2013 Decisions

Opinions of the United

States Court of Appeals

for the Third Circuit

5-1-2013

Michael Boettlin v. Paul Smeals

Precedential or Non-Precedential: Non-Precedential

Docket No. 09-4529

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Recommended Citation

"Michael Boettlin v. Paul Smeals" (2013). 2013 Decisions. Paper 889.

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 NOT PRECEDENTIAL

UNTIED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

_____________

No. 09-4529

_____________

MICHAEL BOETTLIN, JR., 

 Appellant

 

v.

PAUL K. SMEALS, SUPERINTENDENT; 

THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY OF THE COUNTY

OF BERKS, JOHN T. ADAMS, ESQ. THE ATTORNEY

GENERAL OF THE STATE OF PENNYSLVANIA,

On Appeal From the United States District Court

for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

(D.C. Civil No. 2-08-cv-02261)

District Judge: Honorable Timothy J. Savage

____________________

Submitted under Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a) 

on March 4, 2013

Before: RENDELL, AMBRO and VANASKIE, Circuit Judges

(Opinion filed: May 1, 2013 )

___________
2

O P I N I O N

___________

RENDELL, Circuit Judge:

Michael Boettlin appeals the District Court’s dismissal of his petition for 

writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. For the reasons that follow, we 

will affirm the District Court’s order of dismissal.

I.

In the early morning of July 25, 1987, Boettlin, then sixteen years old, and 

his co-defendant, John Calvaresi, broke into the apartment of Stanley Detweiler to 

commit robbery. When Detweiler confronted Boettlin and Calvaresi, Calvaresi 

tackled him and Boettlin kicked him multiple times in the face. Calvaresi later

decapitated Detweiler. In addition to Detweiler’s body, the crime scene included 

words written in Detweiler’s blood on the apartment walls.

Based on these events, Boettlin was tried on several criminal charges before 

a jury in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

1

 Evidence at trial presented 

conflicting accounts of whether Boettlin was involved in the beheading. On 

August 15, 1988, the jury convicted Boettlin of first-degree murder, among other

crimes, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 20 to 40 years. 

Boettlin timely appealed his sentence, which the Pennsylvania Superior 

Court affirmed on April 2, 1990. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court declined to 

 

1

The criminal complaint against Boettlin was filed in the Court of Common Pleas 

of Berks County, Pennsylvania. Upon an unopposed motion for change of venue, 

the case was transferred to Westmoreland County for trial.
3

review his appeal. Boettlin then timely initiated proceedings under the 

Pennsylvania Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), including a claim of 

ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to object to certain jury instructions for 

first-degree murder, which Boettlin claimed were defective. On November 16, 

2005, the PRCA court dismissed the petition, concluding, in part, that the jury 

instructions were consistent with Pennsylvania law, thereby rendering Boettlin’s 

ineffective counsel claim meritless. The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the 

dismissal, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied allocatur. 

On May 15, 2008, Boettlin timely filed his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition for 

writ of habeas corpus with the United States District Court for the Eastern District 

of Pennsylvania, claiming that: (1) the improper jury instructions violated his due 

process rights; and (2) his trial attorney’s failure to object to those instructions

violated his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel.2 On 

November 17, 2009, the District Court issued an order overruling Boettlin’s 

objections to a Magistrate Judge’s report and recommendation (“R&R”), 

approving and adopting the recommendations, and dismissing Boettlin’s petition 

with prejudice. In adopting the R&R, the District Court determined that the trial 

court’s instructions on first-degree murder accurately embodied Pennsylvania law, 

 

2 Boettlin also asserted a violation of his Miranda rights, a claim that the 

District Court rejected and which Boettlin does not raise on appeal.
4

and consequently Boettlin’s counsel was not ineffective for failing to object to 

them. Boettlin timely filed a notice of appeal.3

II.4

Central to Boettlin’s appeal is his contention that the trial court’s jury 

instructions effectively eliminated the Commonwealth’s burden to establish the 

specific intent requirement for first-degree murder. As a result, he claims both 

that the instructions violated his due process rights and that he received ineffective 

assistance of counsel due to his attorney’s failure to object to the instructions.

 

3

In adopting the R&R, the District Court rejected the Commonwealth’s 

contention that Boettlin’s due process claim is barred for failure to exhaust in state 

court and is now procedurally defaulted for failure to file within the PCRA’s oneyear limitations period. The Court determined that Boettlin’s due process claim 

was fairly presented to the state courts through his ineffective assistance of 

counsel claim. 

Although the Commonwealth revives the same exhaustion and procedural 

default arguments on appeal, we will not address them because, as we will discuss, 

Boettlin’s due process claim is meritless and can be dismissed under 28 U.S.C. 

§ 2254(b)(2). See Carrascosa v. McGuire, 520 F.3d 249, 255 & n.10 (3d Cir. 

2008) (holding that under Section 2254(b)(2) district courts may deny unexhausted 

claims on the merits).

