Opinion ID: 3052176
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: State Appeals and Federal Habeas Review

Text: The California Supreme Court affirmed Belmontes’s conviction and sentence in 1988, People v. Belmontes, 755 P.2d 310 (Cal. 1988), and the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in 1989. Belmontes v. California, 488 U.S. 1034 (1989). Belmontes then filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, which the court held in abeyance while Belmontes exhausted additional claims before the California Supreme Court. In 1993, after the California Supreme Court summarily dismissed Belmontes’s petition, denying him an evidentiary hearing on any of his claims, proceedings on the federal writ resumed before a magistrate judge. In 1996, the magistrate judge denied Belmontes’s request for an evidentiary hearing on various claims, but granted his motion to expand the record to include depositions, declarations, and other documents submitted by the parties. The magistrate judge and the district judge thereafter considered all of this material when making their rulings. The deposition testimony, declarations, and other evidence submitted by the parties revealed critical omissions in Schick’s mitigation investigation and in his preparation for the penalty phase. These submissions also demonstrated that there was a substantial amount of additional mitigating evidence that could and should have been investigated, developed, and presented at the penalty phase of Belmontes’s trial. Finally, the evidence and the record also revealed that counsel failed to properly prepare the witnesses for the penalty phase hearing and failed to explain to the jury the relevance of the meager evidence he did present. At the habeas proceeding, Belmontes presented the testimony of two experts on ineffective assistance of counsel who opined that Schick had not prepared for the penalty phase in 6762 BELMONTES v. AYERS a reasonably competent manner. The first expert, James Larsen, is the former deputy public defender who represented Belmontes’s codefendant, Domingo Vasquez, for whom he negotiated a plea to second degree murder. At the time of Belmontes’s trial in 1982, Larsen was one of the most experienced criminal defense attorneys in San Joaquin County, the county in which Belmontes was tried. Belmontes’s second expert, Ephraim Margolin, is the former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, was the founding president of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, and was a lecturer at Boalt Hall School of Law, Santa Clara Law School, and Hastings Law School for many years. At the time of his deposition testimony, Margolin had tried numerous murder cases and had represented scores of criminal defendants on appeal in jurisdictions across the country. He had also served as an expert with respect to the competency of trial counsel in numerous capital habeas proceedings. In his deposition, Larsen testified that a reasonably competent trial attorney representing a capital defendant in San Joaquin County in 1982 would have known that he had a duty to conduct a thorough investigation of all potentially mitigating factors, including the defendant’s background and mental state. When asked about the basis of that opinion, Larsen stated that his opinion was based upon the California and U.S. Supreme Court cases establishing the standards for competent representation in capital cases, as well as the American Bar Association standards regarding the duty of defense counsel, that were in existence prior to 1982. Margolin likewise testified that any reasonably competent attorney representing a capital defendant in California in 1982 would have known that investigating both the positive and negative aspects of a defendant’s mental state was essential. Such a lawyer would likewise have known that he had a duty to obtain information about the defendant’s childhood, personality, history of medical and mental health problems, and to gather all school and medical records. When put on notice BELMONTES v. AYERS 6763 that the defendant might be a drug user, such a lawyer would also have known that he had a duty to investigate the extent of the defendant’s drug use and its effect on his behavior. With respect to whether Schick’s mitigation investigation had been performed in a constitutionally adequate manner, Larsen testified that, in his view, Schick had “not act[ed] as a reasonably competent attorney” in conducting his penaltyphase investigation because he failed to investigate potential mitigating evidence related to various mitigating factors set forth in California’s death penalty statute, most notably evidence related to Belmontes’s mental state. Specifically, Larsen noted that there was information in the pre-trial report prepared by psychiatrist Dr. Cavanaugh, the reports prepared by Schick’s investigators, and Belmontes’s CYA file that would have led a reasonably competent attorney to conduct further investigation with respect to Belmontes’s background and mental state. Margolin likewise testified that, in his view, Schick did not act in a competent manner in preparing for the penalty phase of Belmontes’s trial. Specifically, he testified that Schick performed incompetently in fail[ing] to investigate leads which should have been obvious to him. Where he did attempt to present evidence, he pre- sented it in a way which did not link it to anything that would have been meaningful to the jury. He did not have a coherent notion of why he [was] present- ing what he [presented]. . . . [H]e did not prepare the witnesses for the testi- mony which he was eliciting, and I think that he . . . infected the whole [penalty] proceeding . . . with incompetency. 