Eakes v. Sexton, 14-5017

WILLIAM EAKES, III, Petitioner-Appellant, v. DAVID SEXTON, WARDEN, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 14-5017

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

November 25, 2014

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION

File Name: 14a0885n.06

ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE

BEFORE: McKEAGUE and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges; and POLSTER, District Judge.^*

POLSTER, District Judge. On May 22, 1998, Jerry Barnes and his 18-year old nephew, William (Billy) Eakes, III, killed Tehition Christman at a Motel 6 in Nashville, Tennessee. Two days later, Barnes and Eakes were arrested and confessed to the murder. In separately taped confessions, both Barnes and Eakes stated that Tehition came to the hotel to sell them cocaine, that Barnes and Tehition got into an argument about the amount of the cocaine, and that the argument turned physical and culminated in Tehition's death. This scenario supported a charge of second-degree murder, exposing Eakes and Barnes to prison sentences of 15 to 60 years. After persistent urging from Tehition's parents, however, the State also charged Eakes and Barnes with first-degree murder - pursuing a theory of felony murder requiring the State to prove that Eakes and Barnes intended to rob Tehition when they killed him. The two witnesses were tried separately. A key witness atEakes' trial was Myra Christman, Tehition's mother, who provided the only evidence regarding the valuables in Tehition's possession the night he was killed. Eakes was convicted of felony murder as well as second-degree murder, and was sentenced to life in prison. Eakes' felony-murder conviction was affirmed on appeal and post-conviction relief was denied. At the subsequent trial of Barnes, Myra Christman did not testify and the jury was unable to reach a verdict on felony murder. Barnes subsequently entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

In 2013, Eakes filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 that the district court denied after a hearing. Although the district court denied the petition, it granted a certificate of appealability on Eakes' Brady claim. Because we cannot affirm the district court's ruling and are constrained by statute from granting unexhausted claims, we vacate the district court's ruling and remand with instructions to stay further proceedings should Eakes elect to pursue exhaustion of any available state remedies.

I.

At approximately 9:30 p.m. on Friday, May 22, 1998, Tehition Christman left his parents' house in his white 1992 Nissan after receiving a phone call. Tehition told his parents that he would be back shortly after he went to Corey Watkins' house. That was the last time Myra Christman saw her son alive.

At approximately 10:30 p.m. that night, Tracy Rosser, the manager of a Motel 6 just a few miles from the Christmans' home, knocked on the door of a room registered to Barnes (a 38-year old exterminator with a cocaine problem who was referred to by local drug dealers as "the bug man"). She noticed that some of the curtains had been ripped off the drapery hooks. She knocked on thedoor several times, to no avail. Finally, when she threatened to call the police if the door was not opened, Barnes opened the door just far enough to stick his head out. When she asked Barnes about the curtains, he said "they" were just having rough sex. She said the motel did not allow parties, and that if there were any disturbances from that room, they would have to leave.

The next day, after Barnes had vacated the room, a housekeeper reported to the manager that he had found blood and other signs of a violent struggle in Barnes' room. Police, upon notification, examined and secured the room. They then went to Barnes' home where they found blood on his truck and bloody clothes in his washing machine. Police received information that Barnes routinely rented hotel rooms in the area (his wife would testify at trial that she did not allow him to do drugs at home in the presence of their children). On Sunday morning, police tracked down Barnes and Eakes at a Super 8 Motel near the Motel 6. Just as officers approached their room, Barnes and Eakes walked outside and, soon after, confessed to Tehition's murder.

Both gave recorded confessions saying that Tehition had come to Barnes' room to sell them crack cocaine, Tehition and Barnes got into an argument over the amount of the cocaine, and the argument turned physical. Eakes stated that he became involved in the fight only when Barnes asked for help after Tehition started biting Barnes' thumb. Eakes said that he initially hit Tehition with a telephone, then went outside to the truck, got an axe, came back in, and hit Tehition in the back of the head with the blunt side of the axe. Eakes stated that his uncle started choking Tehition, and he helped by putting his hands over his uncle's hands and pressing down.

Barnes guided police to where he had hidden Tehition's car and body, and Eakes showed them the location of the axe and the bloody hotel bedding. An autopsy showed that Tehition, at the time of death, was under the influence of cocaine.