4

The District Court had jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, and we 

have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253. Because the District Court

ruled on the petition without holding an evidentiary hearing, our review is plenary. 

See Jacobs v. Horn, 395 F.3d 92, 99 (3d Cir. 2005). 

A federal court may grant habeas relief for a constitutional claim that a state 

court has adjudicated on the merits, and has “resulted in a decision that was 

contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal 

law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.” 28 U.S.C. 

§ 2254(d)(1). “Where, as here, it is the state court’s application of governing 

federal law that is challenged, the decision must be shown to be not only 

erroneous, but objectively unreasonable.” Waddington v. Sarausad, 555 U.S. 179, 

190 (2009) (internal quotation marks omitted).
5

“In a criminal trial, the State must prove every element of the offense, and 

a jury instruction violates due process if it fails to give effect to that requirement.”

Middleton v. McNeil, 541 U.S. 433, 437 (2004). An instruction violates due 

process when “the instruction contained some ambiguity, inconsistency, or 

deficiency,” and “there was a reasonable likelihood that the jury applied the 

instruction in a way that relieved the State of its burden of proving every element 

of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Williams v. Beard, 637 F.3d 195, 223 

(3d Cir. 2011) (internal quotation marks omitted). 

The jury instructions here did not relieve the Commonwealth of its burden 

of proving all elements of first-degree murder. In Pennsylvania, “first-degree 

murder requires the specific intent to kill, and that mens rea is also required of 

accomplices and co-conspirators.” Laird v. Horn, 414 F.3d 419, 425 (3d Cir. 

2005); see also 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. §§ 306(c)-(d), 2502(a). Boettlin claims that the 

instructions improperly suggested that the jury could convict him as an accomplice 

to first-degree murder so long as Calvaresi had the specific intent to kill, and 

regardless of whether Boettlin, himself, possessed the specific intent to promote or 

facilitate the murder. Specifically, the parts of the jury charge that Boettlin claims 

are improper are as follows:

[I]f you find that John Calvaresi actually had the specific intent, and 

actually killed Stanley Detweiler, with specific intent, so that John 

Calvaresi’s crime was first degree murder, then, the only way that 

Michael Boettlin can also be found guilty of first degree murder is if 

Michael Boettlin [was] an accomplice . . . .

. . . .
6

. . . You may find the Defendant guilty of murder in the first 

degree, if you are satisfied that each of the following 3 elements has 

been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. First, that Stanley 

Detweiler is dead, second, that an accomplice of the Defendant 

killed him, and third, that the killing was with specific intent to kill 

and with malice. 

. . . .

. . . [Y]ou cannot find the Defendant guilty of first degree 

murder unless you are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that he 

and/or his accomplice had a specific intent to kill. 

2 Resp’t App. at 845:17-22; 848:25-849:6; 849:20-23.

However, we do not review parts of jury instructions in isolation, and we 

are “bound” to consider the instructions “as a whole.” Middleton, 541 U.S. at 437. 

Thus, in addition to the specific language that Boettlin cites in his challenge, we 

are cognizant of the context in which the trial court made them. For example, the 

trial court initially instructed the jury about what an accomplice was as follows:

An accomplice may be defined as a person who knowingly and 

voluntarily cooperates with or aids another in the commission of a 

particular crime. Otherwise, it must have been the purpose of the 

accomplice to intend to commit the crime; that is, his conscious 

purpose, to commit the crime.

2 Resp’t App. at 836:7-12. As another example, the trial court further explained 

that if the jury found that Calvaresi had the requisite specific intent and was guilty 

of first-degree murder, then

the only way that Michael Boettlin can also be guilty of first degree 

murder is if Michael Boettlin [was] an accomplice; that is, with the 

intent of promoting or facilitating the first degree murder of Stanley 

Detwailer, he, Michael Boettlin, solicited, commanded, encouraged, 

or requested John Calvaresi to commit first degree murder upon 

Stanley Detweiler, or that Michael Boettlin aided, or agreed to aid, 

or attempted to aid John Calvaresi in planning or committing the 

first degree murder upon Stanley Detweiler.
7

2 Resp’t App. at 845:20-846:4.

Upon reviewing the jury instructions in toto, we agree with the District 

Court’s determination that “the entirety of the instructions to the jury were both 

reasonable and a proper recitation of Pennsylvania law.” Appellant App. at 22

(emphasis in original). Because the instructions embody an accurate reflection of 

state law, they were neither ambiguous nor objectively unreasonable so as to 

relieve the Commonwealth of its burden of proving every element of the crime. 

The District Court did not err in concluding that the instructions did not violate 

Boettlin’s due process rights. 

Furthermore, because the jury instructions were not improper, the District 

Court properly concluded that Boettlin’s trial counsel was not deficient on these 

grounds. Boettlin’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is unpersuasive. 

III.

Accordingly, we will affirm the District Court’s order dismissing Boettlin’s 

petition for habeas relief.