MARK D. PFEIFFER, Judge.
Travis Midgyett ("Midgyett") appeals the Circuit Court of Boone County's ("motion court's") denial of his motion for post-conviction relief pursuant to Rule 29.15. Midgyett was convicted, after a jury trial, of attempted robbery in the first degree and of murder in the second degree. Midgyett argues that the motion court erred in finding that his trial counsel ("Counsel") was not constitutionally ineffective for failing to present evidence Midgyett claims would have changed the outcome of the case. We affirm.
Carlos Kelly, a drug dealer, was murdered in his home during the early morning hours of March 29, 2006. On the previous evening, Kelly had been partying and doing drugs with Teisha Moody, who sold drugs with Kelly, and Angela Hawkins, Moody's cousin. At around 2:00 a.m. on March 29, as the party was winding down, Damorea Salisbury, who lived with Kelly, became hungry and asked Hawkins to take him to a nearby McDonald's. Hawkins agreed. Moody decided to go upstairs to take a shower, and Kelly was asleep on the couch in the living room. When Moody finished her shower, she went downstairs to lock the front door to Kelly's apartment, which Salisbury and Hawkins had left unlocked. Before Moody locked the door, she looked out of the blinds that covered a window in the door. She saw a pair of eyes looking back at her. Immediately, the door was pushed open, and three men barged into the apartment.
Moody then went upstairs to collect her things, including about $800 worth of drugs that the intruders had not found. Moody, Hawkins, and Salisbury then left the apartment and called the police from a nearby gas station to notify them of Kelly's murder.
On March 30, 2006, Midgyett and Rodney Cunningham were arrested for Kelly's murder. Both men denied having anything to do with the crime. In March of 2007, Midgyett was tried for Kelly's murder and for the attempted robbery. Moody and Hawkins testified against Midgyett, both claiming that he was one of the three men who broke into Kelly's apartment and killed him. Midgyett presented the testimonies of two of his cousins, with whom he was living at the time, and of his girlfriend, all of whom stated that Midgyett was home for at least part of the night and the early morning hours during which Kelly was murdered. Midgyett also presented evidence from a Sprint engineer that his cell phone, which made or received calls throughout the relevant time period of the murder, was most likely not anywhere near Kelly's apartment. The jury was unable to agree on a verdict, and the court declared a mistrial.
Midgyett was retried in November of 2007. Midgyett was once again represented by Counsel, who planned to present the same evidence as he had at Midgyett's first trial. The State also put on much of the same evidence, with one important addition: in the intervening time period between Midgyett's first and second trials, Cunningham had been found guilty of Kelly's murder. Although Cunningham, like Midgyett, had always maintained that he had nothing to do with the murder, after his guilty verdict, he agreed to testify against Midgyett in exchange for the State's supporting Cunningham's counsel's request for a significant reduction in his sentence, which was to be imposed after Midgyett's second trial. Counsel knew that Cunningham would testify against Midgyett, but he believed that Cunningham's testimony would be impeachable. In his opening statement, Counsel told the jury that he would present electronic evidence from a Sprint cellular phone expert showing that Midgyett's Sprint cell phone (and thus, presumably, Midgyett) could not have been at Kelly's apartment on the night of his murder. After Cunningham's testimony, however, Counsel decided not to present the cell phone evidence. He also did not present Midgyett's girlfriend or one of Midgyett's two cousins, and he did not present Midgyett's mother. The jury found Midgyett guilty of both the murder and the attempted robbery. Midgyett's convictions were affirmed on appeal. State v. Midgyett, 297 S.W.3d 932 (Mo.App. W.D.2009).
