Lankford v. Cain ( 2022 )

539
Submitted December 17, 2021, affirmed May 18, petition for review denied
September 16, 2022 (370 Or 214)
JOSEPH M. LANKFORD,
Petitioner-Appellant,
v.
Brad CAIN,
Superintendent,
Snake River Correctional Institution,
Defendant-Respondent.
Malheur County Circuit Court
12119769P; A172913
510 P3d 938
After drinking heavily and ingesting diazepam, petitioner shot and killed T.
For that conduct, a jury found petitioner guilty of murder. Petitioner sought post-
conviction relief on the ground that his trial lawyers rendered inadequate and
ineffective assistance, in violation of his rights under the state and federal consti-
tutions, by (1) not having the blood sample that was taken from him on the night
of the shooting tested for the presence of diazepam; and (2) not objecting to his
shackling during his trial. The post-conviction court rejected those contentions
and denied relief. Petitioner appealed. Held: The Court of Appeals determined
that the trial lawyers’ failure to have the blood sample tested for diazepam could
not have tended to have affected either the trial court’s voluntariness ruling or
the jury’s assessment of whether defendant intentionally shot the victim. As for
shackling, there is no evidence that the restraints were visible to the jury or that
petitioner was otherwise prejudiced by them.
Affirmed.
J. Burdette Pratt, Senior Judge.
Jedediah Peterson and O’Connor Weber LLC filed the
brief for appellant.
Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, Benjamin Gutman,
Solicitor General and Erin K. Galli, Assistant Attorney
General, filed the brief for respondent.
Before Mooney, Presiding Judge, and Lagesen, Chief Judge,
and DeVore, Senior Judge.
LAGESEN, C. J.
Affirmed.
540 Lankford v. Cain
LAGESEN, C. J.
After drinking heavily and ingesting diazepam,
petitioner shot and killed T, to whom he was married.
For that conduct, a jury found petitioner guilty of murder.
Petitioner seeks post-conviction relief on the ground that
his trial lawyers rendered inadequate and ineffective assis-
tance, in violation of his rights under the state and federal
constitutions, by (1) not having the blood sample taken from
him on the night of the shooting tested for the presence of
diazepam; and (2) not objecting to his shackling during his
trial. The post-conviction court rejected those contentions
and denied relief. Accepting the post-conviction court’s sup-
ported implicit and explicit factual findings and reviewing
for legal error, Green v. Franke, 357 Or 301, 312, 350 P3d 188
(2015), we affirm.
We state the facts in accordance with our standard
of review. Petitioner shot and killed T. He was intoxicated at
the time. He came home angry at T after a family reunion
and started firing shots in their bedroom.
After hearing the first shot, T’s daughter, J, looked
into the room to find out what was going on. T, who was sit-
ting at a desk in front of a computer, told her not to worry
because petitioner was just shooting blanks.
About 10 minutes after hearing the first shot,
J heard a second shot. She again looked into the room. J
saw her mother sitting in the same position with petitioner
standing next to her and pointing a gun at her. Petitioner
yelled at J to leave the room, and she complied.
A short time later, J heard a third shot. She looked
into the room and saw her mother slumped over the desk
with blood coming out of her head. J called for her brother,
who was also in the house.
Petitioner told J’s brother that the shot had ric-
ocheted off the window and hit T’s head. Petitioner called
9-1-1 to report the shooting, repeating his story about the
window.
Law enforcement arrived and took petitioner into
custody. Petitioner was Mirandized and, before he was
taken to jail, interviewed by Deputy Sheriff Slater of the
Cite as 319 Or App 539 (2022) 541
Coos County Sheriff’s Office. That interview was recorded.
Petitioner explained that he was angry at T and upset about
the noise from the computer, so he shot at the computer
screen and missed. He then shot at the screen a second time,
but he again missed, and the shot bounced off the window
and hit T.
A blood sample was taken from petitioner at the
scene. While the blood draw was being taken, petitioner esti-
mated that his blood alcohol content (BAC) would be about
.17. Testing later revealed that his BAC was .187. The blood
sample was not tested for the presence of drugs before peti-
tioner’s trial, although petitioner had told the officers that
he “takes medicine every night and took diazepam,” but was
not sure if he had taken it before the shooting.
