Robert Jones, Jr. v. Charles Ryan

Petitioner-Appellant Robert Jones (“Jones”) appeals the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Jones was convicted of six murders in Arizona state court and was sentenced to death in 1998. He was also convicted of first-degree attempted murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery, and first-degree burglary. The district court granted a certificate of appealability (“COA”) on Jones’s prosecutorial misconduct claim. We expand the COA to include the ineffective assistance of counsel allegations related to Jones’s prosecutorial misconduct claim. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2253 , and we affirm the district court’s denial of Jones’s habeas corpus petition.

I

In 1996, six people were killed during two armed robberies in Tucson, Arizona. On May 30, the Moon Smoke Shop was robbed, where two victims were killed and a third was wounded by gunfire. On June 13, the Fire Fighters Union Hall was robbed, and four persons there were killed.

The Moon Smoke Shop robbery began when two robbers followed a customer, Chip O’Dell, into the store and at once shot him in the back of the head. Four employees were in the store: Noel Engles,…