Opinion ID: 170999
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Call Witnesses

Text: Mr. DeLozier contends that Perrine was ineffective for failing to call Michelle Tate and Bubba Oliver as witnesses. We first address Tate. Mr. DeLozier asserts that Tate's testimony would have corroborated his defense that Morgan and Bullard were alive after the first trip to the Morgan camp. In an interview following the murders, she told an OSBI agent When [Damon Tate, Shawn Smith, and I] arrived at the [Tate] bus I saw MICHAEL DELOZIER standing on the driver['s] side of a turquoise blue Chevrolet pickup truck. The pickup had just stopped and BO and NATHANIEL were standing on the passenger side. ... [Mr. DeLozier] said that he had borrowed the pickup truck. NATHANIEL told me they were going to take it back at least close enough they could find it. NATHANIEL said they had got the stuff from the lake. R. Vol. 3 at 301 (emphasis added). According to Mr. DeLozier, the italicized they in Nathaniel's statement to Tate refers to Morgan and Bullard and proves that the two men were alive after the first trip to the Morgan camp, as he testified. Generally, the decision whether to call a witness rests within the sound discretion of trial counsel. Jackson v. Shanks, 143 F.3d 1313, 1320 (10th Cir. 1998). Mr. DeLozier has failed to establish that Perrine's decision not to call Tate as a witness was unsound. Nathaniel's statement to Tate, which, as hearsay, would have been admissible solely to impeach Nathaniel's testimony, see Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 2801, was ambiguous. The they who could find the truck may have been law-enforcement officers or relatives of the victims, as well as the victims themselves. More importantly, there would be no reason to assume that Nathaniel was telling the truth. After all, he did not contradict Mr. DeLozier's statement to Tate that the three men had borrowed the truck. Nathaniel apparently felt no urge to expose the lie to Tate. The OCCA ruled that Perrine's decision not to call Michelle as a witness was not deficient performance. DeLozier, 991 P.2d at 32. Given the marginal probative value of Tate's testimony, we hold that the OCCA's decision was not an unreasonable application of, or contrary to, clearly established federal law. As for calling Bubba Oliver, Mr. DeLozier contends that Bubba would have (1) contradicted Nathaniel's testimony that Mr. DeLozier shot Morgan and Bullard on the first trip to the Morgan camp, and (2) corroborated his and Wooten's testimony that gunshots were fired, and the fires started, by someone other than Mr. DeLozier after he had returned (without the Madisons) to the Tate bus. There is support in the record that Bubba could have provided evidence on the first subject: In an interview with the OSBI, Bubba gave the following account: A short time after they got the [Morgan] pickup unloaded, [Damon] TATE, MICHELLE and SHAWN SMITH left in TATE's pickup. [Bubba] then asked NATHANIEL MADISON if they had killed the men at the camp. NATHANIEL replied to [Bubba] that they didn't kill them, they changed their minds when they got there and had just stolen some of the stuff from the camp. R. Vol. 4 at 418. He apparently testified similarly at the preliminary hearing: I asked [Nathaniel] earlier in the bus, you know, did they kill them and he said no that they ... had their stuff loaded up going to leave the next day and he supposedly figured that's what it was all loaded up for and that's what I figured they just got in it and took off, they ... was pretty wasted earlier that day so I figured that was pretty believable you know for them to be asleep. Aplt. Br. at 21-22 (The record does not contain a transcript of the preliminary hearing, but the State does not challenge this quotation in Mr. DeLozier's brief.). If Bubba had so testified at trial, the testimony would have been admissible to impeach Nathaniel. On the second subject, Mr. DeLozier can point to Wooten's testimony  that she, Bubba, and Mr. DeLozier were together when they saw the fire at the Morgan campsite and heard gun shots and an explosion  and assume that Bubba would have testified similarly. Mr. DeLozier asserts that Bubba would actually have been a superior witness to Wooten, contending that Bubba was much more familiar with the woods than the young Ms. Wooten[,] so he would have been able to provide details as to time, distance, and the sound of gun shots. Id. at 25. He does not, however, cite to anything in the record on appeal showing Bubba's version of these events. In any event, even if Perrine had believed that Bubba would testify about the fires and gunshots as described in Mr. DeLozier's brief, it would have been reasonable strategy not to call him as a witness. Bubba had made very incriminating statements during his interview with the OSBI. Contrary to Mr. DeLozier's trial testimony that he had not seriously discussed killing the men at the Morgan camp, Bubba told the OSBI that everyone had discussed killing Morgan and Bullard. Indeed, according to Bubba, Mr. DeLozier said: `We could sneak through the woods and they could not hear us because of the generator running. We could open the door and blow their heads off.' R. Vol. 4 at 417. After Bubba had tried for two hours to convince Bo, Nathaniel, and Mr. DeLozier that there was no need to kill Morgan and Bullard, someone said, `Let's go smoke them, come on.' Id. Bubba responded, `I'm not going. I ain't got the balls to kill anybody,' and stayed at the Tate bus with Wooten. Id. When Nathaniel, Bo, and Mr. DeLozier had returned from the Morgan camp, Bubba expected them to return with news of their having killed somebody and asked both Mr. DeLozier and Nathaniel if they had done so. Rather than deny killing them, Mr. DeLozier admonished Bubba to keep quiet in front of Michelle. A reasonable attorney could decide that the risk of Bubba's testimony conforming to what was in the OSBI report (or his being impeached by an OSBI witness if his testimony was to the contrary) greatly outweighed any advantage from Bubba's duplicating Wooten's account (which appears credible) and stating that Nathaniel had denied that they had killed anyone when the three men returned to the Tate bus with their loot. The OCCA ruled that Perrine's failure to call Bubba was not so egregious that it indicates deficient performance, falling outside the wide range of reasonable professional assistance. DeLozier, 991 P.2d at 32. This ruling was not an unreasonable application of, or contrary to, clearly established federal law.