Cano v. Williams ( 2022 )

Appellate Case: 21-1214 Document: 010110671730 Date Filed: 04/15/2022 Page: 1
FILED
United States Court of Appeals
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT April 15, 2022
_________________________________
Christopher M. Wolpert
Clerk of Court
RAYMOND CANO,
Petitioner - Appellant,
v. No. 21-1214
(D.C. No. 1:20-CV-00257-DDD)
DEAN WILLIAMS, Executive Director, (D. Colo.)
C.D.O.C.; THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
OF THE STATE OF COLORADO,
Respondents - Appellees.
_________________________________
ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY*
_________________________________
Before HARTZ, KELLY, and McHUGH, Circuit Judges.
_________________________________
Raymond Cano, a Colorado state inmate proceeding pro se, seeks a certificate of
appealability to challenge the district court’s denial of his application for relief under 28
U.S.C. § 2254. See 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1)(A) (requiring COA to appeal final order in a
habeas proceeding in which the detention complained of arises out of process issued by a
state court). We deny Mr. Cano’s application for a COA and dismiss this matter.
*
This order is not binding precedent except under the doctrines of law of the case,
res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value
consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.
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I. BACKGROUND
Mr. Cano was convicted by a jury on one count of first-degree murder for a gang-
related stabbing and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 2000
Mr. Cano’s conviction was affirmed on direct appeal by the Colorado Court of Appeals.
The Colorado Supreme Court denied his petition for writ of certiorari. Mr. Cano sought
state postconviction relief based on several claims of ineffective assistance of counsel,
including that trial counsel was operating under a conflict of interest arising from
simultaneous representation of a potential witness. His case reached the Colorado
Supreme Court, which remanded for further consideration of Mr. Cano’s conflict-of
interest claim. On remand the trial court denied relief, the Colorado Court of Appeals
affirmed in 2018, and the Colorado Supreme Court denied review. Mr. Cano then filed
the present application under § 2254 with the United States District Court for the District
of Colorado, which denied relief and declined to issue a COA.
In his application to this court for a COA, Mr. Cano seeks review of four claims:
(1) violations of his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation; (2) ineffective assistance of
counsel, including his conflict-of-interest claim; (3) a violation of his right to a fair trial
by the trial court’s refusal to grant a continuance shortly before trial; and (4) a violation
of his right to a fair trial by prosecutorial misconduct in closing argument.
II. ANALYSIS
A COA will issue “only if the applicant has made a substantial showing of the
denial of a constitutional right.” 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2). This standard requires “a
demonstration that . . . includes showing that reasonable jurists could debate whether (or,
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for that matter, agree that) the petition should have been resolved in a different manner or
that the issues presented were adequate to deserve encouragement to proceed further.”
Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000) (internal quotation marks omitted). In other
words, the applicant must show that the district court’s resolution of the constitutional
claim was either “debatable or wrong.” Id.The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) provides
that when a claim has been adjudicated on the merits in a state court, a federal court can
grant habeas relief only if the applicant establishes that the state-court decision was
“contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law,
as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States,” or “was based on an
unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State
court proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1), (2). As we have explained:
Under the “contrary to” clause, we grant relief only if the state court arrives
at a conclusion opposite to that reached by the Supreme Court on a question
of law or if the state court decides a case differently than the Court has on a
set of materially indistinguishable facts.
Gipson v. Jordan, 376 F.3d 1193, 1196 (10th Cir. 2004) (brackets and internal quotation
marks omitted). Relief is provided under the “unreasonable application” clause “only if
the state court identifies the correct governing legal principle from the Supreme Court’s
decisions but unreasonably applies that principle to the facts of the prisoner’s case.” Id.(brackets and internal quotation marks omitted). Thus, a federal court may not issue a
habeas writ simply because it concludes in its independent judgment that the relevant
state-court decision applied clearly established federal law erroneously or incorrectly. See
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id. Rather, “[i]n order for a state court’s decision to be an unreasonable application of this
Court’s case law, the ruling must be objectively unreasonable, not merely wrong; even
clear error will not suffice.” Virginia v. LeBlanc, 137 S. Ct. 1726, 1728 (2017) (per
curiam) (internal quotation marks omitted). To prevail, “a litigant must show that the
state court’s ruling was so lacking in justification that there was an error well understood
and comprehended in existing law beyond any possibility for fairminded disagreement.”
Id. (ellipsis and internal quotation marks omitted).
In addition, AEDPA establishes a deferential standard of review for state-court
factual findings. “AEDPA . . . mandates that state court factual findings are
presumptively correct and may be rebutted only by ‘clear and convincing evidence.’”
Saiz v. Ortiz, 392 F.3d 1166, 1175 (10th Cir. 2004) (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1)).
