Thoresen v. Wheeler

JOSEPH CHRISTIAN THORESEN, Petitioner, v. WARDEN SHERLINDA WHEELER, Respondent.

No. 21-cv-2459 (JRT/ECW)

United States District Court, D. Minnesota

December 7, 2022

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

ELIZABETH COWAN WRIGHT, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

This matter is before the undersigned United States Magistrate Judge on Petitioner Joseph Christian Thoresen's application for a Writ of Habeas Corpus by a Person in State Custody arising under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Dkt. 1). This case has been referred to the undersigned for a report and recommendation pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636 and Local Rule 72.1. For the reasons set forth below, this Court recommends dismissal of this action.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The State of Minnesota charged Thoresen with first-degree premeditated murder. See State v. Thoresen (Thoresen I), 921 N.W.2d 547, 548 (Minn. 2019). The Minnesota Supreme Court reported the following details about the events underlying Petitioner's criminal charges, as well as his trial and convictions:

On June 21, 2016, David Haiman was killed on a remote trail in Itasca County. Following a police investigation, Thoresen was charged with several offenses, including first-degree premeditated murder. Minn. Stat. § 609.185(a)(1) (2018). His alleged accomplice, Kayleene Greniger, pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. As a condition of her plea agreement, Greniger testified against Thoresen at his jury trial.

According to Greniger, she and Thoresen were romantically involved and lived together in Grand Rapids when the victim was killed. On June 20, 2016, she and Thoresen smoked methamphetamine and marijuana, drank alcohol, and used cocaine with Haiman at their apartment. Thoresen, who was more than 6 feet tall and weighed about 200 pounds, “aggressive[ly]” told Haiman, who was 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighed about 180 pounds, that they needed to talk in the bedroom. Greniger, who is about 4 feet, 11 inches tall and weighed about 100 pounds, went to the bedroom with them. After they entered the bedroom, Thoresen and Greniger tied Haiman to a chair and repeatedly hit him.

Lending support to Greniger's testimony about the assault she and Thoresen committed against Haiman in their apartment, a witness, J.D., testified that she observed that Haiman had multiple injuries that were consistent with being tied up and beaten. More specifically, Haiman told J.D. that Thoresen and Greniger had tied him up and would not let him go to work. Another witness, J.G., testified that he saw Thoresen throw Haiman up against the wall and later saw Haiman tied to a chair and lying on the floor of the bedroom. Another witness testified that he saw blood splatter on Thoresen's pants.

Greniger testified that while Haiman remained bound to the chair, Thoresen removed Haiman's keys and phone from his pocket and took his car, leaving Haiman tied up. Hours later, Thoresen untied Haiman and escorted him to Haiman's car, a maroon two-door sedan. When Greniger joined them a few minutes later, she saw Thoresen's machete between the driver's-side door and the seat. Thoresen's friend, R.G., testified that Thoresen and Greniger came to his house with a man who remained in the back seat of the “maroon” car they drove. Thoresen told R.G. that Thoresen “was looking for something to use to put a farm animal down that was injured and couldn't be saved.” R.G. understood that to mean that Thoresen was going to kill a farm animal, but he did not see any farm animals with Thoresen and Greniger that day. According to Greniger's testimony, Haiman sat in the back seat as Thoresen then drove the trio to J.D.'s house, where they used more methamphetamine. There, Greniger and Thoresen took J.D.'s four-wheeler out for a ride on J.D.'s property, leaving Haiman and J.D. behind. Greniger testified that there was a baseball bat on the back of the four-wheeler. During their ride, Thoresen stopped, turned the four-wheeler off, and told Greniger that they were going to kill Haiman. Consistent with Greniger's testimony, J.D. told the jury that Greniger and Thoresen drove her four-wheeler around the property. Because J.D. was not watching closely, she admitted that she did not know whether they stopped during the ride. Thoresen and Greniger returned to J.D.'s house after the four-wheeler ride and consumed more methamphetamine with J.D. and Haiman. Greniger saw Thoresen grab two knives from J.D.'s house as they left and put them in Greniger's purse. She also saw the baseball bat in the car next to the machete.