6764 BELMONTES v. AYERS 1. Schick’s Mitigation Investigation and Penalty-Phase Preparations The evidence at the habeas hearing revealed that a month or two before trial, Schick had an investigator, Jim Berwanger, contact several potential penalty-phase witnesses, including a few of Belmontes’s friends and family members, the Haros, and a few CYA staff members. After Berwanger met with these potential witnesses, he prepared three brief reports. Schick obtained Belmontes’s CYA file and met once with Assistant Chaplain Don Miller. Berwanger’s reports and Belmontes’s CYA file constitute the sum total of the reports that were prepared and the documents that were gathered in preparation for the penalty phase. Based on this investigation, Schick decided that his goals with respect to the penalty phase would be to (1) humanize Belmontes, (2) show that he would not be a difficult prisoner and could form good relationships with people, (3) provide the jury with information about his background, and (4) raise lingering doubt about whether Belmontes was the actual killer. Although Schick hired a psychiatrist, Dr. Cavanaugh, to evaluate Belmontes’s mental state for purposes of the guilt phase, he did not ask Cavanaugh to comment on any issues relevant to the penalty phase, and did not consult any psychologists or psychiatrists with respect to any possible mental defect, impairment, or condition that might be relevant to sentencing as opposed to guilt. Specifically, he did not ask any expert to evaluate the effect on Belmontes of the mitigating evidence regarding his troubled childhood or his mental condition. Schick repeatedly testified that he had no strategic reason for failing to consult with Dr. Cavanaugh or any other psychiatrist or psychologist about the import of such mitigating evidence or its relationship to Belmontes’s subsequent behavior. Indeed, even when the State’s attorney asked Schick questions designed to encourage him to state that he had a tactical reason for this failure, Schick testified that his decision not to conduct such an investigation was not motivated by BELMONTES v. AYERS 6765 fear of opening the door to damaging rebuttal evidence or any other rationale. Schick gave the following account of his mental processes regarding his failure to conduct an investigation or to present such evidence: I can’t remember going through a conscious pro- cess and saying, “Should I develop [mental state mitigation evidence]?” And, “Therefore for the suchand-such tactical reason I’m not going to do it.” It just wasn’t something I was focused on. . . . I can’t recall going through the process of saying to myself, “Should I put on a psychiatrist at this stage?” And I can’t tell you as I sit here today that there was some tactical decision. . . . I can’t recall going through any processes like that. We had interviewed and focused our penalty investigation on personal background witnesses that were called and made reference to, and that’s where I put my emphasis in the penalty presentation. What I’m trying to say is that I don’t think I cog- nitively went through and rejected it for any reason. In addition to failing to consult a psychologist or psychiatrist, Schick failed to pursue a host of leads, many of which would have led to the discovery of additional mitigating evidence and would have humanized Belmontes. Although Schick was aware, through Belmontes’s CYA file and other sources, that Belmontes had suffered from rheumatic fever and other illnesses as an adolescent, and knew that these illnesses had been markedly debilitating and that Belmontes had been repeatedly hospitalized as a result, Schick never requested or obtained Belmontes’s medical or hospital records. 6766 BELMONTES v. AYERS Schick also knew that Belmontes had a history of serious drug abuse, yet he did not investigate whether mitigating evidence related to Belmontes’s drug use should be presented at the penalty phase. Belmontes’s CYA file also put Schick on notice that Belmontes had dropped out of school in the tenth grade and suggested that he had experienced some difficulties there, yet Schick did not obtain any of Belmontes’s school records, nor did he contact any of Belmontes’s former teachers. Yet another document in Belmontes’s CYA file noted the fact that Belmontes had been involved “in the Cadets, scouts and little league and also involved in school organized groups and athletics.” Schick did not investigate Belmontes’s involvement in any of these activities, nor did he obtain or present to the jury any information about any other aspects of Belmontes’s childhood that might further humanize him or show that he possessed a number of positive attributes. Belmontes’s CYA file also made clear that Dr. Alayne Yates had performed psychological testing on Belmontes during his time in the Youth Authority, the results of which were easily obtainable. Another document in the file suggested that Belmontes might be suffering from depression. Despite his awareness of the psychological testing and the possibility that Belmontes suffered from depression, Schick did not obtain a copy of the results of the CYA psychological testing, did not discuss Dr. Yates’s evaluation of Belmontes with her or with any other psychiatrist or psychologist, and, as noted above, did not seek an independent evaluation of Belmontes’s mental health or personality traits for purposes of the penalty phase. As Schick testified, he simply did not think about exploring these matters in connection with his penalty phase defense. With respect to Belmontes’s temperament and adjustment to the CYA, the file contained numerous references to the fact that Belmontes possessed positive qualities. In one report, for BELMONTES v. AYERS 6767 example, a CYA staff member described Belmontes as someone who “relates to all