Further, the Supreme Court has held that review under § 2254(d)(1), just as under
§ 2254(d)(2), “is limited to the record that was before the state court that adjudicated the
claim on the merits.” Cullen v. Pinholster, 563 U.S. 170, 181 (2011); see id. at 185 n.7.
Often overlooked is that the applicant must also show that he is being held “in
custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States.” 28
U.S.C. § 2254(a). This is a separate requirement for relief. See Mitchell v. Superintendent
Dallas SCI, 902 F.3d 156, 163 (3d Cir. 2018). Thus, an application for relief under
§ 2254 may be granted only “to state prisoners who currently are being held in violation
of an existing constitutional right, not to inmates who at one point might have been able
to show that under a since-overruled Supreme Court or lower court precedent they would
have been entitled to relief.” Id. (brackets and internal quotation marks omitted).
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We deny Mr. Cano’s request for a COA as reasonable jurists could not debate that
denial of relief was proper.
A. Confrontation Clause
We first address Mr. Cano’s claim that various statements presented at his trial
violated the Confrontation Clause. We conclude that the district court’s determination
that there was no violation of the Confrontation Clause under current law is not
debatable.1 Several components of his claim can be disposed of summarily. First, defense
objections were sustained with respect to several challenged statements. “The assumption
that jurors are able to follow the court’s instructions fully applies when rights guaranteed
by the Confrontation Clause are at issue.” Tennessee v. Street, 471 U.S. 409, 415 n.6
(1985). Thus, there was no evidence of those statements for the jury to consider. Second,
one statement was made by Mr. Cano himself, but the Confrontation Clause imposes no
restriction on the use of a defendant’s own statements. See United States v. Brinson, 772
F.3d 1314, 1320–21 (10th Cir. 2014). Third, Mr. Cano challenges testimony regarding
1
After the Colorado Court of Appeals adjudicated Mr. Cano’s Confrontation
Clause claim in 2000, the United States Supreme Court decided Crawford v. Washington,
541 U.S. 36 (2004). In Crawford the Court overruled Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56(1980), which had interpreted the Confrontation Clause to “permit the admission of out-
of-court statements by an unavailable witness, so long as the statements bore adequate
indicia of reliability.” Ohio v. Clark, 576 U.S. 237, 243 (2015) (internal quotation marks
omitted). Under Crawford the Confrontation Clause analysis is directed at testimonial
hearsay, the admissibility of which does not depend on rules of evidence or “amorphous
notions of ‘reliability.’” Crawford, 541 U.S. at 61. The Confrontation Clause “prohibits
the introduction of testimonial statements by a nontestifying witness, unless the witness is
‘unavailable to testify, and the defendant had had a prior opportunity for cross-
examination.’” Clark, 576 U.S. at 243 (quoting Crawford, 541 U.S. at 54). Relying upon
28 U.S.C. § 2254(a), the district court applied current law—the Crawford framework—to
the statements challenged by Mr. Cano.
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the victim’s reaction to a phone call before the stabbing. But “[t]he Confrontation Clause
applies only to testimonial hearsay, which typically involves a solemn declaration or
affirmation . . . that a reasonable person in the position of the declarant would objectively
foresee . . . might be used in the investigation or prosecution of a crime.” United States v.
Otuonye, 995 F.3d 1191, 1206 (10th Cir. 2021) (citation and internal quotation marks
omitted). Thus, the challenged testimony was not testimonial hearsay and therefore raises
no Confrontation Clause issue.
There remains Mr. Cano’s challenge to testimony by two law-enforcement officers
relating to another possible suspect, Victor Magana. One detective testified during
redirect examination that he had been told by Mr. Magana’s cousin that Mr. Magana was
living in Los Angeles. The detective had just acknowledged on cross-examination that
Mr. Magana was the person whom the victim’s girlfriend identified in an initial photo
array as looking most like the person who stabbed the victim—though notably the array
did not include Mr. Cano. Another detective testified about receiving information from
California law-enforcement agencies. The trial court prohibited the detective from
testifying that Mr. Magana was in California or Mexico at the time of the murder because
that testimony would be based on hearsay. But the court did allow the detective to testify
about his own actions taken in reliance on information he received, and the detective
testified that after receiving the California information he thought it unnecessary to
conduct further investigation regarding Mr. Magana.
The district court ruled that there was no Confrontation Clause violation because
the challenged testimony was not hearsay, since it was not offered for the truth of the
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implicit assertion that Mr. Magana “had an alibi for the crime.” R., Vol. 1 at 498; see
Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 59 n.7 (2004) (“The [Confrontation] Clause . . .
does not bar the use of testimonial statements for purposes other than establishing the
truth of the matter asserted.”); United States v. Edwards, 782 F.3d 554, 560 (10th Cir.