Greniger testified that with Thoresen driving and Haiman in the back seat, they next drove down a “trail in the woods,” hit a puddle of mud, and the car started steaming. Thoresen stopped the car and told Haiman to check the oil. Greniger let Haiman out on the passenger side of the two-door sedan and put her head down to start rolling a cigarette. Greniger testified that Thoresen, meanwhile, got out of the driver's side with a baseball bat in his hand, walked to the front of the car, and hit Haiman on the head twice, knocking him to the ground. Greniger grabbed the knives from her purse, and Thoresen and Greniger stabbed Haiman multiple times. Greniger then cut off Haiman's head with the machete. Thoresen grabbed Haiman's body by the ankles and dragged it into the woods. He stuck a knife in Haiman's temple, placed the head in a bag, and threw the bag into the woods.

A friend of Thoresen's, T.C., provided support for some of Greniger's testimony about the events in the woods. Greniger testified that, after the murder, she and Thoresen drove to T.C.'s house in Haiman's car. T.C. verified that Thoresen drove a red sedan to his house. Thoresen told T.C. that the car belonged to “a kid” whom Thoresen “had hit . . . in the head with a bat twice” and whose head he had cut off with a machete. T.C. also testified that he saw a bat among Thoresen and Greniger's things when they came to his house. Later, T.C. found a bat in his yard with a large red stain on it that he presumed to be blood and burned it out of concern that it could implicate him in the murder. Investigators also found a partially burnt knife near T.C.'s fire pit.

When investigators later visited the apartment of Greniger and Thoresen, Greniger brought them to the area where Haiman's body was. Though investigators did not find Haiman's body until a few days later, Greniger had brought them to within 30 yards of the remains. Haiman's head was on the north side of the trail, and his body was on the south side of the trail, about 150 feet from his head. The medical examiner testified that there was a large fracture on the side of Haiman's head that would have caused “significant” brain damage. His clothing had holes in it that appeared to be from stabbing, but the body had decomposed too much to verify whether there were stab wounds.

Investigators also searched the apartment that Thoresen and Greniger shared. There, investigators found evidence that corroborated Greniger's testimony. Specifically, they observed multiple areas with blood stains. They found a number of items that appeared to contain blood stains, including a pair of black tennis shoes, two pairs of jeans, a pink towel, and a rope. Investigators also found a machete with blood stains on the blade between the mattress and the box spring of the bed in the apartment. DNA on the machete's handle did not match Thoresen's DNA, but Greniger and Heiman could not be excluded as matches. Greniger's fingerprint was on the machete.

Investigators also searched Haiman's car. They found a fillet knife, which had blood on the blade, in the trunk, and blood stains on the outside of the car, near the passenger side door. The blood on the knife and car matched Haiman's DNA. Thoresen and T.C. were eventually arrested after they fled from a police officer while driving Haiman's maroon car. Thoresen was released, but that arrest led investigators to look into his connection to Haiman's disappearance. Thoresen was eventually arrested and charged for his role in Haiman's death.

Before trial, Thoresen requested jury instructions about the credibility of addict or substance abuser testimony and the credibility of accessory-after-the-fact testimony. The State opposed both instructions, and the district court denied Thoresen's requests. Multiple witnesses, including Greniger, J.D., T.C., and J.G., admitted to being under the influence of drugs or alcohol during events that they testified to and that those substances affected their memory or perception. T.C. admitted to destroying evidence and acknowledged that he hoped his cooperation with the prosecutor would help him avoid prosecution. The court instructed the jury both before and after testimony about the role of the jury in considering and weighing the credibility of testimony.

The jury found Thoresen guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, as a principal and as an aider and abettor. See Minn. Stat. § 609.185(a)(1). The district court entered a conviction on principal liability for first-degree premeditated murder and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of release.

Thoresen I, 921 N.W.2d at 548-51 (footnotes omitted).^[1] The jury also found Thoresen guilty of first-degree murder while committing a kidnapping, as a principal and as an aider and abettor. Id. at 551 n.2. In addition, the jury found Thoresen not guilty of second-degree intentional murder and second-degree unintentional murder while committing a second-degree assault. Id. Thoresen was ultimately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release. Id. at 548.

II. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Petitioner's Initial Appeal before the Minnesota Supreme Court

In his initial May 25, 2018 appeal brief to the ...