Opinion ID: 2982626
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Shamoni Peterson’s Death.

Text: Big Sandy is a federal penitentiary located in Inez, Martin County, Kentucky, at which Gravley, Darryl Milburne, and Darone Crawford were inmates and shared Cell D-240. Cell D- 240 is on the D-range of Big Sandy’s special housing unit (SHU), which is set apart by a series of doors that must be opened from the facility’s control center. The indictment with which Gravley later was charged alleged that a Big Sandy correctional officer (CO) came to the SHU on November 12, 2006 to ask Gravley and Milburne if another inmate, Shamoni Peterson, could be placed in their cell. Gravley consented, and, according to Crawford, then said to Milburne, “We’re going to eat his food.” Crawford understood this statement to mean that Gravley and Milburne were “going to do something to [Peterson],” “[p]hysically[.]” Crawford later testified that, soon after Peterson was placed in the cell, Gravley and Milburne assaulted Peterson and killed him: Crawford: [Peterson] was on the toilet reading a magazine and Milburne got down and put him in a headlock. ... Lawyer: Okay. Where was Mr. Gravley at that time? Crawford: On the bunk. Lawyer: Okay. What had Mr. Gravley been doing before the attack started? Crawford: He was just laying there. Lawyer: Okay. What was he doing prior to that? Crawford: Just laying there on the bunk. Lawyer: All right. Were there any phone calls made? Crawford: Yea. Like he—he made a phone call. He got up and made a phone call, and then he went back to the bunk. 1 This case consists of a lengthy factual and procedural history that culminated below in a nineday trial, for which Gravley initially had counsel appointed to him but in which he ultimately chose to proceed pro se. The factual summary that follows is limited and intended only to provide context for Gravley’s claims. Additional facts material to the disposition of the claims are provided as necessary in the analysis of each claim. -2- Case No. 11-6123 United States v. Gravley Lawyer: Okay. And then what happened after that? Crawford: Milburne got down off the bunk and put the dude in a headlock. Lawyer: Put who in a headlock? Crawford: Peterson. Lawyer: Okay. Had Mr. Peterson attacked Mr. Milburne? Crawford: No. Lawyer: Okay. Well, describe for the jury the attack on Mr. Peterson. Crawford: Milburne grabbed him in a headlock and Gravley just came over and started hitting him. Lawyer: Okay. Go ahead. What happened during the attack? Crawford: He hit him and picked him up and was throwing him around and hitting him, slamming him around. And after—after he—after he passed, he cleaned the body up and cleaned all the—all the evidence and stuff up. Lawyer: Okay. Well, before we get to that, let’s talk a little bit more about the attack. What did you see Mr. Milburne do? Crawford: He just put him in a headlock and started hitting him, like from the side. Lawyer: Okay. Where did you see him hit Mr. Peterson at? Crawford: In the head. Lawyer: Okay. Where was Mr. Peterson’s body during the assault? Was he standing up? Was he laying down? Crawford: Mr. Peterson was like this (indicating), he was bent over, and then Gravley came and started hitting him. Lawyer: Where did Mr. Gravley hit Mr. Peterson at? Crawford: Like he was hitting him in the face too. Lawyer: Okay. How long did the assault last? Crawford: Probably, like 20 minutes. Lawyer: Okay. Where were you during the assault? Crawford: By the—by the shower? Lawyer: Okay. Did you participate in the assault? Crawford: No. Lawyer: All right. Did it become apparent at some point that Mr. Peterson was in a lot of trouble? I mean physically that he was hurt. Crawford: He was screaming, like screaming for his life, like, like “Please stop.” Lawyer: What did he say exactly? Crawford: He was like his heart was hurting or something. Lawyer: . . . . Did he attempt to fight back? Crawford: No. He couldn’t. Lawyer: Why couldn’t he? -3- Case No. 11-6123 United States v. Gravley Crawford: Because it was—it was two people on him. Lawyer: Okay. What words did he say? Did he say words to Mr. Gravley or to Mr. Milburne specifically? Crawford: He said it to Gravley. Lawyer: What did he say to Mr. Gravley? Crawford: He said, “Please stop. Deuce, please stop. You’re hitting me too hard,” and all that. Lawyer: You said “Deuce.” Now, who is Deuce? ... Crawford: Dwaune Gravley.