Before trial, defendant moved to suppress the state-
ments that he made during his interview on the night of the
offense. His theory was that his intoxication rendered his
waiver of his Miranda rights involuntary. After listening to
the recordings of petitioner’s 9-1-1 call and Slater’s inter-
view of petitioner, the trial court rejected that contention,
finding that the recordings demonstrated that petitioner
was composed and able to communicate.
At trial, the state’s theory was that petitioner had
the conscious objective to kill T, notwithstanding his high
level of intoxication. In support of that theory, the prosecu-
tor pointed to evidence that petitioner was angry at T, that
he had fired a total of three shots in the manner described
by J, that the 9-1-1 call and petitioner’s interview with
Slater demonstrated that, notwithstanding his intoxication,
petitioner was coherent and responsive to questions around
the time of the shooting, and that the forensic analysis of
the crime scene indicated that T had been shot in the head
at intermediate range, with the gun within 12 inches of her
head. The prosecutor also argued that petitioner’s version
of events—that he was aiming at the computer screen—did
not track with the evidence of how the bullet entered T’s
head.
Petitioner’s defense was that he did not have the
intent to kill the victim. Although the defense did not claim
that petitioner was so intoxicated that he could not have
542 Lankford v. Cain
formed the conscious intent to kill, it did claim that peti-
tioner’s intoxication had made him act recklessly with disre-
gard for the value of human life, something that made him
culpable for manslaughter but not murder.
In support of that defense, petitioner presented
expert testimony from Dr. Robert Julien. Julien testified
that fragmentary blackouts occur at blood alcohol levels of
.25 and above. He testified that “at about a .30, you begin to
develop total blackouts.” Julien testified that, based on the
blood test results and extrapolation, petitioner’s BAC would
have been about .22 at the time of the shooting, something
that would put him in a “confusional state.” Julien opined
that petitioner would not be high functioning at that blood
alcohol level and, for example, should not be driving cars or
handling firearms. He also noted that someone with peti-
tioner’s blood alcohol level would not be deemed capable of
consenting to surgery.
Noting the possibility that petitioner also had con-
sumed diazepam, Julien testified that if petitioner had con-
sumed diazepam, then it would have increased petitioner’s
intoxication. On cross-examination, the prosecutor elicited
from Julien that there was no evidence that petitioner had
consumed diazepam, to which Julien added that, for rea-
sons he did not understand, petitioner’s blood had not been
tested.
Throughout the trial, petitioner wore a leg brace;
his trial lawyers did not object to the restraints. The jury
found petitioner guilty of murder. Petitioner’s subsequent
appeal was dismissed on petitioner’s own motion.
Petitioner then initiated this post-conviction pro-
ceeding. In connection with this proceeding, he had the blood
sample submitted for a toxicology test. The test revealed the
presence of diazepam and a related metabolite. In view of
that, petitioner alleged that trial counsel was inadequate
and ineffective for not having his blood sample tested for
diazepam. This, petitioner alleged, prejudiced him in two
distinct ways. First, he argued that it could have tended
to show that his intoxication rendered his Miranda waiver
invalid, something that could have affected the trial court’s
Cite as 319 Or App 539 (2022) 543
decision on his motion to suppress. Second, he argued that it
could have affected the jury’s verdict at trial.
In support of those claims, petitioner submitted an
affidavit from Julien. In it, Julien explained how the new
toxicology results would have affected his testimony at trial.
Based on those results, he would have testified that peti-
tioner had consumed a “therapeutic dose” of diazepam on
the night of the shooting and that, as a result, petitioner’s
“level of intoxication * * * was well above the equivalent of
a [BAC] of .25.” Julien did not opine that, as a result of the
diazepam, petitioner’s blood alcohol level would have pre-
cluded petitioner from forming intent. He also did not opine
that petitioner’s BAC was at .30 or above, the level at which,
according to Julien’s trial testimony, would have resulted in
petitioner experiencing a complete blackout that would, in
Julien’s view, preclude the formation of intent.