2015) (“The [Confrontation] Clause does not bar the use of statements (even testimonial
statements) that are not hearsay, i.e., that are offered for purposes other than establishing
the truth of the matter asserted.”). Rather, the statements were offered to explain why the
detectives chose not to pursue Mr. Magana as a suspect.2 See United States v. Freeman,
816 F.2d 558, 563 (10th Cir. 1987) (“[O]ut of court statements are not hearsay when
offered for the limited purpose of explaining why a Government investigation was
undertaken.”). No reasonable jurist could disagree with the district court’s denying relief
to Mr. Cano on his Confrontation Clause claim.
B. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
Mr. Cano asserts that trial counsel was ineffective in (1) failing to conduct
adequate investigations to discover certain alibi witnesses; (2) not calling defense
witnesses who would have testified that the prosecution witnesses’ testimony was
fabricated; (3) not obtaining gang and toxicology experts and not communicating
2
We note that the state court rejected this claim on the same basis: “testimony by
both detectives was admissible as non-hearsay foundation testimony to explain actions
taken by the detectives in their investigation of [Mr. Magana] as an alternate suspect.” R.,
Vol. 1 at 171. Thus, the district court’s denying relief on this claim was also required by
28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1), as no reasonable jurist could find that the state court’s decision
“was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal
law, as determined by the Supreme Court.”
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effectively with Mr. Cano; and (4) laboring under a conflict of interest through multiple
representation.3
A defendant claiming ineffective assistance of counsel must show both deficient
performance and prejudice: “that counsel’s representation fell below an objective
standard of reasonableness” and “that there is a reasonable probability that, but for
counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.”
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 688, 694 (1984). It is unnecessary to address the
performance prong if the defendant makes an insufficient showing of prejudice. See id. at
697. There is no debating the district court’s conclusion that Mr. Cano was not entitled to
relief on his first three ineffective-assistance claims. Even if counsel was deficient
regarding these matters, there is nothing in the state-court record showing that Mr. Cano
was prejudiced thereby. The district court could not speculate about the possibility that
unnamed witnesses might have provided an alibi4 or impeached a prosecution witness,5
3
He also claims that trial counsel coerced him into waiving his preliminary
hearing. But in the district-court proceedings, Mr. Cano withdrew this claim and
therefore the court properly declined to examine it.
4
Mr. Cano asserts that his “sister was with him when the stabbing occurred,
proving that he was not even at the party when the victim was killed.” Aplt. Br. at 12. But
his sister was not identified as an alibi witness in the state-court postconviction
proceedings.
5
In his brief in support of his petition for state postconviction relief, Mr. Cano did
name several witnesses who were not called to testify and who were purportedly at the
house where the stabbing occurred. He argued that these witnesses could have impeached
the testimony of Esmeralda Limas, a prosecution witness who testified that she was alone
in a bathroom near the time of the stabbing, was walking out when she heard screaming,
and saw Mr. Cano holding a knife shortly thereafter. Mr. Cano alleged that three of these
witnesses claimed to have been in the bathroom when the stabbing occurred and a fourth
said that she was in the basement with Ms. Limas at the time of the stabbing. Mr. Cano
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that an expert would have provided favorable testimony, or that better communication
with Mr. Cano would have led to a different outcome.
As for the conflict-of-interest claim, Mr. Cano complains that his public defender
labored under a conflict because the public defender’s office simultaneously represented
Sergio Aguilar,6 who was present at the party where the stabbing occurred, and that his
attorney “did not investigate or even submit that Sergio Aguilar was an alternate
suspect.” Aplt. Br. at 13. In arguing that there was a Sixth Amendment violation, Mr.
Cano has relied upon Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335 (1980), which requires him to
“demonstrate that an actual conflict of interest adversely affected his lawyer’s
performance.” Id. at 348. The Colorado Court of Appeals rejected Mr. Cano’s claim on
the ground that there was no adverse effect on his lawyer’s performance, ruling that Mr.
Cano’s alternate-suspect theory could not have been presented to the jury under
did not identify these specific witnesses in the district court or in his brief to this court—
nor has he presented any meaningful argument on this issue—but he would be unable to
make an adequate showing of prejudice in any event. Defense counsel elicited on cross-
examination that Ms. Limas’s testimony at trial contradicted what she reported on the
night of the stabbing: Ms. Limas told a police officer that she was in the basement when
she heard screaming and she said nothing to the officer about seeing a man holding a
knife. Moreover, the material portion of Ms. Limas’s testimony—that she saw Mr. Cano
holding a knife in the kitchen after the stabbing—would not have been contradicted by
testimony from other witnesses that she was not in the bathroom at the time of the
stabbing.
6
The Colorado Court of Appeals described the conflict as follows: “Aguilar was
arrested for a different matter five days before [Mr.] Cano’s trial, and the public defender
entered an appearance for [Mr.] Aguilar on the second day of [Mr.] Cano’s trial. Thus, as
the postconviction court pointed out, the overlap in representation was de minimis.” R.,
Vol. 1 at 359. It also found that Mr. Cano’s attorney “remained unaware until after [Mr.]
