United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 18-3702 RUSSELL ARMFIELD, Petitioner-Appellant, v. SONJA NICKLAUS, Warden, Respondent-Appellee. ____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 1:17-cv-03331 — Thomas M. Durkin, Judge. ____________________

ARGUED OCTOBER 30, 2020 — DECIDED JANUARY 11, 2021 ____________________

Before MANION, ROVNER, and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges. MANION, Circuit Judge. Russell Armfield, along with Kimo- thy Randall and Tyrene Nelson, was charged with first-de- gree murder in Illinois state court for the 2004 shooting death of Al Copeland in southwest Chicago. The jury convicted Armfield. He appealed the conviction on the grounds that a transcript disclosed inadvertently to the jury violated his constitutional rights under the Sixth 2 No. 18-3702 Amendment’s Confrontation Clause. He lost. He then pur- sued a collateral attack in state court alleging ineffective assis- tance of counsel. He lost again. He then filed for federal ha- beas relief via 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district court denied relief and Armfield appeals. Although Armfield’s positions have been well briefed and argued by appointed counsel, we affirm denial of habeas re- lief on Armfield’s Confrontation Clause claim because the state’s strong case against him renders any constitutional er- ror harmless. We also reject Armfield’s ineffective assistance claim; he cannot show trial counsel’s shortcomings resulted in prejudice. I. Background Around 6:00 pm on August 17, 2004, Kimothy Randall opened fire on Al Copeland’s vehicle while Copeland drove by. Copeland’s car was struck by gunfire, as was a bystander’s vehicle. No one was injured. Russell Armfield and Tyrene Nelson were present. Later that evening, between 8:00 and 9:00 pm, while riding with Armfield and Nelson in a car driven by Randall’s girl- friend, Randall spotted Copeland again. Randall told his girl- friend to drive to his residence, where Armfield and Nelson armed themselves. They tracked down Copeland as he drove away from his own girlfriend’s home. As Copeland ap- proached an intersection, Randall gave the signal: shoot Copeland. Armfield and Nelson sprang from their car, ran to- ward Copeland, and fired multiple shots into his vehicle, kill- ing him. The state charged Armfield, Randall, and Nelson with first-degree murder. Armfield and his codefendants No. 18-3702 3 proceeded to trial before two juries—one jury for Armfield and Randall, the other for Nelson. The two trials, though sep- arate, occurred simultaneously before the same judge, with the juries and defendants shuffling in and out depending on the evidence presented. 1 No doubt this arrangement contributed to the mishap at the center of this habeas petition. During deliberations, the Armfield/Randall jury requested a transcript of certain wit- nesses’ testimony. The court, by mistake, tendered a trial tran- script containing the prosecutor’s opening statements from Nelson’s case. The Armfield/Randall jury had not heard this version. Therein, the prosecutor referenced a videotaped statement from Nelson that purported to implicate all three defendants in the murder: And, ladies and gentlemen, you’re also going to see a statement given to a Cook County assis- tant state’s attorney that was videotaped of [Nelson] confessing to shooting Al Copeland and laying out essentially the same facts that I just told you. You will see him tell you how he and his partners