Ronald Turney Williams v. Terry L. Stewart, Director of Arizona Department of Corrections

Ronald Turney Williams appeals from the denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition. A jury convicted him on February 10, 1984, of first degree murder and armed burglary in the first degree for breaking into a home, burglarizing it, and shooting and killing someone who saw him, John Bunchek. Williams was sentenced to death on the murder conviction and to an aggravated term of fourteen years for the burglary conviction. The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed, State v. Williams, 166 Ariz. 132 , 800 P.2d 1240 (1987), cert. denied, Williams v. Arizona, 500 U.S. 929 , 111 S.Ct. 2043 , 114 L.Ed.2d 128 (1991), reh’g denied, Williams v. Arizona, 501 U.S. 1265 , 111 S.Ct. 2921 , 115 L.Ed.2d 1084 (1991), and denied his petition for post-conviction relief. We affirm the district court’s denial of habeas relief.

I

John Bunchek, an elderly Scottsdale resident, was shot and killed on March 12, 1981. A white male who had been seen wandering around the neighborhood just before the shooting knocked on the Bun-chek’s door and asked Sylvia Bunchek whether her next-door neighbors were home. Mrs. Bunchek told him that they were not. Mrs. Bunchek saw the stranger walk toward the neighbors’ (the Tancoses’)…