Langley v. Carey

660 F.Supp.2d 1099

Stacey D. LANGLEY, Petitioner, v. Thomas L. CAREY, Warden, Respondent.

No. C 06-3254 JSW (PR).

United States District Court, N.D. California.

September 21, 2009.

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Stacey D. Langley, Vacaville, CA, pro se.

Michele Joette Swanson, Ca State Attorney General's Office, Ross Charles Moody, Attorney General of the State of California, San Francisco, CA, for Respondent.

ORDER DENYING PETITION FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

INTRODUCTION

JEFFREY S. WHITE, District Judge.

Petitioner¹, a prisoner of the State of California incarcerated at the California State Prison, Solano, has filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. This Court ordered Respondent to show cause why a writ should not be issued. Respondent filed an answer, memorandum and exhibits in support thereof and Petitioner filed a traverse. For the reasons stated below, the petition is denied on the merits.

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In March, 2003, a jury convicted petitioner of voluntary manslaughter and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. The jury also found that Petitioner personally used a firearm in the commission of the voluntary manslaughter. Petitioner was sentenced to 11 years in state prison for the manslaughter conviction and a 10 year term, to be served consecutively, for the personal firearm use enhancement. Petitioner was also sentenced to serve a concurrent three year term for being a felon in possession of a firearm. In total, Petitioner was sentenced to 21 years in state prison.

Petitioner appealed to the California Court of Appeal. On March 15, 2005, 2005 WL 591256, that court affirmed the judgement. Respondent's Exhibit (hereinafter "Ex.") 4 (Court of Appeal decision). On April 18, 2005, Petitioner filed a petition for review in the California Supreme Court. Ex. 5 (Petition for Review). On June 8, 2005, the Supreme Court denied review "without prejudice to any relief to which [Petitioner] might be entitled after this court determines in People v. Black, S126182, and People v. Towne, S125677, the effect of Blakely v. Washington (2004) 124 S.Ct. 2531 [159 L.Ed.2d 403], on California law." Ex. 6 (Denial of Review). On May 17, 2006, Petitioner filed the instant petition.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The facts underlying the charged offenses, as found by the California Court of Appeal are summarized in relevant part, as follows (Petitioner is referred to as "appellant"):

On March 18, 2000, Valerie Gibson and Charles Hammons hosted a joint 21st birthday party for their son and their nephew at the Holiday Inn on Eighth Street between Mission and Market Streets in San Francisco. A large number of family members and friends were in attendance. There was a DJ providing music, and a "no host" bar at which party goers could purchase drinks.

Appellant and his codefendant, Terrance Henderson, arrived together at the party sometime between 11 p.m. and midnight. Appellant was wearing a backward baseball cap, a T-shirt, and very baggy pants that sagged low at his waist so his underwear was visible. They went out on the dance floor, and appellant began "acting up," allowing his pants to drop below his knees.

Twice while she was dancing, Candace Primus, a cousin of the party honorees, felt someone's hand on her buttock. Each time, she turned to see that it had been appellant's codefendant, Henderson, and she asked him not to touch her. Henderson only smiled in response. After the second time, Primus felt something bump against her from behind. She turned, and saw appellant with his pants down to his knees, and with his pubic hair visible. Primus told appellant "That is not cute to me at all." Appellant simply smiled and pulled his pants up slowly. Later, while she was dancing again, Primus felt someone's hand touching her vaginal area through her pants She turned and saw Henderson. She held her hand to his chest, pushed him away from her, looked him in the eyes, and said: "Please stop touching me. Why won't you stop touching me?" Henderson just smiled at her. Feeling afraid and intimidated by appellant and Henderson, Primus went to tell her brother Tyrone and her aunt what they had been doing to her, and that she was afraid something was going to happen to her.

Primus and her brother witnessed both appellant and Henderson touching and behaving inappropriately with other women at the party. When he saw them doing the same thing to his own girlfriend while he was dancing with her, Tyrone Primus told them: "[w]hy don't you all stop touching on my girl. Stop touching on my sister, you know. This is a family event. We [are] trying to party here. Why don't you all be cool."