In addition to his claim about the drug testing, peti-
tioner alleged that trial counsel also was inadequate and
ineffective for not objecting to the shackling during trial.
The post-conviction court denied relief. Although
it concluded that petitioner’s trial lawyers performed defi-
ciently by not having petitioner’s blood tested for diazepam,
it ruled that their omission did not prejudice petitioner. It
also denied relief on the shackling claim. Petitioner appeals.
On appeal, petitioner assigns error to the denial of
relief on his claims relating to his trial lawyers’ failure to
have the blood tested. He contends that the post-conviction
court was incorrect to conclude that their omission did not
prejudice him. He also assigns error to the denial of relief on
the shackling claim.
Blood test. On appeal, defendant, the superinten-
dent of the Snake River Correctional Institution, has not
cross-assigned as error the post-conviction court’s determi-
nation that petitioner’s trial lawyers performed deficiently
by not having his blood tested for diazepam. As a result,
the only issue before us is whether the post-conviction court
correctly concluded that the failure to test the blood did not
prejudice petitioner, either by affecting the ruling on the
motion to suppress or the jury’s verdict.
544 Lankford v. Cain
For purposes of Article I, section 11, of the Oregon
Constitution, a petitioner is prejudiced by an act or omis-
sion by trial counsel if that act or omission tended to affect
the result of the prosecution. Johnson v. Premo, 361 Or 688,
710-11, 399 P3d 431 (2017). Where, as here, the alleged
omission involves a failure to investigate, the prejudice
determination entails “a sequential inquiry” into whether
“ ‘there was more than a mere possibility’ that an adequate
investigation would have yielded information” that could
have been used at defendant’s criminal trial in a way that
“gave rise to ‘more than a mere possibility’ that the outcome
of the proceeding could have been different as a result.”
Monfore v. Persson, 296 Or App 625, 636, 439 P3d 519 (2019)
(quoting Richardson v. Belleque, 362 Or 236, 266-68, 406
P3d 1074 (2017) (internal quotation marks omitted)). As the
Supreme Court has explained, “Specifically, in a ‘failure to
investigate’ case, a petitioner must show that there is ‘more
than a mere possibility’ that competent counsel ‘could have
used’ the information that counsel failed to uncover * * *
in a way that ‘could have tended to affect’ the outcome of
the trial.” Farmer v. Premo, 363 Or 679, 700-01, 427 P3d
170 (2018) (quoting Richardson, 362 Or at 266 (internal
quotation marks omitted)). A similar standard governs the
determination of prejudice under the Sixth and Fourteenth
Amendments to the United States Constitution. Green, 357
Or at 311; Davis v. Kelly, 303 Or App 253, 261-62, 461 P3d
1043, rev den, 366 Or 826 (2020).
In this instance, the record does not allow for the
conclusion that, had petitioner’s trial lawyers had petition-
er’s blood tested for diazepam, they could have used the
information in a way that could have tended to affect the
ruling on the motion to suppress or the jury’s verdict.
As for the motion to suppress, the trial court’s con-
clusion that petitioner was not too intoxicated to voluntarily
waive his Miranda rights hinged largely on the recorded
9-1-1 call and recorded interview with petitioner, which per-
suaded the trial court that petitioner was not so intoxicated
that he could not voluntarily waive his rights. That petition-
er’s intoxication subsequently was determined to be based
in part on diazepam does not call into question that direct
evidence of his condition and, for that reason, could not have
Cite as 319 Or App 539 (2022) 545
tended to have affected the trial court’s voluntariness rul-
ing. State v. Lloyd, 22 Or App 254, 270-71, 538 P2d 1278(1975) (intoxication alone does not mean that a defendant
cannot understand Miranda rights and cannot be bound by
waiver of them).
As for its potential to affect the jury’s verdict, when
considered in the context of the evidence and arguments
that were presented to the jury, the omitted evidence could
not have tended to affect the jury’s assessment of whether
defendant intentionally shot T.
