Ferreira v. Alves

1

ANTONIO M. FERREIRA, Petitioner, v. NELSON B. ALVES, Respondent.

Civil Action No. 22-cv-11352-ADB

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts

February 9, 2024

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ALLISON D. BURROUGHS, U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE.

On March 30, 2012, Antonio M. Ferreira (“Ferreira” or “Petitioner”) was convicted of murder in the first degree following a jury trial in the Middlesex County Superior Court. See Commonwealth v. Ferreira, 119 N.E.3d 278, 286 (Mass. 2019). On August 23, 2022, after a series of unsuccessful postconviction appeals and motions Ferreira filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus with this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. [ECF No. 1 (“Petition”)]. After filing his Petition Ferreira filed a number of motions raising additional issues (Verified Motion For Stay And Abeyance For Exhaustion, [ECF No. 35]; Verified Motion to Supplement Stay, [ECF No. 40]; Verified Motion To File a Supplemental Pleading on the Exhaustion of State Remedies, [ECF No. 41]; Verified Motion To Lift The Stay, Allow An As Of Right Amendment And To Supplement The Appendix, [ECF No. 48]; and Verified Motion for An Enlargement of Time to Prepare A Motion for an Evidentiary Hearing, [ECF No. 51]) (“Subsequent Motions”).

For the reasons set forth below, Ferreira's Petition, [ECF No 1], and Subsequent Motions, [ECF Nos. 35, 40, 41, 48, 51], are DENIED.

I. BACKGROUND

In Commonwealth v. Ferreira, 119 N.E.3d 278 (Mass. 2019), the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (“SJC”) described the facts of this case, see id. at 282-86, which are summarized in relevant part below and “supplemented with other record facts consistent with the SJC's findings.” Yeboah-Sefah v. Ficco, 556 F.3d 53, 62 (1st Cir. 2009) (quoting Healy v. Spencer, 453 F.3d 21, 22 (1st Cir. 2006)).^[1]

A. The Crime for Which Petitioner Was Convicted

The victim lived on the fourth floor of an apartment building on Main Street in Everett. She, along with her sisters, Rose Angela Carla dos Santos and Ana Paula Carla dos Santos, worked as dancers at a strip club in Chelsea, and later in Stoughton. She met the defendant at the Chelsea club at some point in 2006. The defendant became friends with the victim and her sisters, and eventually started dating the victim. That relationship ended approximately six months prior to the victim's death. Despite the break up, the defendant continued to socialize with the victim and her sister, Ana....

In April 2009, the victim entered into a relationship with a married man named Oliver.^[2] On September 26, 2009, a week before the victim's death, the defendant and Oliver were at the Stoughton club where the victim and her sisters worked. The victim paid attention to Oliver in between dances, and the defendant did not stay long. The next day, the defendant visited Ana at her house. He sat down on the floor, and was “a little sad” and “quiet”; he expressed dismay over the victim's decision to date a married man.

On September 30, 2009, the defendant and one of his roommates, Darles DeSouza, attended a barbeque at Ana's house to celebrate her birthday. The defendant got “a bit agitated” when the victim did not show up. He asked Ana to contact the victim to get her to join them. When Ana told the defendant that the victim was on a date and might stop by later, the defendant commented that he had suspected that she was out with someone. As the night progressed, the defendant called the victim to see what time she would arrive; he held his cellular telephone in his hand and appeared to be waiting for her. After the defendant and DeSouza returned to their Somerville apartment, the defendant remained outside in his silver Nissan Murano and attempted to telephone the victim.

In the early morning hours of October 1, 2009, the defendant telephoned Ana and told her that he could no longer be friends with her “because he wasn't a good person.” The defendant explained that he had been using drugs and that his life for the past six months had had no meaning. He asked Ana to give her sister (the victim) a message that “[s]he was dealing with a person who has no life.” Ana attempted to console the defendant; she told him to think about his family and children, and that she would help him find another girlfriend. The defendant responded that he only was interested in the victim.

Later that morning, the defendant sent Ana a text message that he was feeling better. He also would “not do anything wrong.” Before Ana left for her evening shift at the club, she and the defendant spoke by telephone. The defendant said that he had not wanted to go to work that day because he “wasn't in the mood.” He asked Ana, “Is your sister going to work today?” Ana replied, “I don't know. I think so.”

