1995-05-30

Source

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION TO DENY PETITION FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

CLINTON E. AVERITTE, Magistrate Judge.

Petitioner CLIFFORD SCOTT MEDLEY has filed a Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus by a Person in State Custody challenging his murder conviction out of the 251st District Court of Potter County, Texas, and the resultant forty-year sentence. For the reasons set forth, the United States Magistrate Judge is of the opinion petitioner's application for federal habeas corpus relief should be DENIED.

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

• In June of 1995, police discovered the body of Frankie Steinbrecker at the bottom of a ravine off of the Fritch Highway.
• After an investigation, police suspected petitioner Medley had murdered Ms. Steinbrecker and had dumped her body in the ravine in an attempt to hide the crime.
• Petitioner was indicted for murder.
  • The case went to trial with petitioner representing himself during the guilt/innocence phase of trial but being represented by counsel during the punishment phase of trial.
• Medley was found guilty, and the jury sentenced him to imprisonment for life.
• Petitioner appealed the conviction, contending his Sixth Amendment right to representation by counsel had been violated.
  • The appellate court held the trial court erred in denying Medley's pretrial request to withdraw his waiver of counsel and that such constituted a Sixth Amendment violation.
• The conviction was reversed and the case was remanded for a new trial. Id.

At the second trial

• petitioner was represented by counsel throughout.
• Testimony at the second trial established Medley and Ms. Steinbrecker were romantically involved and had been living together at the Coachlight Inn in Amarillo, Texas.
• A friend of Ms. Steinbrecker's testified to the on-again, off-again relationship between Ms. Steinbrecker and Medley.
• Ms. Steinbrecker's son, Lathan Douglas, testified that on the day of his mother's murder (May 30, 1995) he and Ms. Steinbrecker planned on going to the hotel room Ms. Steinbrecker shared with Medley, gathering her belongings from the room, and moving Ms. Steinbrecker in with her mother.
• Mr. Douglas indicated he saw Mr. Medley that day and spoke with him about Ms. Steinbrecker moving out.
  • According to Mr. Douglas, Mr. Medley did not want Ms. Steinbrecker to leave.
• At some point, Mr. Douglas left his mother and Mr. Medley at a friend's house.
• Later that same day, Ms. Steinbrecker and Mr. Medley arrived at the house of Evelyn Douglas, who was Mr. Douglas's grandmother and Ms. Steinbrecker's mother.
  • At that time, Mr. Douglas observed Ms. Steinbrecker was "real upset," and Mr. Medley "was just kind of really, just angry at her and stuff, yelling at her."
    • Mr. Medley left for approximately two hours and returned to the house "even angrier."
    • Mr. Medley left again and returned approximately five minutes later.
• At that point (at approximately 6:30 p.m.), Ms. Steinbrecker accompanied Mr. Medley to the hotel room to retrieve her belongings and was planning to return to Ms. Douglas's house.
  • Ms. Steinbrecker did not return, and that was the last time Mr. Douglas saw Ms. Steinbrecker alive.

Wendy Lambert, Mr. Medley's ex-wife, also testified.

• She stated that on the night of the murder, at around 9:00 p.m., Mr. Medley called her.
• Medley told Ms. Lambert he had gotten his truck stuck in the mud on a dirt road in the country and needed her assistance getting the truck unstuck
• Ms. Lambert eventually agreed to help and met Mr. Medley at his hotel room at the Coachlight Inn.
• Ms. Lambert stayed in her vehicle as Mr. Medley loaded into the back of the vehicle what Ms. Lambert thought were tools for freeing the truck.
• Ms. Lambert testified she drove, with Mr. Medley directing her, into the country where his truck was ostensibly stuck.
• Rather than directing her to his truck, however, Mr. Medley had Ms. Lambert drive to "the middle of nowhere," at which point Mr. Medley exited and went to the back of the vehicle.
• Ms. Lambert turned to ask him where the pickup was, but Mr. Medley had already removed something from the back of Ms. Lambert's vehicle and was walking away from the car.
  • Ms. Lambert observed Mr. Medley carrying a bundle wrapped in a blanket in a manner that reminded Ms. Lambert of a person "[c]arrying someone over the threshold."
• When Mr. Medley got back into the car, Ms. Lambert pressed him concerning what he had just dumped.
  • Mr. Medley eventually told Ms. Lambert "it had to do with drugs and to leave it alone."
  • Ms. Lambert took Mr. Medley back to his hotel room and did not pursue the matter at that point.

The next morning, Mr. Medley had an acquaintance take him to his truck, which was stuck in the mud on a country road.

• The only evidence regarding the details of how Mr. Medley spent the majority of that day came through Mr. Medley's testimony, which will be discussed

The next person to testify who saw Mr. Medley that day (the day after the murder) was Jackie Johnson.

• Mr. Johnson owned a house in the country.
• At approximately 9:00 p.m. that day, which was the day after Ms. Steinbrecker's murder, Mr. Johnson discovered Mr. Medley in a field outside Mr. Johnson's house "rolled up in a ball with a towel over his head," wearing a pair of Mr. Johnson's coveralls and trying to bury himself in the mud.
• Mr. Johnson escorted Mr. Medley back to the porch of the house and held Mr. Medley at gunpoint until the police arrived.
• Upon inspection of a detached garage on his property, Mr. Johnson discovered the wagon he kept in the garage had been moved outside.
  • Mr. Medley's pickup truck was in the garage.
• Tarps had been used to section off the garage into separate, room-like areas.
  • Both a side-entrance door and the front double doors to the garage had been secured from the inside so as to make entry from the outside difficult.
  • The only way in and out of the garage was via a hole that had been cut in the roof of the garage.

