Ruoff
Ruoff v. Covello
Opinion
Trial Court Opinion
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 JOSHUA RICHARD RUOFF, Case No. 22-cv-01207-JST
Petitioner,
ORDER GRANTING PETITIONER’S
v. MOTION TO AMEND HABEAS
PETITION AND MOTION TO STAY
PATRICK COVELLO, et al., Re: ECF No. 16 Respondents.
12 Before the Court is Petitioner Joshua Ruoff’s motion to amend his federal habeas petition and stay the decision on the petition pending exhaustion of his new claims in state court. ECF No. 16. The Court will grant the motion. I. BACKGROUND On June 29, 2018, a jury found Ruoff guilty of the first-degree murder of Timothy Sweeting and found the special allegation regarding use of a deadly weapon true. ECF No. 1 at 21–22. Ruoff was sentenced to a term of 26 years to life. Id. The California Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment and sentence, and the California Supreme Court denied Ruoff’s petition for review. Id. Ruoff then filed a federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which raised two exhausted and six unexhausted claims.…