First, the omitted evidence could not have sup-
ported an alternative defense theory that defendant was so
impaired that he lacked the capacity to form intent. Based
on the new evidence, Julien opined that petitioner’s BAC
was “well above” .25. Notably, Julien did not opine that a
blood alcohol level of that level would preclude the forma-
tion of intent. In addition, Julien’s trial testimony was that
a .30 BAC was the level at which he believed a person could
not form intent, and nothing in the affidavit suggests that
Julien thought that, as a result of the diazepam, petitioner’s
blood alcohol level, although “well above” .25, was at or above
.30. Said another way, the omitted evidence does not allow
for the conclusion that, had petitioner’s lawyers obtained the
toxicology testing before trial, they could have presented an
entirely different defense theory: that petitioner was too
intoxicated to form intent. Julien’s new testimony based on
the toxicology results does not support such a theory.
Second, the omitted evidence could not have tended
to alter the jury’s assessment of the defense that petitioner
did present. The jury was informed of the possibility that
petitioner had consumed diazepam and informed that peti-
tioner’s BAC would have, in effect, been higher than the .22
to which Julien testified if petitioner had consumed diaze-
pam. The prosecutor acknowledged in closing that petitioner
may have been under the influence of diazepam in addition
to alcohol and did not seriously dispute that possibility.
Instead, the prosecutor urged the jury to focus on the exten-
sive evidence indicating that petitioner intentionally shot T,
none of which hinged on the presence or absence of diaze-
pam in T’s blood, and none of which is called into question
546 Lankford v. Cain
by the fact that T had ingested diazepam. Under those cir-
cumstances, there is little likelihood that the addition of evi-
dence confirming that petitioner had, in fact, ingested his
usual dose of diazepam the night of the incident could have
caused the jury to doubt the evidence tending to show that
petitioner intentionally shot T in the head.
Opposing this conclusion, petitioner argues that,
even without a formal opinion that his consumption of diaz-
epam made his level of intoxication such that he could not
form the intent to kill T, that is something that could be
inferred by the factfinder based on the omitted evidence.
That, petitioner asserts, could have made a difference either
in the trial court’s ruling on the motion to suppress or in the
jury’s verdict. But, on this record, it is only merely possible
that the omitted evidence could have affected either the trial
court’s ruling on the motion to suppress or the jury’s verdict,
given that (1) the trial court and the jury knew that peti-
tioner had a high BAC; (2) the trial court and the jury had
contemporaneous evidence of petitioner’s condition which
demonstrated that, notwithstanding his intoxication, he
remained composed and able to communicate intelligently;
and (3) the omitted evidence does not allow for a nonspecula-
tive inference that petitioner was functioning in a blackout
state. The mere possibility that the omitted evidence might
have caused the jury to view the effect of petitioner’s intoxi-
cation on his ability to waive his Miranda rights differently,
or caused the jury to view the effect of his intoxication on
his ability to act intentionally differently, is insufficient to
establish prejudice under either the state or federal consti-
tution. Davis, 303 Or App at 274.
For those reasons, the post-conviction court cor-
rectly concluded that petitioner did not demonstrate that he
was prejudiced for purposes of Article I, section 11, by the
failure to have the blood tested for diazepam. For the same
reason, the court also correctly concluded that petitioner
had not demonstrated prejudice for purposes of the Sixth
Amendment.
Shackling. Petitioner also assigns error to the post-
conviction court’s denial of relief on his claim that trial coun-
sel was inadequate and ineffective for not objecting to the use
Cite as 319 Or App 539 (2022) 547
of leg restraints on him during trial. As petitioner acknowl-
edges, though, there is no evidence that the restraints were
visible to the jury or that petitioner was otherwise preju-
diced by the restraints. This means that, under our con-
trolling case law, the post-conviction court correctly denied
relief. Larsen v. Nooth, 292 Or App 524, 425 P3d 484 (2018),
rev den, 364 Or 749 (2019); Sproule v. Coursey, 276 Or App
417, 367 P3d 946, rev den, 359 Or 777 (2016).
Affirmed.