When the police came to the aid of Mr. Johnson, they arrested Mr. Medley for vandalism of Mr. Johnson's detached garage.

• On the way to jail, Medley kicked out one of the back windows of the patrol car, escaped, and fled.
  - The police officer gave chase and watched as Medley, who was not wearing any shoes, jumped down an embankment over ten-feet high, onto concrete, breaking both of his heels and puncturing a lung.
• Mr. Medley continued to flee until the officer caught him. It took several police officers to subdue Medley and take him into custody.
• The police then took Mr. Medley to the hospital.

Apparently Mr. Medley stayed in the hospital for several days as his injuries were treated. - Wendy Lambert discovered Mr. Medley had been hospitalized and went to the hospital to check on him.

• When she saw Ms. Steinbrecker was not at the hospital, Ms. Lambert asked Mr. Medley if she should contact Ms. Steinbrecker.
• Mr. Medley declined, stating the two had broken up.
• With the events of the night of May 30, 1995, and the early morning of May 31, 1995, on her mind, Ms. Lambert approached Mr. Medley's brother, Samuel Edwards.
• She discussed with him the events of that night and indicated Medley had dumped what he said was drug paraphernalia but what she believed to be a body.
• Mr. Edwards and Ms. Lambert decided to locate whatever it was Mr. Medley had dumped.

After some searching, the two eventually discovered the location where Medley had directed Ms. Lambert to on the night of May 30, 1995.

• Mr. Edwards got out of the vehicle and began searching.
• Approximately seventy-five to one hundred feet from the road, Mr. Edwards discovered a body.
• The two returned to town and notified the police.
• They took the police back to the body's location

The police determined the body was Frankie Steinbrecker.

• The medical examiner who performed the autopsy of Ms. Steinbrecker testified Ms. Steinbrecker's sternocleiodomastoid (a major neck muscle) and windpipe had hemorrhaged and her voice box was fractured, injuries consistent with strangulation.
• The medical examiner also testified that the means by which Ms. Steinbrecker was strangled, which consisted of a balled-up sock wrapped in a towel with a coat hanger overlaying the towel wrapped around Ms. Steinbrecker's neck, was a mechanism by which a greater amount of force could be applied to the front part of the neck (as opposed to strangulation with the hands alone), increasing the likelihood of death.

Petitioner Medley then testified and presented the following:

• He spoke with Ms. Steinbrecker on May 30, 1995.
• Ms. Steinbrecker indicated she did not have any place to live, so Mr. Medley took her to his hotel room, which they had previously shared.
• After dropping Ms. Steinbrecker off, Mr. Medley went to work. He testified he was still working when his ex-wife, Ms. Lambert, showed up at his job site later that day.
• According to Mr. Medley, Ms. Lambert informed him she had gone by Mr. Medley's hotel room and had discovered a body.
• In reaction to this, Mr. Medley decided to leave his job and go see a friend who lived in the country to seek advice.
• On the way to his friend's house, his truck got stuck in the mud, and Mr. Medley was out in the country with his truck until nighttime, when he was able to catch a ride into town.

Back in town, Mr. Medley contacted Ms. Lambert, eventually convincing her to meet him so the two of them could go to the police together.

• After discussing the matter, however, he said they abandoned that plan and decided they should dump Ms. Steinbrecker's body instead.
• At that point, Mr. Medley (for the first time since Ms. Lambert told him about the body) went to his hotel room and found Ms. Steinbrecker's body wrapped in a blanket.
• According to Mr. Medley, he and Ms. Lambert dumped the body in the country.
• Ms. Lambert took him back to the hotel room, where he spent the remainder of the night.

The next morning, Mr. Medley obtained a ride back to his truck, which he said was still stuck in the country.

• After freeing the truck and washing it, Mr. Medley went back to the hotel room.
• At that point, a man who Mr. Medley did not know "just showed up" at the motel room door.
• The stranger asked what had happened to the dope, to which Mr. Medley responded he was unaware of any dope.
• The man insisted Ms. Steinbrecker had taken dope, apparently belonging to him (the stranger).
• The man asked to look around the room and in Mr. Medley's truck, which Mr. Medley allowed. .
• At that point, the man gave Mr. Medley some kind of unknown drug, which Mr. Medley ingested at the stranger's insistence.
• The man then left.

Having ingested the unknown drug, "something came over" Mr. Medley.

• He testified he got in his truck and began driving around town, eventually ending up at Mr. Johnson's property in the country.
• Mr. Medley indicated Mr. Johnson's testimony was correct regarding the alterations he had made to Mr. Johnson's detached garage and how Mr. Johnson discovered him.
• He additionally indicated the police officer's testimony regarding his escape from the officer's patrol car and his jump off of a concrete embankment was accurate.
• Medley's testimony concluded at this point.

The State called Ms. Lambert on rebuttal, who testified she did not see Mr. Medley until the late evening hours of May 30, 1995.

• Ms. Lambert denied finding Ms. Steinbrecker's body earlier that day and denied any participation in any plan to conceal Ms. Steinbrecker's murder.
• Lathan Douglas also testified on rebuttal that he saw Ms. Steinbrecker leaving with Mr. Medley at approximately 6:30 in the evening on May 30, 1995.

The jury found Mr. Medley guilty of murder and sentenced him to forty years in prison.