Taylor v. State

382 S.W.3d 78, 2012 Mo. LEXIS 274, 2012 WL 5357838
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedOctober 30, 2012
DocketNo. SC 92166
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 382 S.W.3d 78 (Taylor v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Taylor v. State, 382 S.W.3d 78, 2012 Mo. LEXIS 274, 2012 WL 5357838 (Mo. 2012).

Opinion

MARY R. RUSSELL, Judge.

Leonard Taylor (Movant) brings this Rule 29.15 claim based on his allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel in a trial in which he was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and four death sentences were imposed. After an evidentiary hearing regarding some of Movant’s claims, the motion court overruled his motion. This Court finds that, despite Movant’s allegations, there was overwhelming evidence establishing his guilt, negating the prejudice prong of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). The motion court’s judgment is affirmed.

I. Facts

A jury found Movant guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and armed criminal action for the shooting deaths of his girlfriend (victim) and her three children. Movant was sentenced to death for the crimes. He appealed directly to this Court, which affirmed his conviction and sentence in State v. Taylor, 298 S.W.3d 482 (Mo. banc 2009).1

Movant filed a pro se Rule 29.15 motion for post-conviction relief, and appointed counsel later filed an amended motion. The court granted an evidentiary hearing regarding some of the issues raised by [80]*80Movant and denied a hearing for other issues raised by Movant.

Movant’s post-conviction hearing claims of ineffective assistance of counsel2 were based on what he considered to be a less than thorough investigation and analysis of victim’s Charter landline records and Sprint cellular phone records for Movant, his brother and victim’s sister. He argued that counsel should have discovered discrepancies as to Charter records showing all outgoing calls and Sprint records showing all incoming calls. He also claimed that counsel’s failure to object to the admission of Charter and Sprint records, and the Charter representative’s trial testimony about interpretation of the records, amounted to ineffective assistance. Mov-ant insisted that, had counsel discovered the discrepancies and made the objections, the result at trial would have been different because the State relied on the Charter and Sprint records to prove when victim and her children died. The State countered Movant’s arguments by noting that the phone calls in question were but a handful of nearly 4,000 entries in the four sets of phone records. The State also pointed out that objections to the admission of the records and testimony would not have been meritorious.

The motion court heard testimony from telephone company representatives regarding calls made by Movant, victim, and victim’s sister as one potential method of approximating when victim and her children were killed. Movant’s trial attorneys also testified. The motion court entered findings and a judgment overruling Mov-ant’s motion. Movant now appeals.3 He makes numerous complaints about trial counsel’s ineffectiveness in failing to fully investigate phone records submitted into evidence at trial and in failing to object to testimony given at trial.

II. Standard of Review for Rule 29.15

This Court’s review of the motion court’s denial of Rule 29.15 post-conviction relief is limited to a determination of clear error in the motion court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law. Goodwin v. State, 191 S.W.3d 20, 25-26 (Mo. banc 2006). A judgment is considered clearly erroneous when “ ‘the court is left with the definite and firm impression that a mistake has been made’ ” in light of the entire record. Id. at 26 (quoting Moss v. State, 10 S.W.3d 508, 511 (Mo. banc 2000)). “The motion court’s findings are presumed correct. The question is whether, when all the mitigation evidence is added together, is there a reasonable probability that the outcome would have been different?” Id.

III. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel and Overwhelming Evidence of Guilt

To establish ineffective assistance of counsel worthy of post-conviction relief, the Movant must satisfy Strickland v. Washington’s two-prong test. 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052. First, the movant must show that counsel’s performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness. Id. at 688,104 S.Ct. 2052. Strategic choices made after a thorough evaluation of the law and the facts are nearly unchallengeable. Id. “A particular decision not to investigate must be directly assessed for reasonableness in all the circumstances, applying a heavy measure of deference to counsel’s judgments.” Id.

[81]*81If counsel’s performance was deficient, the movant then must prove that he was prejudiced by counsel’s deficiency. Id. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052. The hallmark of Strickland prejudice is a finding, by a reasonable probability, that the movant would have received a different result at trial if counsel had not made the unprofessional errors alleged. Id. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. A “reasonable probability” is one sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome of the proceeding. Id.

In Strickland, the Court went on to point out that a court making a determination of ineffective assistance of counsel is not required to apply the two prongs of the Strickland test in the order set forth above. Id. at 697, 104 S.Ct. 2052. The court may not need to address both prongs if the movant has failed to make a sufficient showing on one. Id. If the ineffectiveness claim can be disposed of because of lack of sufficient prejudice, that course should be followed. Id.

Here, Movant has failed to make a sufficient showing to support Strickland’s, prejudice prong because of the overwhelming evidence presented that established his guilt. He fails to demonstrate by a reasonable probability that but for counsel’s alleged errors the result of the proceeding would have been different. Id. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052.

The State presented overwhelming evidence of Movant’s guilt at trial. The phone records and the testimony in question were but pebbles in the mountain of evidence used to convict Movant and are insufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome of the trial as required by Strickland. Id. The information presented at trial, and set forth below, was more than sufficient to support the jury’s verdict.

The State theorized that the murders took place before Movant left St. Louis November 26,4 more specifically, sometime late on the night of November 23 into the early morning hours of November 24.5 The evidence at trial as to when the murders took place was as follows: Victim, described as a “good employee,” called in to work November 21 but missed all of her shifts beginning November 26 without calling her employer. Victim’s children did not return to school Monday, November 29 following the Thanksgiving break. Newspapers in victim’s yard started accumulating November 26, and her mailbox was full of mail. All of the windows and doors of victim’s home were locked when the police entered December 3, and there were no signs of forced entry.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
382 S.W.3d 78, 2012 Mo. LEXIS 274, 2012 WL 5357838, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/taylor-v-state-mo-2012.