ethnic groups,” is non-delinquent, and is passive rather than aggressive, exploitive, or assaultive. In another, a CYA staff person noted that, even after being pressured by other Chicano wards to retaliate against a ward who had stolen his personal belongings, Belmontes refused to engage in violence and instead asked CYA officials to transfer him to another facility where he would not face such pressures. Notwithstanding these leads, Schick did not seek to obtain any additional information about the incidents of positive conduct described above, nor did he discuss with any psychologist or psychiatrist or other expert Belmontes’s prospects for positive institutional adjustment. In addition to failing to investigate numerous leads, Schick did little to prepare the witnesses he called to testify. With respect to what had been done in order to prepare Belmontes to make a statement to the jury at the close of the penalty phase, for example, Schick testified that he and Belmontes “probably talked about it a little bit. . . . I’m sure he talked a little bit about what he was going to say, and I may have offered advice to him.” If he did offer Belmontes advice, it was not very good advice. In Belmontes’s penalty phase testimony, he second-guessed the jury’s verdict, he showed little remorse, he could not articulate any concrete way in which he would contribute to society if he were sentenced to life in prison, and he did not explain any of the mitigating evidence or offer the jury any reasons why they should spare his life. All in all, the testimony makes plain that Schick failed to adequately and effectively prepare Belmontes for this crucial portion of the trial. 2. Additional Mitigating Evidence That Should Have Been Presented to the Jury Belmontes’s habeas counsel’s investigation revealed that there was a large quantity of mitigating evidence related to Belmontes’s background and mental state that was never 6768 BELMONTES v. AYERS uncovered or presented to the jury on account of Schick’s failure to investigate, to follow up on various leads, and to have a psychologist or psychiatrist evaluate Belmontes for purposes of the penalty phase. With respect to Belmontes’s childhood and adolescence, habeas counsel’s investigation revealed that, in addition to growing up in a poverty-stricken family in which his father, a profound alcoholic, beat his mother severely and regularly, Belmontes dealt with a host of other traumas. When he was five years old, for example, his 10-month-old sister died of a brain tumor. After her death, Belmontes exhibited symptoms of depression and repeatedly visited the cemetery where she had been buried. In addition to dealing with his father’s alcoholism, Belmontes also suffered as a result of his maternal grandmother’s alcoholism and prescription drug addiction, which, in combination with her manipulative and controlling behavior, caused constant strife within both his immediate and extended family. In spite of the adversity he experienced, Belmontes was a kind, responsible and likeable child with a very pleasant demeanor. He was a loving and protective older brother to his two younger siblings, and was kind and respectful toward his maternal grandparents notwithstanding the fact that they disapproved of him on account of his mixed racial background. He participated in Little League, the Navy Cadets, team sports, and had a paper route. In his early years, he kept up in school, made friends easily, and got along with his teachers. At age 14, however, Belmontes was beset by rheumatic fever, a condition for which he was repeatedly hospitalized. The disease was significantly debilitating and required him to stop attending school and to terminate his involvement in sports and other social activities. As a result, he was isolated from his peers and unable to pursue the means through which he had formerly escaped his traumatic home life. He was also BELMONTES v. AYERS 6769 repeatedly told that, as a result of this condition, he would likely not live past 21 years of age.4 He became depressed, withdrawn, and lost some of the positive personality traits that seemed to be developing during his early years. Shortly thereafter, his mother and stepfather divorced. As a result, the family was forced to move into a cheap motel in which Belmontes and four family members lived in “a really small, one-room shack.” During this time, their lives were disrupted and unstable. His mother’s behavior became erratic. She engaged in casual sexual relations with a number of men, and frequently brought the men back to the motel room in which the family lived. By the time he was a teen, Belmontes had started using drugs on a regular basis. Around the time of McConnell’s murder, he was regularly using marijuana, heroin, LSD, and PCP.5 4 The dissent argues that Belmontes’s illness was not severe. Dis. Op. at 6829. Regardless of whether or not the disease was actually lifethreatening, Belmontes’s doctors and family behaved as though it were. The social isolation and physical limitations that they imposed on Belmontes, whether or not they were necessary, caused him to suffer significant negative psychological effects. Additionally, Belmontes’s belief that he would die young had a profound psychological effect on him, regardless of whether it was medically accurate. The dissent quotes Dr. Yates’s testimony that although Belmontes’s mother expected Belmontes to die young, Belmontes never believed that he would. Dis. Op. at 6836. However, according to Barbara Murillo, Belmontes’s girlfriend and the mother of his children, Belmontes did believe that he would die by the age of 21, causing him to take risks that he would not have taken if he believed that he had a future. Murillo even testified that when she yelled at Belmontes, he would reply, “You won’t have to put up with me because I won’t be around long.” 5 The dissent’s claim that Barbara Murillo testified that Belmontes did not do drugs because it was bad for his illness is puzzling. Dis. Op at 6836 n.20. According to her declaration, when they first started dating, Belmontes did not do drugs or alcohol when they went out. Murillo also stated that Belmontes’s mother did not approve of his drug use because she believed it was bad for his illness. Moreover, Murillo’s declaration contains multiple references to Belmontes’s drug use, including his use of heroin. 