Terhune

MEMORANDUM **

California state prisoner Johnny Lee Williams appeals the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition, which challenges his convictions and life sentence for burglary, car theft, kidnaping, robbery, attempted robbery, false imprisonment, and assault with a firearm. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253 (a). Reviewing de novo, Alvarado v. Hill, 252 F.3d 1066, 1068 (9th Cir.2001), we affirm.

Williams contends that his Sixth Amendment right to conflict-free counsel was violated because the trial court denied his request for new counsel after his court-appointed attorney disclosed that he had accepted future employment with the prosecutor’s office and made a comment indicating that Williams’s case was a “financial burden.” The California Court of Appeal rejected this claim, reasoning that counsel’s future employment did not create an actual conflict and that, when read in context, counsel’s comment regarding the financial burden indicated only his commitment to Williams’s case. Moreover, the court concluded that counsel’s performance at trial indicated that he was not affected by any conflict of interest.

We cannot say that the…