Midgyett filed a motion for post-conviction relief on December 31, 2009. Midgyett alleged that Counsel was constitutionally ineffective in abandoning Midgyett's alibi defense in that Counsel did not call to the stand Midgyett's girlfriend,
Midgyett alleges three points of error on appeal. The first two, which we consider together, are that the motion court erred when it found that Counsel was not constitutionally ineffective for failing to call to the stand witness Russell Chrisman, the Sprint engineer, especially after having promised the jury during opening statement that "experts from Sprint" would testify. Midgyett's third point is that the motion court erred by failing to consider the aggregate effect of all of Counsel's alleged errors, which, if considered together, would have shown Counsel to have been constitutionally ineffective.
We review the motion court's findings and conclusions on a Rule 29.15 motion only to determine whether they were clearly erroneous. Johnson v. State, 333 S.W.3d 459, 463 (Mo. banc 2011); Rule 29.15(k). "The motion court's findings and conclusions are clearly erroneous only if, after reviewing the entire record, the appellate court is left with the definite and firm impression that a mistake has been made." Krider v. State, 44 S.W.3d 850, 856 (Mo.App. W.D.2001).
When a motion alleges ineffective assistance of counsel, the movant "must show that counsel's performance did not conform to the degree of skill, care, and diligence of a reasonably competent attorney and that movant was thereby prejudiced." Johnson, 333 S.W.3d at 463, (internal quotations and citation omitted); Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). "To demonstrate prejudice, a movant must show that, but for counsel's poor performance, there is a reasonable probability that the outcome of the court proceeding would have been different." Johnson, 333 S.W.3d at 463 (internal quotation omitted). An appellate court "presumes that counsel acted professionally in making decisions and that any challenged action was part of counsel's sound trial strategy." Id. It is Midgyett's burden to overcome this presumption. State v. Tokar, 918 S.W.2d 753, 761 (Mo. banc 1996).
Midgyett's first two points on appeal involve Counsel's failure to call the Sprint engineer, Chrisman, to the witness stand after his opening statement included Counsel's promise that the jury would hear expert cellular phone testimony from Sprint representatives. Generally, to succeed on an ineffectiveness claim based upon counsel's failure to call a witness, the movant must show: (1) that trial counsel knew or should have known of the witness's existence; (2) that the witness could be located through reasonable investigation; (3) that the witness would testify; and (4) that the witness's testimony would
Complicating matters, however, is the fact that Counsel promised the Sprint expert witness testimony in his opening statement. Counsel called this "electronic evidence" one of the "building blocks" of Midgyett's defense. When a defense attorney promises during opening statements that the attorney will present certain evidence and then does not present that evidence, the attorney opens himself up to criticism of the effectiveness — or ineffectiveness — of his representation of the defendant. See Blankenship v. State, 23 S.W.3d 848, 851 (Mo.App. E.D.2000). That is not the end of the inquiry, however. Instead, when determining whether an unfulfilled evidentiary promise made by defense counsel could contribute to a finding of counsel's ineffectiveness, courts look to whether "unforeseeable events" occurring during the trial would justify counsel's change in trial strategy. Francis v. State, 183 S.W.3d 288, 303 (Mo.App. W.D.2005).
At the motion hearing, Counsel testified that, although he knew that Cunningham would testify at Midgyett's second criminal trial, he did not realize until after Cunningham's testimony how credible Cunningham's testimony would be. The question, then, is whether a defense counsel's estimation of a key witness's credibility can constitute an unforeseeable event that could justify the defense counsel's change in trial strategy. Counsel testified that Cunningham came across as being "brutally honest," meaning that, in Counsel's estimation, the jury not only found Cunningham credible when he testified that he was involved in Kelly's murder, but that the jury found Cunningham to be a really bad character.
Counsel testified that, after Cunningham's testimony, Counsel believed it highly inadvisable to connect Midgyett to Cunningham any further, and that the cell phone evidence showed several calls between Cunningham's and Midgyett's cell phones during the time period in which Kelly's murder took place.
