Leach v. State, No. M2008-02386-CCA-R3-PD (Tenn. Crim. App. 6/4/2010)

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ROBERT L. LEACH, JR., v. STATE OF TENNESSEE.

No. M2008-02386-CCA-R3-PD.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, at Nashville.

February 17, 2010 Session.

Filed June 4, 2010.

Criminal Court for Davidson County; No. 99-D-2508; J. Randall Wyatt, Jr. Judgment of the Criminal Court is Affirmed.

Paul J. Bruno and Kathleen G. Morris, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Robert L. Leach. Jr.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General and Jennifer L. Smith, Assistant Attorney General; Victor S. Johnson, District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

David H. Welles, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Thomas T. Woodall and John Everett Williams, JJ., joined.

BACKGROUND

DAVID H. WELLES, JUDGE.

The Appellant was convicted of two counts of first degree murder, one count of especially aggravated robbery and one count of aggravated rape. He was sentenced to death for each murder conviction. He received consecutive twenty-five year sentences for the especially aggravated robbery and aggravated rape. His convictions and sentences were affirmed on direct appeal. See State v. Leach, 148 S.W.3d 42 (Tenn. 2004). The Appellant subsequently petitioned for post-conviction relief, which was denied by the trial court. He now appeals from the denial of post-conviction relief. On appeal, he argues numerous violations of his constitutional rights during his trial proceedings, including denial of the effective assistance of counsel. After careful review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

The Appellant was convicted in February 2001 of two counts of premeditated first degree murder (two convictions for felony murder merged), one count of especially aggravated robbery, and one count of aggravated rape. On July 8, 1999, the Appellant killed and raped Sarah McBride, sixty-nine years of age, and killed her cousin, Jean Poteet, seventy years of age, in their home in Nashville. The Appellant stole jewelry and other items from the house and that same day fled to Missouri in McBride's pickup truck. The Appellant was sentenced to death for the murder convictions. The jury found three aggravating circumstances as to each victim: the Appellant was previously convicted of one or more felonies whose statutory elements involve the use of violence; the murders were especially heinous, atrocious and cruel in that they involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death; and the murders were committed during the commission of rape and robbery. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(2), (5) and (7). The jury also found a fourth aggravator as to Poteet's murder: the victim was seventy years of age or older or was particularly vulnerable due to a significant handicap or disability. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-132-04(i)(14). The Appellant received two consecutive twenty-five year sentences for the robbery and rape convictions. The facts of the case were summarized by the supreme court in its opinion on direct appeal:

The State's proof at trial showed that Leach arrived by bus in Nashville in June 1999. Leach had left Missouri to pursue a career in music and to avoid revocation of his parole on a Texas burglary conviction. By early July 1999, he was working as a server at a Denny's restaurant in south Nashville and living at a nearby Econo Lodge hotel.

Around 3:00 a.m. on July 8, 1999, Leach forced his way into the room of Dorianne Brown, an Econo Lodge employee who lived at the hotel, and started to choke her. When someone knocked on the door, Leach pulled out a knife and told Brown not to say anything. After the person at the door left, the telephone rang and distracted Leach. Brown ran out of the room to the hotel office and asked for the police to be called. When the police arrived, Leach was gone.

Around 7:00 a.m. that same morning, Louise Howard telephoned her sister, Sarah McBride, a sixty-nine-year-old widow who lived about a mile from the Econo Lodge. McBride's cousin, seventy-year-old Jean Poteet, was staying with McBride. As a result of a stroke suffered at birth, Poteet had diminished mental capabilities and her right hand and right leg were partially paralyzed. Poteet wore a leg brace from her knee to her ankle. McBride indicated on the telephone that there was a man in her kitchen drinking coffee while he waited for his sister to pick him up. Howard told McBride, "Sarah, get that man out of the house, and put him on the patio." McBride responded, "Okay. I'll call you later." Howard left to go shopping. When Howard returned, she was unable to reach McBride by telephone and went to McBride's house around 1:00 p.m. The garage door was up, and McBride's 1982 Dodge truck was missing. The back door to the house was open. Howard went inside and discovered the bodies of Poteet and McBride.

