Self-defense; MCL 780.972; Credibility; Ineffective assistance of counsel; Failure to investigate & present additional witnesses; Factual predicate

The court held that the prosecution disproved defendant’s self-defense claim beyond a reasonable doubt, and that he failed to show how his trial counsel was ineffective as to the investigation and presentation of witnesses. Thus, it affirmed his bench-trial felonious assault and felony-firearm convictions arising from an altercation between apartment building tenants. The victim (S) testified that after defendant closed his apartment door, S “began walking away and going down the building’s stairs. Seconds later, defendant opened his apartment door and fired his shotgun toward” S. After seeing damage caused by the bullet, S “believed that if he had not stepped aside a moment earlier while on the stairs, it would have struck him.” Two other witnesses (B and G) corroborated this sequence of events. While there was evidence of S’s “shoeprint on defendant’s apartment door, suggesting that he kicked [it], the apartment door was intact and showed no signs of damage. Simply put, defendant left his position of safety within his apartment to open his door and discharge his shotgun in” S’s direction. This belied his “claim that he acted in self-defense.” Defendant challenged G’s credibility due to their prior history and her noise complaints. G admitted they had “previously made noise complaints against each other, but she denied that they had an adversarial relationship. Regardless, the trial court did not rely solely on” her testimony – it also heard testimony from S and B. As to defendant’s ineffective assistance claim, the court noted that he failed to identify “a specific witness that defense counsel should have investigated and presented at trial, much less the potential testimony of that witness. Thus, defendant has failed to sustain his burden of showing ineffective assistance.”