16 At trial, the State called thirteen witnesses, including D.F., A.C., and A.G.; Officer Campbell; Detective Salaam; a firearms and tool mark examiner from the State Crime Laboratory; and two other officers who were later involved in the discoveries of two handguns. Trial counsel called three witnesses, Campbell; Cappelli; and Detective Todd Fischer.

¶17 During his testimony, D.F. identified Buckingham as the man who shot him and stated that he had no doubt that Buckingham was the man who shot him. K.W. testified that she witnessed the shooting from the front passenger seat of T.A.'s car. She said she saw four men and a woman at the bus stop and that she saw one of the men get shot. K.W. identified Buckingham in court as the shooter. K.W. also testified that the police showed her a photo array and she identified Buckingham as the shooter in the array.

¶18 T.A.'s testimony was consistent with that of K.W., except he believed the gunman fired two or three shots. He identified Buckingham in court as the shooter. He also claimed that he made an identification of the shooter from a photo array, but on cross-examination, he admitted that he did not. Salaam also testified that T.A. did not identify the shooter in the photo array.

¶19 A.C. testified that she was standing at the bus stop with D.F. and A.G. when two black men, both with guns, approached them. She was unable to provide a more detailed description of either man. A.C. said she ran from the scene when she saw the guns and she heard, but did not see, the shooting. She said she did not see any person involved in the shooting in the courtroom. She did not know Buckingham.

¶20 A.G. testified that he saw two black men with guns approach D.F. He said he saw and heard both of them fire their guns, and then run off. A.G. remembered being shown a photo array by the police but could not identify anyone from it. He did not remember giving the police any descriptions of the men at the scene and he did not recall what the men were wearing.

¶21 In closing argument, the State told the jury that it had established that Buckingham shot D.F. for reasons that might not be clear. It summarized the evidence that supported its argument.

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Bluebook (online)
2019 WI App 5, 925 N.W.2d 792, 385 Wis. 2d 513, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-buckingham-wisctapp-2018.