Thomas v. Burton

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedMarch 31, 2022
Docket2:19-cv-10801
StatusUnknown

This text of Thomas v. Burton (Thomas v. Burton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thomas v. Burton, (E.D. Mich. 2022).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION

JOMO THOMAS, #392264,

Petitioner, Civil Action No. 19-CV-10801

vs. HON. BERNARD A. FRIEDMAN

DEWAYNE BURTON,

Respondent. /

OPINION AND ORDER DENYING PETITIONER’S APPLICATION FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, DENYING A CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY, AND DENYING LEAVE TO APPEAL IN FORMA PAUPERIS

Petitioner, an inmate at the Muskegon Correctional Facility in Muskegon, Michigan,1 filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In his pro se application, petitioner challenges his conviction for two counts of first-degree premeditated murder, MICH. COMP. LAWS § 750.316(1)(a). For the following reasons, the Court shall deny the petition. The Court shall also deny petitioner a certificate of appealability and leave to proceed in forma pauperis. I. Background

Petitioner was convicted following a jury trial in Wayne County Circuit Court. The Michigan Court of Appeals summarized the relevant facts as follows: Defendant was convicted of murdering his estranged wife, Tocarra Sims, and her boyfriend, Martin Thomas (no relation to defendant),

1 Although the Muskegon Correctional Facility is located within the Western District of Michigan, the state court that convicted and sentenced petitioner is located within the Eastern District of Michigan. Therefore, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241(d), both districts “have concurrent jurisdiction to entertain [petitioner’s] application” for a writ of habeas corpus. during the evening of January 4, 2014, or the early morning of January 5, 2014. Tocarra’s teenage son discovered the bodies when he returned to Tocarra’s home on January 5, 2014, after spending the night at his grandmother’s house. The victims died from blunt force trauma, and their injuries were consistent with those inflicted by a two-by-four board with protruding nails, which was discovered inside the house.

There were no eyewitnesses to the homicide. At trial, the prosecutor introduced evidence that Tocarra had filed for divorce and obtained a personal protection order (“PPO”) against defendant in October 2013. Tocarra’s son testified that a few days before the homicide, defendant forcibly entered Tocarra’s home, argued with her, and threatened her. Defendant’s cell phone records indicated that his phone traveled to the area of Tocarra’s home and returned to the area of the house where defendant was living with his girlfriend during the early morning hours of January 5, 2014. Likewise, a vehicle matching the description of a Grand Marquis owned by defendant’s girlfriend was captured on a surveillance video recorded by a business near Tocarra’s house on the night of the offense. The prosecution also introduced evidence that defendant assaulted a prior domestic partner, Cassandra Arnold, by beating her with an aluminum baseball bat in 2008.

Gary Lewis, who regularly conversed with defendant while they were incarcerated in the Wayne County Jail, testified that defendant confessed that he had killed his wife and her boyfriend by beating them with a statue. During his testimony, he recounted several details of the murder that he learned from his conversations with defendant, which were consistent with other evidence admitted at trial.

People v. Thomas, No. 326806, 2016 WL 5405232, at *1 (Mich. Ct. App. Sept. 27, 2016). Petitioner’s conviction was affirmed on appeal. Id. The Michigan Supreme Court denied leave to appeal in standard form order, People v. Thomas, 894 N.W.2d 48 (Mich. 2017), and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. Thomas v. Michigan, 138 S. Ct. 1289 (2018). Petitioner now seeks a writ of habeas corpus on the following grounds: I. Evidence of other uncharged acts committed by a defendant is not admissible under [Michigan Rule of Evidence (“MRE”)] 404(b) unless the evidence of the uncharged act is relevant to showing a material fact other than the defendant’s general propensity to commit the charged crime. Evidence of: (1) the Defendant’s assault against Cassandra Arnold in 2008; (2) the Defendant’s argument with Tocarra Sims a week before the murders; (3) the Defendant’s probation violation for threatening and intimidating behavior; and (4) the Defendant’s conviction for six to eight other uncharged assaults, was not admissible under MRE 404(b). Therefore, the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the evidence of other uncharged acts committed by the Defendant.

* * * II. A witness is not competent to testify when the witness lacks the capacity and sense of obligation to testify truthfully and understandably. Gary Lewis’ testimony was so inherently incredible that the record shows that Lewis did not have the capacity and sense of obligation to testify truthfully. Therefore, the trial court erred in finding Gary Lewis competent to testify.

III. When determining whether sufficient evidence was presented to sustain a conviction, the reviewing court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, and determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found that the essential elements of the crime, including the element of identity, were proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The evidence, absent the incompetent testimony of Gary Lewis, was not sufficient to identify the defendant as the perpetrator of the murders of Tocarra Sims and Martin Thomas beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, the defendant’s conviction should be reversed and the case dismissed.

IV. The prosecutor has a duty to see that the defendant receives a fair trial, and may only procure a conviction using methods in accord with the fair and impartial administration of justice. The cumulative effect of the prosecutor’s introduction of inadmissible other acts evidence and hearsay denied the defendant a fair trial. Therefore, the defendant’s conviction should be reversed.

(ECF No. 1, PageID.13-14). The Michigan Court of Appeals addressed and rejected each of these claims on direct appeal. See Thomas, 2016 WL 5405232, at *1-11, II. Legal Standard As the Supreme Court has stated: The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) requires a prisoner who challenges (in a federal habeas court) a matter “adjudicated on the merits in State court” to show that the relevant state-court “decision” (1) “was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law,” or (2) “was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.”

Wilson v. Sellers, 138 S. Ct. 1188, 1191 (2018) (quoting § 2254(d)). A decision of a state court is “contrary to” clearly established federal law “if the state court arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by [the Supreme] Court on a question of law,” or if the state court “confronts facts that are materially indistinguishable from a relevant Supreme Court precedent and arrives at a result opposite” to that reached by the Supreme Court. Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 405 (2000) (O’Connor, J., concurring). An “unreasonable application” occurs when “a state-court decision unreasonably applies the law of [the Supreme Court] to the facts of a prisoner’s case.” Id. at 409. “[A] federal habeas court may not issue the writ simply because that court concludes in its independent judgment that the relevant state-court decision applied clearly established federal law erroneously or incorrectly.” Id. at 411.

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Thomas v. Burton, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-burton-mied-2022.