Shortly after appellant and Henderson left the party and walked out into the lobby, Candace and Tyrone Primus went out after them. Once outside the ballroom, Tyrone approached appellant and Henderson. He accused them of "touching on" his sister and "everybody" at the party with "disrespect." Both appellant and Henderson started swearing at Tyrone, saying "Fuck your sister.... Fuck your girl. Fuck the party." Tyrone then asked why they could not "respect" the fact they were "just having a family event." Appellant responded that Tyrone should have approached them "more like a man." Ronondo Cooper, a cousin of both Tyrone Primus and victim Tyrie McClellan, told appellant and Henderson the party was over and asked "why don't [you] go ahead and leave," but they did not do so. As the situation became more tense, a "crowd" of party guests and family members gathered around; there was a lot of noise, and some "pushing." Candace and Tyrone Primus went back into the ballroom, preparing to leave. Gibson approached appellant and Henderson, told them she was hosting the party for her son and nephew, announced that the party was over, and asked them to "please leave." Neither appellant nor Henderson responded to her. Gibson then went back into the ballroom.

After getting their coats, Candace and Tyrone Primus started to leave the party. As they did so, they passed appellant and Henderson. Appellant said: "You all want to end this. This is not over with." Candace and Tyrone ignored them, and walked out to the front of the building. A hotel representative approached the crowd inside, and it began to disperse and leave the party. Appellant and Henderson also left.

While a group of partygoers was gathered outside the hotel, appellant drove up and got out of the driver's side of a car as Henderson got out of the passenger's side. As appellant walked around the car, his shirt opened revealing a gun tucked into his pants waistband on his right side. Several people said "Stay back. They['ve] got a gun." Appellant approached Candace and Tyrone Primus and said "What's up?" When Tyrone responded in kind, appellant said: "You all said you wanted to end it now. Let's end it." After Tyrone responded by saying that it was "over with," "we don't want no problems with you all," and "[w]hy don't you all just leave," appellant repeated "It ain't over," "I'm about to end this," "Let's finish it," or words to that effect.² Candace said, "Well, maybe we all had a little bit too much to drink or something out here." Henderson replied, "No, ain't nobody drunk out here. Don't blame it on no drinks."³ Appellant then said, apparently speaking to people standing behind Tyrone, "[y]ou all better get from behind him. You all know what I am about to do."

Tyrie McClellan, a family member and guest at the party, was standing on the street "a little distance" away from appellant and Henderson. McClellan approached appellant extending his hand, as though to shake hands, and said: "Man, it's cool. Ain't nobody tripping." Appellant said "Man, don't be coming on the side of me. I don't know you," "Nigger, what you trying to sneak up on the side of me," and "Get the fuck away from me," or words to that effect. Appellant pulled out a gun from his waist, raised and extended his arm, took aim, and fired a shot. Someone yelled, "He's got a gun," and people started to run. McClellan, who had also started to run away, fell to the ground about 15 feet away from appellant. Without apparently changing his aim, appellant fired a second shot. Appellant attempted to continue firing, but the gun appeared to jam. The gun appeared to be a nine millimeter semiautomatic weapon. After appellant attempted to clear the chamber for a moment, he got in the car with Henderson and drove off.

McClellan suffered two gunshot wounds. One bullet traveled completely through his left thigh and lodged in his right thigh, fracturing a bone. The second bullet entered his left temporal forehead region, with fragments exiting his body and other fragments lodged in his brain. As a result of his wounds, McClellan never regained the ability to speak, breathe unassisted, take care of himself or answer questions, and he was never fully alert. He remained in a persistent vegetative state for over 10 months, until he expired on January 28, 2001. At trial, the San Francisco Chief Medical Examiner testified that McClellan never recovered from the consequences of his gunshot wounds, and on that basis opined that there was no break in the chain of proximate cause between the shooting and his death. Appellant was arrested in Dallas, Texas, on July 6, 2000.

Appellant testified in his own defense. He had previously been shot on September 25, 1999, in his back and elbow, resulting in serious injuries requiring a "[c]ouple of weeks" of hospitalization, several surgeries, the implanting of "screws and pins" in his elbow, reconstruction of his intestines, and the removal of one kidney and his gallbladder. Since being shot, he suffered from paranoia, nightmares, and depression, felt suicidal, and was afraid of loud noises. In the afternoon on March 18, 2000, appellant attended a neighborhood barbecue, at which he began drinking heavily around 2 p.m. and continued doing so to between 5...