When Tehition did not come home Friday night, Myra Christman knew that something was wrong because he did not respond to her numerous pages despite his habit of quickly responding to them. At midday on Sunday, however, when Officer Jim Malone went to Tehition's house inquiring about the white Nissan and who was driving it, Myra and Thomas Ward, Tehition's stepfather, were both "very evasive." (R. 69-1.) Despite the fact that Tehition had been missing for 36 hours, they refused to disclose Tehition's name and they refused to say at what time they had last seen him. Officer Malone memorialized this encounter in a report dated May 24, 1998. This report was never disclosed to Eakes.

On June 1, 1998, a Victim Advocate wrote the following comments in a report after interviewing Tehition's parents ten days after the murder:

Victim's family can be a handful. They don't want to believe that vic was involved w/drugs. They believe he was set up and want both [defendants] to either get the death penalty or life w/out parole.

(R. 69-2.) This report was never disclosed to Eakes.

On August 3, 1998, Assistant District Attorney (ADA) James Milam, the first prosecutor on the case, interviewed Tehition's parents. Myra "did most of the talking," though each of the parents showed general agreement with what the other parent said. ADA Milam memorialized this interview in a letter to lead detective Johnny Lawrence. ADA Milam reported, among other things:

[Myra] related that on Friday, May 22, she had taken her son's income tax refund check in the amount of approximately $474 and deposited all but $175 of that amount in the Aladdin Industries Credit Union. She had received $175 in cash which she had given to the victim upon her return home from work that day. She thinks that she can locate her credit union statement showing the deposit on that date and possibly the deposit slip as well.

The significance is that the victim had this money with him when he left home around 9:45 after receiving a phone call from Corey Watkins.

The parents recalled that the victim was watching a Chicago Bulls play-off game when the phone rang and that he told them he would be back shortly after he went to Corey's.

(R. 69-3 at 2.) Myra also told ADA Milam that when Tehition left, he was wearing a gold watch worth $300 that she had given him for his birthday and a $575 nugget ring with diamonds that she had given him for Christmas.

The Milam letter also reveals that Tehition's parents thought he was either set up by Corey Watkins or that Corey was somehow involved in Tehition's murder. They told ADA Milam that Corey lied about his contact with Tehition on the morning of his murder, and that Corey must have possessed Tehition's pager after his death because Corey had supposedly retrieved a private phone number off the pager and was using the pager to receive calls.

Finally, ADA Milam stated:

The parents also reported that a man named Michael Childs, telephone number 226-6641, told them that Jerry Barnes had called him and told him to come to the motel, because he had beat somebody down and had a car for sale. This man's brother, Kevin Childs, who has the same phone number, supposedly told the parents that Barnes said he had taken some money off a guy and had a homicide on his hands.

(Id. 3.) The Milam letter was never disclosed to Eakes.

Handwritten notes dated March 21, 2000 and found in the files of ADA T.J. Haycox, the second prosecutor on the case, state that when he interviewed Kevin Childs, Kevin denied that Barnes ever told him he murdered anyone stating, instead, that Barnes told him "he & guy had got into it & he beat him up (not that he killed him)." These notes were never disclosed to Eakes.

That same day, ADA Haycox typed up a report summarizing his case notes. With regard to his interview of Kevin Childs, he reported that he spoke to Kevin Childs who said that he saw Barnes at some apartments shortly after the murder and that he saw a bite mark on Barnes' thumb,but he did not remember Barnes making any incriminating statements. ADA Haycox further reported that the family refused to believe their son had anything to do with drugs despite the autopsy report and Tehition's criminal history. He reported that "the most likely scenario is that the victim came to deliver drugs, there was an argument which turned physical, and in the process Barnes and Eakes killed the victim." (R. 69-5.) He concluded that "[the parents] have larger ideas about the case than the facts support." (Id.) This document was never disclosed to Eakes.

In March 2000, Officer Rose Berne interviewed Michael Childs at ADA Lisa Naylor's request. (ADA Naylor assisted ADA Pamela Anderson at Eakes' October 2000 trial.) Officer Berne reported that Michael Childs denied having any contact with either...