Moreover, at the motion hearing, Counsel made clear that his failure to call the Sprint engineer to testify about the cell phone records was not due to any inadvertence but was, indeed, a matter of trial strategy. See Gennetten v. State, 96 S.W.3d 143, 151 (Mo.App. W.D.2003)(analyzing whether counsel's failure to call a particular witness, which the court had concluded was error, was due to inadvertence or was, rather, a matter of trial strategy). Counsel testified that he knew it was a "substantial decision to let go of" the Sprint engineer's testimony. Counsel stated that he had to "make an evaluation based upon how we thought Cunningham testified and how that testimony came across and how the other evidence was hurting us; whether we wanted to go down the road, some of the things a[sic] cell phone evidence exposed us to." Counsel further testified that "it was clearly discussed in that letting it go was a big deal. And, I mean, I believe that was discussed with [Midgyett] also." Thus, Counsel's decision was clearly considered, strategic, and involved input from Counsel's client — Midgyett.
Once an attorney's action is found to have been a matter of trial strategy, the movant must overcome the presumption that the attorney's trial strategy
The motion court found that Cunningham's testimony "put a wrench in the entire alibi defense" and concluded that Counsel's resulting decision not to call the Sprint engineer was strategically sound and was justified. Based upon Counsel's considered and reasonable strategy with regard to this witness that we have identified previously, we do not find the motion court's determination to be clearly erroneous. Accordingly, Midgyett's first two points are denied.
Midgyett's third point on appeal is that the motion court erred by failing to consider the aggregate effect of Counsel's many claimed errors. Midgyett argues that the aggregate effect of Counsel's errors impacted the fairness and outcome of Midgyett's second criminal trial and undermined confidence in the outcome of his second trial. In his Rule 29.15 motion, Midgyett alleged that Counsel was ineffective in: (1) failing to call Damorea Salisbury as a witness; (2) failing to call LaTonya Turner; (3) failing to call Angel Midgyett; (4) failing to call Darlene Midgyett; (5) failing to call Chrisman, the Sprint engineer; (6) failing to locate and speak to A my Garrison; and (7) failing to sufficiently cross-examine Moody.
Midgyett argues that many small errors, which, if considered separately, may not be prejudicial enough to require reversal, may require reversal if they would serve to deprive the Rule 29.15 movant of a meaningful defense when their cumulative effect is considered. Midgyett cites only to cases from outside of Missouri to support this argument. Ultimately, we need not consider any cumulative prejudicial effect of Counsel's alleged trial errors because, like the motion court, we consider all or nearly all of the alleged errors not to be errors at all, in that they were all either matters of trial strategy or were actions that did not prejudice Midgyett's defense. We will consider each in turn.
On the other hand, Angel did not provide an alibi to Midgyett immediately following his arrest. She had a warrant out for her arrest and did not want to talk to police for fear of being arrested. During Midgyett's first trial, the State berated Angel for her failure to come forward, asking, "So, the fact that you have a warrant and may have to answer for a charge that's against you is more important to you than clearing your cousin of a murder that he couldn't have committed because he was with you? Is that what we're hearing?" Angel answered, "I guess, if that's how you take it." Although Angel's testimony does not appear on the cold record
Furthermore, Darlene was removed from the courtroom and cited with contempt of court early in Midgyett's second trial for calling a witness a liar in open court. After her outburst, which occurred in the jury's presence, it is likely that Darlene's testimony would not have been well received. It was thus not error for Counsel to decide not to call Darlene as a witness at Midgyett's second trial.
Moody testified that it was dark outside when she looked through two slats in the blinds and saw a pair of eyes. She also testified that she just saw the eyes for a second and did not even have time to lock the door before the robbers burst through the door and commenced with the robbery. The fact that the porch light was not on adds little to this part of Moody's testimony.
It was not clearly erroneous for the motion court to conclude that Counsel was not constitutionally ineffective in his representation of Midgyett at his second trial. Thus, the judgment of the motion court is affirmed.
JAMES EDWARD WELSH, Chief Judge, and DEBORAH DANIELS, Special Judge, concur.