6770 BELMONTES v. AYERS In addition to discovering the evidence described above, habeas counsel’s investigation made plain that Schick should have utilized the testimony of a psychologist or psychiatrist to explain to the jury effectively the impact on his conduct and on his mental health of the multitude of traumas Belmontes experienced as a child and adolescent. Specifically, such an expert could have explained to the jury the psychological impact on Belmontes of his father’s severe alcoholism; of witnessing severe domestic violence between his parents; of his family’s poverty; of observing his mother’s profligate sexual activity; of being severely ill during a critical stage in his social development and his removal from the normal experiences of teenage life, including social interaction with his peers; of his symptoms of depression and the repeated predictions that he would die before he reached adulthood; and finally, of his history of substance abuse. Such an expert also could have explained the extent to which these problems caused or contributed to Belmontes’s general behavior and to his involvement in McConnell’s murder. The deposition testimony of Dr. James Missett, which Belmontes submitted to the district court, reveals the extent to which such an expert could have explained the significance of the difficulties that Belmontes experienced, in addition to explaining the significance of the positive aspects of his early development. Specifically, Dr. Missett testified that, prior to the onset of rheumatic fever, Belmontes was functioning in an exemplary manner vis-a-vis children who faced similar privation and trauma during their formative years, a fact that suggests Belmontes possesses positive and conforming core personality traits. However, the combination of the traumas he experienced early on in life and his struggle with rheumatic fever caused him to “los[e] ground in comparison with his peers [both] academically [and] socially” and “intensified [his] sense of himself as defective, something from which he never recovered.” According to Dr. Missett, this in turn led to Belmontes’s substance abuse problems and his eventual involvement in criminal activity. With respect to the evidence BELMONTES v. AYERS 6771 regarding Belmontes’s background that was offered at the penalty phase, Dr. Missett stated that the critical thing to me . . . was that there was no reference whatsoever in the penalty phase testimony to the linkage that exists between these various factors[,] . . . to the way in which the behavior at one point in time could be related to the experience that Mr. Belmontes had earlier in life, or to the way that the various biological, social, and environmental, educational, and other factors interrelated in Mr. Belmontes’[s] life and could be focused as of the time either of the killing of Ms. McConnell or at the time of his trial and sentencing. In other words, conspicuously missing from the penalty phase of Belmontes’s trial was the testimony of an expert who could make connections between the various themes in the mitigation case and explain to the jury how they could have contributed to Belmontes’s involvement in criminal activity. With respect to Belmontes’s experience as a ward at the CYA, habeas counsel uncovered and presented to the district court considerable additional evidence that could have been presented to the jury. As noted above, there were many references to Belmontes’s positive conduct in the CYA contained in his file, including his refusal to engage in gang violence. Other documents in the file stated that Belmontes relates well to others, is passive, follows directions, and likes working with young people. Dr. Yates could have testified that she diagnosed him as a conformist, not a manipulator. Although there were also negative aspects to Belmontes’s time in the CYA that were noted in the file—namely that Belmontes struggled to adjust when transferred from one institution to another, and that he had, at one point, been involved in the formation of a Chicano clique—the file revealed that his conduct was, on the whole, quite positive. 6772 BELMONTES v. AYERS On an entirely separate point, Schick could have obtained evidence from Dr. Yates regarding Belmontes’s prospects for positive institutional adjustment. Similarly, he could have obtained evidence in that regard from an expert witness such as Gerald Enomoto, the former Director of the California Department of Corrections and current United States Marshal for the Eastern District of California. Enomoto could have testified that Belmontes adjusted well to the structured environment of the CYA and was likely to be able to conform his conduct to societal norms if confined in a state prison. Although the State focused on several negative reports in Belmontes’s CYA file, Enomoto told the district court that the reports in the file showed a clear trend of improvement, with trouble at the beginning but very positive conduct once Belmontes had the opportunity to acclimate to the facility. Enomoto found the fact that Belmontes had refused to engage in gang violence to be extremely significant and very positive.6