Schuppan v. Cabell

1

GEORGE ZACHARY SCHUPPAN, Petitioner, v. BETH CABELL, WARDEN, et al., Respondents.

Civil Action No. 7:22-cv-00733

United States District Court, W.D. Virginia, Roanoke Division

March 4, 2024

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Elizabeth K. Dillon United States District Judge.

George Zachary Schuppan, by counsel, filed this petition for a writ of habeas corpus, 28 U.S.C. § 2254, challenging his 2016 conviction and life sentence for first degree murder. (Habeas Pet., Dkt. No. 1.) Before the court is respondents' motion to dismiss. (Dkt. No. 13.) For the reasons stated below, respondents' motion will be granted.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Procedural Background

Schuppan was tried by a jury in the Circuit Court of Page County in a joint trial with his father, George Harold Schultz, for the murder of Schultz's wife (Schuppan's stepmother). After the trial, the circuit court convicted Schuppan of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, concealing a dead body, and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. (Resp't's Ex. 1, Dkt. No. 15-1.) The court sentenced Schuppan to life imprisonment plus eighteen years and a $100,000 fine, in accordance with the jury's recommendation. (Resp't's Ex. 2, Dkt. No. 15-2.)

The Court of Appeals of Virginia denied Schuppan's appeal on December 1, 2016. (Resp't's Ex. 3, Dkt. No. 15-3.) Then, on August 29, 2017, Schuppan's appeal was refused by Supreme Court of Virginia. (Resp't's Ex. 4, Dkt. No. 15-4.) On August 23, 2018, Schuppan, by counsel, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Circuit Court of Page County. (Resp't's Ex. 5, Dkt. No. 15-5.) On July 9, 2021, the circuit court judge who presided over the trial issued an eleven-page letter opinion finding that there were “no Brady, Giglio, or Napue violations by the Commonwealth, [Schuppan's] right to the effective assistance of counsel was not violated, and Defense counsel's specific assistance was not ineffective.” (Resp't's Ex. 6, Dkt. No. 15-6.) The court dismissed Schuppan's petition by final order dated February 23, 2022. (Resp't's Ex. 7, Dkt. No. 15-7.)^[1]

Schuppan appealed to the Supreme Court of Virginia, which summarily affirmed on December 16, 2022. (Ex. Nos. 8, 9, Dkt. Nos. 15-8, 15-9.)

B. Pertinent State Court Findings of Fact

The presiding circuit court judge made the following factual findings in denying petitioner's state habeas petition:

Joy Schultz, a local woman married to George Schultz, went missing over the weekend of September 6, 2014. She was last seen on Friday, September 5, 2014, at her employment. The day before on September 4, 2014, she changed the beneficiaries on her life insurance policies totaling about $220,000.00 with Human Resources to have her brother be the main beneficiary instead of her husband. (There was no evidence that anyone else knew of this beneficiary change made shortly before her disappearance.) On September 5, 2014, she indicated to some co-workers who were friends that she needed to talk to them about something important (perhaps involving her plan to end her relationship with Schultz) and would call them later. She never did. She did not report to work on Monday which was very unusual. On the morning of Tuesday, September 9, 2014, coworkers called law enforcement to conduct a welfare check.

Law enforcement received the call at 7:34 a.m. on September 9, 2014. A deputy happened to be nearby and responded to her home at 7:50 a.m. in Page County where her husband, George Schultz, and her stepson, George Zachary Schuppan, were present. Both lived at the residence. Schuppan had recently located her father whom he had not seen since he was a child due to Schultz's participation in the federal witness protection program after he provided testimony in cases involving the biker gang that he was a longtime member of in previous years. Both Schuppan and Schultz were very degrading and abusive toward Joy and it was overwhelming to her to the point that she planned on leaving her residence.

When initially questioned by an officer of the Page County Sheriff's Office on September 9, 2014, after Joy's co-workers had reported her missing, both [Schuppan] and his father lied and claimed to not know her whereabouts. In fact, Joy was murdered by Schultz and Schuppan by shooting her multiple times with a .45 handgun on September 6, 2014, in her residence. They then partially eviscerated and dissected her body before burying her in a shallow grave in a nearby National Forest.