[2] ... Lawyer: All right. While Mr. Peterson is making these statements to Gravley, does Gravley do anything in response? Crawford: No. Lawyer: Did there come a point in time that the beating stopped? Crawford: Yeah. Lawyer: What caused it to stop? Crawford: He was—the dude, it looked like he was gone. Lawyer: It what? Crawford: He was dead. According to Crawford, Milburne then put a T-shirt in Peterson’s mouth and cupped a hand over his face even though “it was like he was already dead already.” All the while, said Crawford, Gravley was “standing there.” Crawford made no attempt to assist Peterson “[b]ecause [he] kn[e]w they probably would have did [sic] something to [him].” Afterward, however, he helped Gravley and Milburne remove the evidence of their actions: Lawyer: Okay. After the assault, what did Mr. Gravley or Mr. Milburne do? Crawford: They cleaned it up. Lawyer: Okay. You are going to have to tell us how that happened. What did Mr. Gravley do to clean up after the assault? Crawford: They just—they took some rags and stuff and cleaned him up, because they knew he was gone. Lawyer: When you say “they knew he was gone,” knew what? What was that? Crawford: They knew he was dead. 2 See infra note 6 and accompanying text. -4- Case No. 11-6123 United States v. Gravley Lawyer: Okay. What did Mr. Gravley do to clean him up with a cloth? Crawford: They just took some soap and rags and cleaned him up. Lawyer: What part of his body did he clean? Crawford: The whole body. Lawyer: Okay. Did they take his clothes off or— Crawford: Yeah. Lawyer: --change his clothes or? Crawford: Yeah. Lawyer: Okay. You have to tell us about that. What did you see them do? Crawford: He moved him and picked him up and put clothes on him after they cleaned him up. Lawyer: Okay. What did you see Mr. Milburne do? Crawford: He was doing the same thing, cleaning him up. Lawyer: Okay. Did you participate in cleaning him up? Crawford: Yeah. Lawyer: Why did you do that? Crawford: Because I just did it. I just helped them because I—I just did it. ... Lawyer: Did you have any concerns of what would happen to you if you didn’t help? Crawford: No. . . . I just did it. I seen them doing it. And I wanted—I wanted to try—to try to get out of the cell, but I couldn’t. Lawyer: What do you mean, you wanted to try to get out of the cell? Why did you want to get out of the cell? Crawford: Because I wasn’t taking the charge. Lawyer: You were afraid you were going to get charged with assaulting Mr. Peterson? Crawford: Yeah. Crawford also testified that Milburne asked him to cut Milburne’s hands with a razor blade. Crawford did not know where the razor blade had come from or why Milburne had made the request, but he complied: Lawyer: Where did that razorblade come from? Crawford: I don’t know . . . . Milburne asked me to cut, just to cut his hand, like. I didn’t know what for, because I didn’t see nothing done with the razor. Lawyer: Okay. And did you cut Mr. Milburne’s hands with the razorblade as he asked? -5- Case No. 11-6123 United States v. Gravley Crawford: He asked me and I just—it was just a little scrape. I did it. And he put it in his sock. Lawyer: Mr. Milburne put it in whose sock? Crawford: In Peterson’s sock. ... Lawyer: Was there any time that the four of you were in the cell that Mr. Peterson attacked either you, Mr. Milburne, or Mr. Gravley with a razorblade? Crawford: No. The following morning around 5 o’clock, Peterson was found dead in Cell D-240. A medical examiner, Cristin Rolf, observed that Peterson had sustained several “injuries that [we]re inflicted . . . through blunt force injury, through pressure of a blunt object placed on the body. There were also injuries to the mouth . . . the mouth shows the most injury.” Dr. Rolf concluded that the cause of Peterson’s death was “asphyxia, due to the inability to be able to move his chest wall or his diaphragm to breathe. Also, the mouth area was . . . forcibly covered.” According to Crawford, after prison officials discovered Peterson’s body, they immediately separated Crawford, Gravley, and Milburne and questioned Crawford: Lawyer: Okay. So when the COs came around the next morning, tell us what happened. Crawford: They just—they came—they came to the cell. And after that, they—when they opened the cell up, they just found his body and took us downstairs and put us in the outside rec cages. Lawyer: Put you where? Crawford: The outside rec cages. Lawyer: The rec cages? Crawford: Yeah. Lawyer: Okay. Did they separate the three of you? Crawford: Yeah. Lawyer: Okay. Were you questioned by correctional officers or other agents about what happened to Mr. Peterson? Crawford: Yeah. Lawyer: Okay. Did you initially tell them what happened? Crawford: Yeah. Because the way it was, it was like they was trying to put it on me. -6- Case No. 11-6123 United States v. Gravley Lawyer: Who was trying to put it on you? Crawford: Them, Gravley[.]