Cano’s trial had concluded that a public defender from the [same] office had entered an
appearance on behalf of [Mr.] Aguilar in the unrelated case.” Id. at 353.
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Colorado’s rules of evidence because he “failed to establish a nonspeculative connection
between [Mr. Aguilar] and the crime charged.” Id. at 365; see People v. Elmarr, 351 P.3d
431, 439 (Colo. 2015). The state court found that there was no “evidence of some direct
act connecting [Mr.] Aguilar to the crime.” R., Vol. 1 at 367.
No reasonable jurist could disagree with the federal district court’s determination
that Mr. Cano is not entitled to relief on his conflict-of-interest claim, as “Mr. Cano
fail[ed] to demonstrate [that] the state court’s rejection of his adverse effect arguments
‘was so lacking in justification that there was an error well understood and comprehended
in existing law beyond any possibility for fairminded disagreement.’” Id. at 517 (quoting
Harrington v. Richter, 562 U.S. 86, 103 (2011)).
C. Denial of Continuance
Mr. Cano claims that he was denied a fair trial and effective assistance of counsel
because the trial court denied defense counsel a continuance that she requested the Friday
before trial. The main grounds for the continuance were that (1) the prosecution had
provided late and incomplete information about the criminal histories of several
prosecution witnesses and (2) testing had not yet been completed on knives from the
crime scene. With respect to the criminal-history disclosures, the state court found no
material prejudice given that the witnesses’ histories were elicited through trial
testimony. As for the testing on the knives, the state court noted that the knives contained
no fingerprints or blood that could exculpate Mr. Cano; at most, if one of the knives
found at the crime scene was identified as the likely weapon, that evidence could have
been used to impeach witnesses who testified about the characteristics of the knife and its
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disposal. Moreover, the state court found that the prosecution had not committed any
intentional discovery violations and that the prosecution was reasonably concerned that a
delay in trial would cause it to lose witnesses since some of the gang-member witnesses
had expressed a desire to move elsewhere.
The federal district court denied relief on this claim, noting the broad discretion
invested in trial courts with respect to continuances and determining that Mr. Cano had
not demonstrated that the state court’s ruling “‘was so lacking in justification that there
was an error well understood and comprehended in existing law beyond any possibility
for fairminded disagreement.’” Id. at 492 (quoting Richter, 562 U.S. at 103). No
reasonable jurist could disagree with the district court’s disposition of this claim.
D. Prosecutorial Misconduct
Finally, Mr. Cano argues that he was denied a fair trial by the prosecutor’s
improper closing argument. The only comment that was objected to at trial was the
prosecutor’s statement in his rebuttal argument that defense counsel “says the real killer
is either out there or on the stand but it isn’t her client. The real killer is out there. Have
you heard any evidence he is out there[?]” Id. at 499–500 (internal quotation marks
omitted). The trial court did not sustain the objection but it did remind the jury that this
was merely argument and that it was bound to follow the court’s instructions. Defense
counsel did not object to the remaining three statements that Mr. Cano challenges: (1) a
statement that “it is uncontroverted who did the stabbing”; (2) a comment that although
the victim’s girlfriend may have provided inconsistent descriptions of the assailant’s
clothing to the police, she was “not lying” and was “trying to assist the police officer in
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the investigation that has happened within minutes of seeing someone she loved very
much just savagely killed in front of her”; and (3) responding to defense counsel’s
argument that police had failed to investigate other individuals as suspects, the prosecutor
noted that one such individual had tried to provide medical assistance to the victim and
then asked the jury whether that was “the act of someone who was involved in this
bizarre conspiracy that the defense is hoping that you buy?” Id. at 174–75 (internal
quotation marks omitted).
The district court denied relief on this claim, ruling that the state court did not
unreasonably apply the standard set forth in Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 168 (1986),
which states that the relevant inquiry is “whether the prosecutors’ comments so infected
the trial with unfairness as to make the resulting conviction a denial of due process.” Id.
at 181 (internal quotation marks omitted). The district court noted that the trial court
properly instructed the jury that Mr. Cano was presumed innocent, the prosecution bore
the burden of proof, and no inference could be drawn from Mr. Cano’s silence. The
district court also considered that the trial court provided a cautionary instruction after the
first statement (the one to which a defense objection was made) and that defense counsel
did not object to the other statements. We conclude that reasonable jurists could not
debate the correctness of the district court’s ruling.
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III. CONCLUSION
We DENY Mr. Cano’s application for a COA, DENY his motion to proceed in
forma pauperis, and DISMISS this matter.
Entered for the Court
Harris L Hartz
Circuit Judge
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