State v. Martez Columbus Fennell

CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedMay 25, 2021
Docket2020AP000487-CR
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Martez Columbus Fennell (State v. Martez Columbus Fennell) 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. Martez Columbus Fennell, (Wis. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS DECISION NOTICE DATED AND FILED This opinion is subject to further editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. May 25, 2021 A party may file with the Supreme Court a Sheila T. Reiff petition to review an adverse decision by the Clerk of Court of Appeals Court of Appeals. See WIS. STAT. § 808.10 and RULE 809.62.

Appeal No. 2020AP487-CR Cir. Ct. No. 2016CF712

STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT I

STATE OF WISCONSIN,

PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT,

V.

MARTEZ COLUMBUS FENNELL,

DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

APPEAL from a judgment and an order of the circuit court for Milwaukee County: MARK A. SANDERS and STEPHANIE ROTHSTEIN, Judges. Affirmed.

Before Brash, P.J., Graham and White, JJ.

Per curiam opinions may not be cited in any court of this state as precedent

or authority, except for the limited purposes specified in WIS. STAT. RULE 809.23(3). No. 2020AP487-CR

¶1 PER CURIAM. Martez Columbus Fennell was convicted by a jury of first-degree reckless homicide as a party to a crime. Fennell sought postconviction relief, alleging that his trial counsel was ineffective for not attempting to suppress text messages that were gathered from a Kyocera cellphone pursuant to a warrant.1 He argues that the circuit court erred by denying his postconviction motion without a hearing and that the trial evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. We disagree and affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶2 On November 22, 2015, at 5:07 a.m., Milwaukee police responded to a 911 call about a shooting in an alley near 8329 West Congress Street. The victim, T.H., had been shot several times and was pronounced dead at the scene.

¶3 At 5:11 a.m. that same morning, Fennell arrived at St. Joseph’s Hospital with five gunshot wounds. Fennell had been driven to the hospital by his girlfriend, Wanliz Velazquez. When police interviewed Velazquez, she indicated that Fennell was shot near North 84th Street and West Congress. Velazquez gave police a black Kyocera cellphone, and she told the officers that the phone belonged to Fennell. A second cellphone was found in the pocket of the jeans Fennell wore to the hospital; it is not clear from the record whether police ever searched the contents of that second phone.

¶4 Police applied for and successfully obtained a search warrant for the Kyocera cellphone. The warrant application was accompanied by the affidavit of

1 The Honorable Mark A. Sanders presided over the trial and entered the judgment of conviction. The Honorable Stephanie Rothstein entered the order denying the postconviction motion.

2 No. 2020AP487-CR

Detective Nicholas J. Johnson, and the contents of this affidavit are addressed in greater detail in the discussion section below. A search of the phone uncovered four text messages that had been sent in the early morning hours leading up to the shooting from a phone number associated with a man named Dovone Jackson. Fennell argues that the contents of these four messages, discussed below, were the “lynchpin” of the case against him.

¶5 The case proceeded to a four-day jury trial, and Jackson was one of the many witnesses to testify on behalf of the State. Jackson had already been convicted of conspiracy to commit armed robbery in connection with T.H.’s death, and he had been sentenced to fifteen years of initial confinement. He told the jury that he had agreed to testify at Fennell’s trial in the hopes of reducing his sentence. Later, when reading the jury instructions, the court specifically informed the jury that Jackson had received “concessions” for his testimony. The circuit court instructed the jury to “consider whether [Jackson’s] hope that his testimony will result in a reduced sentence affected the testimony and give [it] the weight you believe it is entitled to receive.”

¶6 Jackson testified as follows. He and a man called “Breed” knew that T.H. kept money, drugs, and other valuables in his apartment, and they had a long- running plan to burglarize it. At some point, Jackson asked Fennell if he would assist with the burglary, and Fennell said he would. Jackson and Fennell planned to bring weapons to the burglary, and they had been watching T.H.’s apartment for at least a month, looking for an opportunity to break in. On the morning that T.H. was shot, Jackson and Fennell expected T.H. and his wife to be attending a party at Breed’s place.

3 No. 2020AP487-CR

¶7 Jackson confirmed that he sent the text messages that were found on the Kyocera cellphone, and he testified about the circumstances under which he sent those messages. When Jackson saw T.H. at Breed’s party, T.H. was carrying a gun and had a large sum of cash and jewelry on him. At 3:35 a.m., Jackson texted Fennell: “He here with a thousand singles, one pistol, and the watch. Breed just hoed him.” Jackson testified that meant that Breed accused T.H. of stealing from him. At 3:42 a.m., Jackson texted: “Earring. ND. And Bhain.”2 Jackson explained that he texted these updates so that Fennell would know “what [T.H.] had on him.” At 4:47 a.m., Jackson texted: “He on his WA, take him DMWN, go on S4TE.”3 Finally, at 4:50 a.m., Jackson texted: “rat on his … way, to take the snake. Are you hungry? Eat.”4 Jackson confirmed that he was referring to Fennell as the “snake” in this final text message. Jackson also confirmed that Fennell never replied to these four text messages and that he did not know whether Fennell had his phone on him the morning T.H. was shot.5

2 A police officer testified that he interpreted “ND Bhain” as a typo that meant “and chain.” The officer testified that he was aware that T.H. had been wearing a large chain around his neck when he attended Breed’s party.

The officer testified that he interpreted this message to mean “he is on his way, take 3

him down,” and possibly “go on site.” 4 The officer inferred that the “snake” referred to Fennell because Fennell has a tattoo of a snake on his arm. 5 A report with these and other text messages was generated, marked as State’s Exhibit 88, and displayed to the jury. However, it was apparently not admitted into evidence, and it is not a part of the record on appeal. The parties appear to agree on the spelling, capitalization, and punctuations of the text messages that were displayed to the jury, but we are unable to confirm their accuracy by reference to the exhibit.

The trial transcripts also include testimony about text messages sent between Fennell and Jackson in the days leading up to the shooting. During trial, the prosecution suggested that these texts were related to them casing the apartment and planning a burglary. Neither party discusses these texts in any detail in their appellate briefs, therefore we discuss them no further.

4 No. 2020AP487-CR

¶8 T.H.’s wife testified as follows. T.H. had gone to a party at Breed’s place the night before he was shot, and she stayed at home. Around 1:30 a.m., someone knocked on their apartment door, and she saw an unfamiliar man wearing a red hoodie, a black jacket, dark pants, and a cap. The man told her that he had the “wrong doorbell,” and as he walked away, he took out his phone as if he was about to make a call. Then, at approximately 5:00 a.m., she heard gunshots, looked out the window, and saw T.H. fighting with someone. She called 911 after discovering that T.H. had been shot.

¶9 The State introduced DNA evidence at trial that linked Fennell to T.H.’s body and to the crime scene. Fennell’s DNA was found under T.H.’s fingernails, and Fennell’s blood was found in the alleyway where T.H. was killed. Fennell had been wearing a red sweatshirt when he was admitted to the hospital, and according to DNA analysis, the blood on the sweatshirt belonged to Fennell and to T.H.

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State v. Martez Columbus Fennell, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-martez-columbus-fennell-wisctapp-2021.