Smith v. Allen

1

PAUL GORDON SMITH, JR., Petitioner, v. TRENT ALLEN,^[1] Respondent.

No. 2:16-cv-1015 TLN CKD P

United States District Court, E.D. California

August 8, 2022

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

CAROLYN K. DELANEY, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE.

Petitioner is a California prisoner proceeding pro se with a petition for writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. A jury found petitioner guilty of the first degree murder of Lora Sinner with the special circumstance of torture, false imprisonment by violence, and conspiracy to commit murder. It also found that he used a deadly weapon and inflicted great bodily injury. During the penalty phase, the jury determined that a death sentence was appropriate, and the trial court imposed that sentence. On automatic appeal, the California Supreme Court reversed petitioner's death sentence and imposed a penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole. (ECF No. 22, Lodged Doc. 124.) In his habeas petition, petitioner raises the same 14 claims he brought before the California Supreme Court on direct review. (Compare ECF No. 1 with ECF No. 22, Lodged Doc. 121; see also ECF No. 22, Lodged Doc. 123.) For the reasons stated below, this Court recommends that petitioner's petition for a writ of habeas corpus be denied.

I. Background

In its opinion, the California Supreme Court summarized the evidence presented during the guilt phase as follows:

A. Guilt Phase

1. Prosecution

In December 1997, defendant was 21 years old and living with his father in Redding. During that month he met his younger half sister, Lori Smith, for the first time. Lori had been living in Washington State. Defendant's older brother, Timothy Smith, also arrived from Washington with his fiancée, Lora Sinner.[]

Defendant married Jessica Smith in January 1998. Shortly thereafter, he began a relationship with Amy S., a 14-year-old runaway. Defendant's friend Eric Rubio became romantically involved with defendant's sister Lori. Sinner ended her engagement with Timothy and began to associate with defendant, Amy, Eric, and Lori. Toward the end of February this group, led by defendant, began an extended camping trip on private land in Shasta County.

Of the five, Sinner was the only person without a partner. She flirted with defendant, which angered Amy. Defendant returned Sinner's attention in order to maintain access to her car, which they used to drive into town from camp. About a week before Sinner's murder, Lori and Amy discussed beating her up, and defendant told Eric he wanted to “off this bitch,” referring to Sinner. Lori testified that during a conversation with everyone except Sinner, defendant said Sinner should be killed. Eric remembered the conversation, but not who made the comment.

On the afternoon of the murder, Lori and Amy again spoke about beating Sinner. According to Lori, defendant encouraged them because he wanted Amy and Sinner to fight over him. Eric testified that defendant told him “the girls” wanted to fight Sinner, and he didn't know what to do about it. Eric said defendant displayed no signs of intoxication that afternoon. Toward the end of the day, Amy punched Sinner in the face. Sinner punched back, and Lori joined the fight. Defendant and Eric were in a tent about 15 feet away.

Amy testified that Lori knocked Sinner's head against a tree several times. Amy struck her in the head five or six times with a large can of chili, which she tossed aside after it was dented. Lori slammed Sinner's head into a large rock. Meanwhile, Amy retrieved two pieces of an automotive dent puller. One piece was a metal bar about an inch and a half thick and a foot long. The other was a weighted metal piece shaped like a barbell. As Sinner sat on the ground, Amy and Lori repeatedly hit her with these implements. Sinner was crying and asking them to stop. Amy admitted taunting Sinner during the assault.

Lori's account differed somewhat. She did not remember hitting Sinner's head on a tree or a rock, nor did she remember any taunting. She testified that after punching Sinner with her fists, she retrieved the dent puller bar from the tent. Defendant and Eric were watching the assault. Lori hit Sinner with the bar as hard as she could two or three times. She also hit her with the chili can after Amy dropped it.

Eric testified that he and defendant were in the tent when the fight started. They could hear but not see the beating. Defendant showed no interest, saying, “just let them fight.” Amy had taken one piece of the dent puller from the tent, and Lori the other. Eventually, defendant intervened.