At that time, the defendant lived on Melvin Street in Somerville with DeSouza .... The defendant slept on a spare mattress in DeSouza's bedroom .... In the evening of October 1, 2009, DeSouza came home from work . . . [then later] went into his bedroom, and noticed that the defendant was lying on his mattress wearing a jacket and pants.... DeSouza fell asleep. When he woke up the next morning, at 6 A.M., the defendant was talking to someone on his cellular telephone.

The victim worked at the Stoughton club in the evening of October 1-2, 2009, and drove home in her 2006 Honda CR-V shortly after the club closed at 1 A.M. At 1:11 A.M., during her drive home, the victim called her sister Ana; she sounded “normal.” At 1:12 A.M., a vehicle that appeared to be consistent with the defendant's Nissan Murano was captured by a surveillance video camera located on the corner of Melvin Street and Broadway in Somerville. The video recording showed this vehicle pull out of a parking space on Melvin Street, near the defendant's apartment building.

At 1:38 A.M., a vehicle resembling the defendant's Nissan Murano was driven around a traffic circle in Everett and headed in the direction of the victim's apartment building. A few minutes later, at 1:42 A.M., a Honda CR-V was driven around the traffic circle, heading in the same direction. At 1:44 A.M., surveillance footage from a camera facing Tileston Street in Everett captured an image of a similar vehicle being driven near the victim's apartment building. Back on Melvin Street in Somerville, at 1:53 A.M., a vehicle that appeared similar to the defendant's Nissan Murano pulled up and parallel parked in the same space from which a vehicle like a Nissan Murano had pulled out fifty-one minutes earlier. A man got out of the vehicle and walked in the direction of the defendant's apartment building.

Ferreira, 119 N.E.3d at 283-84. Around 2 A.M., nearby neighbors reported hearing a woman's screams. Id. at 284. One of them saw “a man in his twenties or thirties, wearing a tan or brown jacket and jeans . . . walk down the last few steps of the rear staircase, and jog through the parking lot and around a Dumpster.” Id. at 284. At 4:30 A.M., another neighbor discovered “the victim lying face down in a pool of blood on the landing outside the back door” of the building. Id. at 285. “She had been stabbed or cut thirty-one times; she had seventeen stab wounds in the torso and multiple knife wounds in both arms.” Id.

B. The Investigation

Police investigators spoke to members of the victim's family. Ana told the officers, “I have a suspect for you.” The police then [located] the defendant.... He agreed to accompany the officers to the Everett police station. When they arrived at the station, one of the officers noticed injuries on the back of the defendant's hands.

An officer contacted a forensic scientist, Eric Koester, who worked at the State police crime laboratory (crime lab), and asked him to come to the police station to test for possible nonvisible blood. Koester swabbed both of the defendant's hands, and the defendant then left the police station.

A crime lab analyst examined deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extracted from the swabs collected by Koester and determined that the victim was included as a possible contributor to a DNA mixture on the back of both of the defendant's hands.

The swab from the right hand was a mixture from at least three people. The defendant matched the major profile, and the victim was included as a potential contributor to the minor profile. The swab from the left hand contained a mixture of DNA from at least two people; the defendant's DNA matched the major profile, and the victim was included as a potential contributor to the minor profile.

On October 2, 2009, police executed search warrants for the defendant's apartment and his two vehicles (the Nissan Murano and a GMC pickup truck). Police seized a pair of bloodstained sneakers from a bedroom closet. Later testing showed that DNA from a bloodstain on the top of the toe of the left sneaker matched the victim's DNA profile. Another bloodstain on the side of the right sneaker, not visible to the naked eye, contained a mixture of DNA; the major profile from that sample matched the victim's DNA profile.

Police also collected scrapings from underneath the victim's fingernails. The scrapings from her left hand tested positive for male “Y-STR” DNA, and contained a mixture of DNA from at least four men. The defendant (and his paternal relatives) were included as possible contributors to the major profile. Oliver (and his paternal relatives) were included as a potential source of the minor profile in this DNA mixture. The crime lab obtained both STR and Y-STR DNA results from the victim's right fingernail scrapings. With respect to the STR profile, the defendant was included as a possible contributor, and Oliver was excluded. The Y-STR DNA testing produced a mixture of at least three male profiles. The defendant (and his paternal relatives) were included as possible contributors to the

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