FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION MAY 24 2013
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
ANTHONY MARIO WATSON, No. 11-57122
Petitioner - Appellant, D.C. No. 3:01-cv-01780-AJB
v.
MEMORANDUM*
MATTHEW CATE,
Respondent - Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of California
Anthony J. Battaglia, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted May 7, 2013
Portland, Oregon
Before: HAWKINS, GRABER, and PAEZ, Circuit Judges.
Following our remand in this case, Anthony Mario Watson appeals the
district court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28
U.S.C. § 2254. We affirm.
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
1. Watson raises a newly exhausted “cumulative” ineffective assistance claim,
which was denied by the California Supreme Court in an order citing In re
Robbins, 18 Cal. 4th 770, 780 (1998), and In re Clark, 5 Cal. 4th 750 (1993). In
citing Robbins and Clark, the court signaled that the petition was untimely.
Because California’s untimeliness rule is an independent and adequate state
procedural ground for its denial, this claim is procedurally defaulted. Walker v.
Martin, 131 S. Ct. 1120, 1128 (2011). We reject Watson’s argument that his claim
is interwoven with federal law, because such a holding would swallow the rule
from Walker in every habeas petition that raises an ineffective assistance of
counsel claim. The California Supreme Court’s application of the timeliness
procedural bar was neither surprising nor unfair, given that all aspects of the
cumulative ineffectiveness claim were apparent from the trial record. Watson
cannot establish cause and prejudice to overcome procedural default. Coleman v.
Thompson, 501 U.S. 722, 753 (1991).
Watson’s claim is also untimely under the AEDPA. The one-year statute of
limitations to bring this claim expired on December 20, 2002. The claim does not
relate back to the original petition, and the limitations period was not tolled. For
these reasons, we affirm the district court’s dismissal of this claim.
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2. Watson’s remaining claim is one that this court has already considered. He
argues that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate Watson’s
alleged alibi. We previously affirmed the district court’s finding, following the
2004 evidentiary hearing, that trial counsel was a credible witness and Watson was
not, and that trial counsel did not know about potential alibi witnesses White and
Yard until after trial. Watson v. Rocha, 201 F. App'x 456, 458 (9th Cir. 2006)
(unpublished decision). We remanded for further proceedings regarding trial
counsel’s lack of investigation of potential alibi witness Douglas, whose name first
surfaced at the evidentiary hearing, and potential alibi witness Larose, who was
mentioned in White’s post-trial declaration. Id.
After our remand, Watson returned to state court to exhaust the cumulative
ineffectiveness claim discussed above. When he returned to district court, all
parties properly agreed that the intervening decision in Cullen v. Pinholster, 131 S.
Ct. 1388 (2011), precluded any further evidentiary hearing. In light of Pinholster,
our 2006 remand order was unnecessary. In any event, we agree with Judge
Battaglia that further inquiry into counsel’s failure to investigate Larose and
Douglas would have only provided additional evidence with respect to the same
failure-to-investigate claim that had been adjudicated on the merits and the denial
of which we previously affirmed. Moreover, we note that information about Larose
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and Douglas would not have affected Judge Benitez’s conclusion that Watson and
White were not credible, that trial counsel was credible, that no credible alibi
existed, and that Watson had received effective assistance of counsel. Thus, we
also affirm the district court’s dismissal of this claim.
3. Finally, in light of the intervening Pinholster decision, Judge Battaglia did
not violate the rule of mandate. Moreover, Watson’s argument that Judge Battaglia
violated the rule of mandate and should have held the hearing on Douglas and
Larose, despite Pinholster, does not square with his contention that Pinholster
requires that the evidence from the 2004 evidentiary hearing be
ignored—especially as Douglas was not mentioned in the state court or federal
court records until that hearing.
AFFIRMED.
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