Poteet's wig and a pair of scissors were on the kitchen floor next to the table. A trail of blood led from the kitchen to the doorway of the master bedroom where Poteet was lying face down with her blouse pulled up and knotted around her throat. A pair of black jeans was next to Poteet's head. McBride was lying on her back on the bed. She was naked from the waist down, and her legs were open and bent up over her body. A belt was tightened around her neck. Both women had been stabbed and showed signs of blunt trauma to the head.

Dr. Bruce Levy, the Davidson County Medical Examiner, was called to the scene by the police and performed autopsies on the victims the following day. Dr. Levy determined that both women died as a result of ligature strangulation. Dr. Levy opined that the ligature had been placed around Poteet's neck in the kitchen and that she had been dragged to the bedroom while she was still alive. Congestion in her upper chest and face indicated that someone was sitting on her lower chest or abdomen when tying the ligature around her neck. Poteet had defensive wounds and also had suffered blunt force injuries to her face. She had been hit at least twice with enough force to cause bleeding to her brain. Like Poteet, McBride had suffered defensive wounds and had two sets of paired puncture wounds consistent with her being stabbed with scissors. McBride also had suffered multiple blunt force injuries to her head, including a laceration over her left eyebrow. Her nose, the bone between her eyes and brain, her breast bone, and three of her ribs had been broken. She suffered a laceration to her vaginal wall. Dr. Levy determined that McBride had been sexually assaulted and had died during the attack. Bruising on her ankles indicated that her legs were held during the rape.

The police investigation showed that someone had rummaged through the house. Chest drawers were pulled out, closet doors were open, a mattress had been moved, and jewelry boxes lay open. Bloody footprints were on the floor in the entrance hall and living room. A pair of socks was found in the sink in the bathroom off the master bedroom. A pair of men's underwear was later retrieved from the sewer line running from the toilet. McBride's purse and jewelry were missing as was the Dodge truck.

Forensic testing showed that Leach's left palm print was on a wall in McBride's house and that Leach's fingerprints were on a coffee mug on the kitchen table. After Leach's arrest, it was determined that bloody footprints from the floor in McBride's house matched Leach's tennis shoes and that sperm on the vaginal swab from McBride matched Leach's DNA.

Around 8:00 p.m. on July 8, Leach appeared in the area of Greenville, Missouri, driving McBride's truck. Leach went to the home of a friend, Harold Winberry, and announced that he had just come from Nashville. Leach, Winberry, Winberry's wife, and her sister, Becky Allen, went to the Friendly Tavern in Greenville, where they drank, danced and socialized until 2:00 a.m. Leach and Allen slept together that night and the next. Leach gave Allen a pair of McBride's earrings. Leach also stayed at the home of his aunt, to whom he offered McBride's leaf blower. During this time, Leach behaved normally, visited with other people, played his guitar and sang, and showed off the Dodge truck, claiming it was his own vehicle.

After Leach's identification had been confirmed by fingerprint evidence, Detective Mike Roland of the Nashville Police Department contacted Leach's sister, Cathy Watson, who lived in Missouri. Watson in turn contacted Leach, who called Detective Roland on July 13. During the telephone call, Leach blamed all his problems on the Texas prison and parole system and threatened to go to Texas and "blow up a whole city block." Detective Roland had the call traced to a pay telephone in Wayne County, Missouri, where law enforcement officers were put on the alert for McBride's truck. Shortly thereafter, the truck was located outside the Friendly Tavern. Leach was inside playing guitar on the stage. After he was arrested, Leach said that he "was sorry he did it, but something just snapped." He claimed that he had been trying to get help for the past three years.

Detective Roland interviewed Leach in Missouri. Leach denied knowing anything about McBride and Poteet, but he talked to Roland about the incident with Brown at the Econo Lodge. Leach claimed that he had been drinking heavily that night and said that he had been talking to Brown in her room when a man came to the door and tried to rob him. Leach struck the man. When Brown screamed and ran out of the room, Leach also fled. Leach had no memory of what happened after he left the motel until he "came to" driving the Dodge truck in Illinois and wearing someone else's clothes. Leach said that at most he had stolen the truck and asserted that he would never hurt anyone except in self-defense. Nonetheless, during the interview, Leach remarked, "If I deserve it, I deserve it." He also told Roland that he had suffered headaches, black-outs, and memory loss ever since a metal plate had...