Amy confirmed that defendant stopped the fight. He told them to take Sinner down to the creek and clean her up. Lori maintained it was her idea to take Sinner to the creek. There, she and Amy scooped water onto Sinner's head to wash the blood from her hair. Eric and defendant also came to the creek. According to Lori, defendant took her aside, held out an ax, and said, “Just finish her off.” Lori refused. Defendant had no apparent difficulty walking or talking; Lori did not know if he had taken any drugs that day. They all returned to the tent. Lori did not see what defendant did with the ax. The couples sat in the tent; Sinner sat on a mat outside the door.

Defendant produced a bottle of whiskey, which the couples shared. Defendant then gave the bottle to Sinner, telling her it would help with the pain. Sinner took a small drink. Defendant became angry, and asked Eric to help tie her up. After initially refusing, Eric put a noose around Sinner's neck. Defendant tied her hands and feet. Sinner was crying. Defendant, still angry, told her she was going to kill herself. He said she was in enough pain already and might as well join her mother, who had died recently. Declaring that Sinner's death was going to look like a suicide, defendant untied her hands, handed her a razor blade, and told her to cut her wrists. Sinner cried and refused at first, then cut her wrist once. Saying the cut wasn't deep enough, defendant took the blade, slashed her wrist, and handed the blade back to her. Sinner tried to inflict another wound. Defendant, unsatisfied, took the blade back and cut her wrist repeatedly.

Defendant told Sinner to hold her wrists over a fire pit. Lori testified that defendant struck Sinner's hands several times with the bar when she moved them. He also kicked her in the forehead and poured whiskey over the bleeding cuts, causing Sinner to scream. He forced her to drink more liquor. Then he wrapped a plastic garbage bag around her head, cinching it tightly. Sinner continued crying and pleaded for help. Defendant struck her on the neck and back several times with the bar, then asked if anyone else wanted to hit her, looking at Lori. Lori was scared but wanted to prove she wasn't afraid to hurt someone. She hit Sinner with the bar twice in the head and neck, and said she was “hard to kill.” Defendant snatched the bar, told Lori she wasn't doing it right, and hit Sinner several more times. When a blow produced a snapping sound, he stopped.

Eric and defendant buried Sinner. Lori testified that Eric was frightened and shaking. When the men returned, defendant said “she knew too much,” and he feared she would say something. Lori understood him to mean that Sinner would tell the police he had been stealing purses from cars. Defendant warned the others that anyone who revealed what had happened would be the next to die. They agreed to say they had put Sinner on a Greyhound bus. The next morning, they burned her clothing and belongings at the burial site.

Amy's testimony about the events following the fight was roughly consistent with Lori's, though she was hazy on many details, particularly defendant's statements. She said defendant did not appear to be drunk or under the influence of drugs. She remembered Lori saying, “This bitch won't die” as she struck Sinner with the bar. Amy did not mention defendant having an ax, or asking Lori to “finish her off.” Amy could hear Sinner breathing against the plastic wrapped around her head just before defendant and Eric carried her away to bury her.

Eric's account was similar. He said he did not join the others at the creek, but stayed on the bank with a flashlight, watching. He did not see defendant with an ax. Defendant said Sinner wouldn't survive because her skull was cracked and the back of her head was “mushy.” Eric admitted helping bind Sinner. He related that defendant cut Sinner's wrist, poured alcohol on the wounds, and kicked her in the head when she did not obey his directions. According to Eric, Sinner was still breathing after the final blow. Defendant then cinched the bags around her head and held them for 30 to 60 seconds, saying she would die more quickly that way.

Eric initially refused to help dispose of the body. Defendant told him he had better, “or I would end up just like her.” Frightened, Eric helped defendant bury Sinner. They stripped the body first because, defendant said, it would decompose faster. Afterward, defendant instructed the others to say Sinner had gone back to Washington. He told them “we would all end up like her if we said anything.” In the morning, they burned Sinner's clothes on top of the grave. Defendant said this would keep animals from digging her up.

The murder came to light some weeks later when Lori confessed to acquaintances that she and defendant had “beat and tortured” Sinner to death. While in jail, defendant participated in two videotaped interviews with detectives and two audiotaped interviews with a newspaper reporter. The tapes were played for the jury. In the first interview defendant was given Miranda warnings and said he understood them. (Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436.) He denied committing the...