State v. Reeves

254 So. 3d 665
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedOctober 15, 2018
DocketNo. 2018-KP-0270
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 254 So. 3d 665 (State v. Reeves) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Reeves, 254 So. 3d 665 (La. 2018).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Denied. In 2004, a Calcasieu Parish jury found relator, Jason M. Reeves, guilty of the first degree murder of four-year-old M.J.T.1 At trial, the state presented evidence that Reeves abducted, raped, and murdered M.J.T. on the afternoon of November 12, 2001. The state's evidence linking Reeves to the murder included semen matching Reeves's DNA profile recovered from M.J.T.'s anus, fibers and dog hairs linking the victim's clothing to Reeves's vehicle, man-trailing dog evidence which tracked Reeves's scent to critical areas associated with the crime, witness statements placing Reeves and his vehicle at the trailer park from which M.J.T. was abducted and the cemetery near which her body was found, and a confession.

After finding Reeves guilty as charged, jurors unanimously agreed to impose a sentence of death in light of the aggravating circumstances that Reeves was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of aggravated rape at the time of the murder; that the victim was under the age of 12 years; and that the offense was committed in an especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner. The trial court sentenced Reeves to death by lethal injection in accord with the jury's determination. This Court affirmed the conviction and sentence. State v. Reeves , 06-2419 (La. 5/5/09), 11 So.3d 1031, cert. denied , 558 U.S. 1031, 130 S.Ct. 637, 175 L.Ed.2d 490 (2009).

In 2009, Reeves filed a pro se "shell" application for post-conviction relief. Through counsel, Reeves subsequently amended and supplemented his original application to allege some 18 claims for relief. Two of those claims have already been fully litigated. See State ex rel. Reeves v. Vannoy , 16-2199 (La. 1/23/17), 209 So.3d 87 (finding no abuse of the district court's discretion in denying Reeves's request to further supplement his application for post-conviction relief with a claim under Penry v. Lynaugh , 492 U.S. 302, 109 S.Ct. 2934, 106 L.Ed.2d 256 (1989) ); State v. Reeves , 15-1668 (La. 4/4/16), 188 So.3d 257 (denying writs because Reeves failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he suffers from a mental disability that renders him ineligible for execution). The district court denied three other claims on procedural grounds and dismissed four others without prejudice.

Thereafter, the district court conducted an evidentiary hearing to address the remaining nine claims, all of which urged ineffective assistance of trial counsel. It heard testimony from Kerry Cuccia (lead defense counsel from Reeves's first trial), now-Judge Ronald Ware (lead defense counsel from Reeves's second trial), Rick Bryant (the district attorney who prosecuted Reeves in both trials), and Cynthia *670Killingsworth (an assistant district attorney who aided Bryant in both trials). The district court also considered a deposition from Charles St. Dizier, a member of Ware's team in the second trial whose primary responsibility was in the penalty phase. After consideration of this evidence, the district court denied each claim, finding them meritless.

Reeves now assigns eight errors and seeks review of the district court's denial of 10 of his post-conviction claims for relief (one procedural ruling and nine merits rulings). For the following reasons, the district court reached the correct result in denying the application for post-conviction relief.

In State v. Lee , 14-2374, pp. 8-9 (La. 9/18/15), 181 So.3d 631, 638, another post-conviction capital case, we explained that an "attempt to re-litigate a claim that has been previously disposed of, by couching it as a post-conviction ineffective assistance of counsel claim, [should be] generally unavailing." As we found in Lee , Reeves's post-conviction ineffective assistance of counsel claims predicated upon issues which were in fact resolved on appeal are not truly new claims. The district court correctly dismissed Reeves's first claim-that Ware and his team suffered from "forced ineffectiveness" as a result of their appointment with just over six months to prepare for trial-under La.C.Cr.P. art. 930.4(A). On direct review, this Court devoted considerable attention to the propriety of this substitution of counsel under the circumstances of this case, and we expressly addressed the contention that the trial court erred in failing to grant a continuance. See Reeves , 06-2419, pp. 12-74, 11 So.3d at 1042-79. Reeves's standalone "forced ineffectiveness" claim finds itself predicated upon these same issues and is barred from review.

Next, Reeves argues that Ware rendered ineffective assistance by failing to utilize three experts called by Cuccia in the first trial: 1) a DNA expert to testify that the sample recovered from the victim's anus was "too pristine" given the circumstances of where and when her body was located; 2) a fingerprint expert who purportedly would have testified that the latent prints found on the victim's arm and inner thigh could exclude Reeves as a source; and 3) a traffic engineer to cast doubt upon the state's proposed timeline of events.

Under the standard for ineffective assistance of counsel set out in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), a reviewing court must reverse a conviction if the petitioner establishes (1) that counsel's performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness under prevailing professional norms; and (2) that counsel's inadequate performance prejudiced defendant to the extent that the trial was rendered unfair and the verdict suspect. Whether to call a witness is within the ambit of trial strategy. See State v. Johnson , 619 So.2d 1102, 1109 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1993).

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Bluebook (online)
254 So. 3d 665, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-reeves-la-2018.