Cameron Williams v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)

MEMORANDUM DECISION
Jan 28 2015, 6:09 am
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), this
Memorandum Decision shall not be regarded as
precedent or cited before any court except for the
purpose of establishing the defense of res judicata,
collateral estoppel, or the law of the case.
APPELLANT PRO SE ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Cameron Williams Gregory F. Zoeller
Pendleton, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana
Larry D. Allen
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
Cameron Williams, January 28, 2015
Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Cause No.
49A02-1408-PC-532
v. Appeal from the Marion Superior
Court
The Honorable Steven R. Eichholtz,
State of Indiana, Judge
Appellee-Plaintiff. Cause No. 49G20-0706-PC-116679
Bradford, Judge.
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Case Summary
[1] Appellant-Petitioner Cameron Williams appeals from the denial of his petition
for post-conviction relief (“PCR”). Williams claims that his trial and appellate
counsel were ineffective and that there was insufficient evidence to show that
his prior unrelated offenses were committed in the correct chronological order
to satisfy the habitual offender statute. We affirm.
Facts and Procedural History
[2] The underlying facts of this case were provided by another panel of this court in
a memorandum decision addressing Williams’s direct appeal:
On June 20, 2007, Leonard Hayes, a security guard working at
a building at 3737 North Meridian Street in Indianapolis, observed
Williams fire a handgun into the air. Williams was standing in front
of the building when he fired the shots, and, at that time, there were
several people sitting outside an adjacent building. Hayes helped those
people inside to safety, and Hayes then followed Williams towards
Pennsylvania Street. Hayes called police, who arrived a short time
later and arrested Williams.
The State charged Williams with two counts of carrying a
handgun without a license, unlawful possession of a firearm by a
serious violent felon, criminal recklessness, and being an habitual
offender. The State dismissed the first two counts before trial; a jury
convicted him on the unlawful possession and criminal recklessness
charges; and Williams admitted to being an habitual offender. The
trial court sentenced Williams to an aggregate twenty year sentence.
[3] Williams v. State, No. 49A05-0712-CR-704, slip op. 1 (Ind. Ct. App. 2008). The
State’s charging information established the basis for the habitual offender
enhancement and alleged three prior unrelated felony convictions, the first of
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which was a Class C felony for carrying a handgun without a license, to which
Williams pled guilty on September 27, 1999. (App. 80, 182, Ex. B, F) The
second and third prior convictions were both Class D felonies for theft, to
which Williams pled guilty on November 16, 2004 and September 16, 2005,
respectively.
[4] On direct appeal, Williams raised two issues: (1) whether the evidence was
sufficient to support his convictions and (2) whether he was entitled to a new
sentencing hearing. Id. This court affirmed Williams’s convictions. Id. slip op.
at 2-3. In his first PCR proceeding, Williams claimed that he received
ineffective assistance of trial and appellate counsel. Williams v. State, No.
49A02-1109-PC-502 (Ind. Ct. App. 2012) trans. denied. The PCR court denied
Williams relief and this court affirmed that decision. Id. On March 15, 2013,
this court granted Williams permission to file a successive petition for PCR
which Williams filed on August 16, 2013. (App. 11-12) After a hearing on
Williams’s successive petition, the PCR court denied Williams’s request for
relief and issued finding of fact and conclusions of law. (App. 14, 19-24)
Williams now appeals the PCR court’s ruling.
Discussion and Decision
I. PCR Standard of Review
[5] “Post-conviction proceedings are not ‘super appeals’ through which convicted
persons can raise issues they failed to raise at trial or on direct appeal. Rather,
post-conviction proceedings afford petitioners a limited opportunity to raise
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issues that were unavailable or unknown at trial and on direct appeal.” Bahm v.
State, 789 N.E.2d 50, 57 (Ind. Ct. App. 2003) decision clarified on reh’g, 794
N.E.2d 444 (Ind. Ct. App. 2003).
In reviewing the judgment of a post-conviction court, appellate courts
consider only the evidence and reasonable inferences supporting its
judgment. The post-conviction court is the sole judge of the evidence
and the credibility of the witnesses. To prevail on appeal from denial
of post-conviction relief, the petitioner must show that the evidence as
a whole leads unerringly and unmistakably to a conclusion opposite to
that reached by the post-conviction court.… Only where the evidence
is without conflict and leads to but one conclusion, and the post-
conviction court has reached the opposite conclusion, will its findings
or conclusions be disturbed as being contrary to law.
Hall v. State, 849 N.E.2d 466, 468-469 (Ind. 2006) (internal citations and
quotations omitted).
II. Habitual Offender Enhancement
[6] Williams argues that his habitual offender enhancement must be vacated
because two of the prior unrelated convictions were not committed in the
proper chronological sequence as is necessary to satisfy the habitual offender
statute. Indiana Code section 35-50-2-8 provides that an individual may be
sentenced as a habitual offender if the individual has accumulated two prior
unrelated felony convictions.
(c) A person has accumulated two (2) prior unrelated felony
convictions for purposes of this section only if:
(1) the second prior unrelated felony conviction was committed
after sentencing for the first prior unrelated felony conviction; and
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(2) the offense for which the state seeks to have the person
sentenced as a habitual offender was committed after
sentencing for the second prior unrelated felony conviction.
Ind. Code § 35-50-2-8(c) (emphasis added). Williams contends that he
committed the second felony theft on June 7, 2004, prior to his November 16,
2004 conviction for the first felony theft. Therefore, the two offenses are not
unrelated under Section 35-50-2-8(c). Although Williams is correct on this
point, he does not contest the validity of his 1999 felony conviction for
unlicensed possession of a handgun. As such, the 1999 felony conviction and
either of the subsequent felony theft convictions are two prior unrelated
convictions sufficient to establish that Williams is a habitual offender.
III. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
[7] We review claims of ineffective assistance of counsel based upon the principles
enunciated in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984):
[A] claimant must demonstrate that counsel’s performance fell below
an objective standard of reasonableness based on prevailing
professional norms, and that the deficient performance resulted in
prejudice. Prejudice occurs when the defendant demonstrates that
“there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional
errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” A
reasonable probability arises when there is a “probability sufficient to
undermine confidence in the outcome.”
Grinstead v. State, 845 N.E.2d 1027, 1031 (Ind. 2006) (quoting Strickland, 466
U.S. at 694).
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[8] Williams contends that he received ineffective assistance because his trial and
appellate counsel failed to raise the issue addressed in Section II above: whether
the State provided sufficient evidence to show that Williams was a habitual
offender. Because Williams raised claims of ineffective counsel in his first PCR
petition, he is precluded from re-raising those claims here. 1 Ben–Yisrayl v. State,
738 N.E.2d 253, 258 (Ind. 2000). Once a defendant raises a claim of ineffective
assistance of counsel, whether on direct appeal or in a PCR, he must raise all
issues relating to that claim. Id. at 259. The defendant is barred by the doctrine
of res judicata from relitigating the issues in a subsequent PCR, even where he
presents additional examples of counsel’s alleged ineffectiveness. Id.
[9] The judgment of the post-conviction court is affirmed.
Najam, J., and Mathias, J., concur.
1
Despite this preclusion, Williams’s claim still fails on its merits. As stated in Section II, Williams’s
prior felony convictions did support his admission to being a habitual offender. Therefore, there is not a
reasonable probability that the outcome of the proceedings would have been different had trial or appellate
counsel raised that issue.
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