Vincent V. Seabold

In August 1985, a jury in Butler County, Kentucky, convicted Petitioner-Appellant Dean Vincent, along with co-defendants Leroy Kinser and Ronald Johnson, of first degree robbery, first degree burglary, and murder. It was established at trial that on June 15, 1983, the defendants broke into the home of Harold Hayes, beat him, bound him with duct tape, and robbed the home, leaving Hayes to die of blunt-force injuries to the head. All three defendants were sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment on both the robbery and the burglary convictions and life imprisonment on the murder convictions. After the Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed their convictions on direct appeal in Kinser v. Commonwealth, 741 S.W.2d 684 (Ky. 1987), Vincent and Johnson filed petitions for writs of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district court denied each petition, but this Court reversed, concluding that Vincent and Johnson were entitled to habeas relief on the ground that their Sixth Amendment rights to confrontation had been violated. See Vincent v. Parke, 942 F.2d 989, 993 (6th Cir. 1991); Johnson v. Parks, 955 F.2d 44, 1992 WL 27027 (6th Cir. Feb. 14, 1992). We remanded the case for retrial, and on February 14, 1993, a jury found Vincent and Johnson guilty of first degree robbery, first degree burglary, and wanton murder. Vincent was sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment on both the robbery and burglary convictions and life imprisonment on the murder conviction; the sentences were to run consecutively. The Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed Vincent's convictions but remanded the case to the Butler Circuit Court for resentencing because Kentucky law requires that the fifteen year sentences were to run concurrently with the life sentence. On April 22, 1997, Vincent filed a second petition for writ of habeas corpus, asserting, inter alia, that various testimony violated his Sixth Amendment rights under the Confrontation Clause. Upon recommendation of the magistrate judge, the district court denied Vincent's habeas petition. This appeal follows.