The officers who investigated Joy's disappearance on September 9, 2014, observed a fire in the fire pit outside the residence. This was the area where the furniture that Joy was seated on when shot, along with other associated items related to the murder, were destroyed. Schultz and Schuppan did not allow law enforcement access to the home on this date. The next day, September 10, 2014, investigators from the Page County Sheriff's Office arrived at the residence and this time Schultz and Schuppan allowed a consensual search of the residence. Law enforcement also noticed that the basement smelled strongly-almost overwhelmingly-of bleach. There were signs that the floor of one room had been recently scrubbed clean while the rest of the house was filthy. During a consensual search of the house, law enforcement found numerous firearms in Schuppan's bedroom. They also found a medical book on human anatomy and physiology in Schuppan's bedroom. They also found a book entitled “On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society.” They also found a handwritten booklet written by Schuppan containing recipes for various poisons used to kill people.

Joy was missing for forty-six days during which authorities continued to investigate the circumstances of her disappearance. During this entire time, Schultz and Schuppan continued to lie by maintaining that they had no knowledge of Joy's whereabouts. It was suggested by them that perhaps the biker gang that Schultz was previously associated with carried out a retaliatory “hit” on Joy to punish Schultz for his testimony for the federal government. On October 22, 2014, the Page County Sheriff's Office charged Schultz with possession of a firearm after being convicted of a felony. This was a breaking point in the case as Schultz then told law enforcement that he could take them to Joy's body. He told authorities that Schuppan had shot Joy multiple times because they argued frequently and Schuppan was hostile toward her and wanted her to move out.

Schultz took officers to the location of Joy's body in a shallow, partially exposed grave in the Shenandoah National Park. Her body was wrapped in three tarps. Both arms had been cut off below the elbows and her hands were missing, much of her face and jaw was missing and some internal organs had been removed and the body cavity stuffed with rocks and debris. The body was identified by DNA from a tooth as there were no hands for fingerprints (and decomposition would have rendered that futile) or an intact dental structure for dental record identification.

Schuppan was then arrested and almost immediately indicated that he “wanted a deal.” He told law enforcement that he came home from work to find that his father had shot Joy with Schuppan's handgun and that his father had threatened him at gunpoint, demanding that Schuppan assist in concealing the body. He indicated that he had been uncooperative in the time Joy was missing because he was afraid of his father and his connections to biker gangs. However, he was confronted in his testimony with many instances over the course of the forty-six-day search where he could have communicated freely with law enforcement outside of the presence of Schultz but did not. Schuppan, however, indicated that his lies were in fact threaded with discrete attempts to “passively communicate” with law enforcement from his position as a victim/unwilling participant (even in conversations when his father was not present). At other points, he indicated this failure to be truthful was because he felt “stereotyped and profiled” by the police and was intimidated by them.

One witness called by the Commonwealth was Chad Woodward. Woodward had been Schuppan's cellmate while Schuppan was awaiting trial in the Page County Jail. Woodward testified that Schuppan told him he shot Joy as part of a plan to collect on Joy's life insurance policy from her employer which carried a death benefit in excess of $220,000.00. After an altercation with Schuppan, Woodward was moved to a regional jail where he became acquainted with Schultz who was housed there to be separate from Schuppan. Schultz told Woodward that Schuppan had shot Joy and that they planned to split the insurance money. Another inmate, Lavar Johnson, testified that he heard Schuppan tell Woodward that he killed Joy because she wanted him to move out of the house and was supposed to share $200,000.00 from the life insurance with someone.

(Resp't's Ex. 6 at 4-8, Dkt. No. 15-6.)

II. ANALYSIS

A. Petitioner's Claims

Petitioner alleges the following claims: (1) the Commonwealth presented and failed to correct material testimony which it knew, or ought to have known, to be false (Napue and Giglio claim); and before and at trial, the Commonwealth failed to disclose exculpatory evidence to counsel, in violation of due process (Brady claim) (2) violation of right to effective assistance of loyal counsel, due to Commonwealth engaging a confidential informant (Woodward) to intercept communications petitioner intended to share with counsel; all the lawyers appointed to represent petitioner had also represented (either concurrently or in the past) Woodward, a material Commonwealth informant and witness, creating conflicts of interest; and trial counsel Richard Morgan...