United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit No. 18-2908 DAMON GOODLOE, Petitioner-Appellant,

v.

CHRISTINE BRANNON, Respondent-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 1:13-cv-02650 — Sara L. Ellis, Judge.

ARGUED SEPTEMBER 15, 2020 — DECIDED JULY 12, 2021

Before FLAUM, ROVNER, and WOOD, Circuit Judges. ROVNER, Circuit Judge. An Illinois jury convicted Damon Goodloe of first degree murder in the death of Pierre Jones. After losing his direct appeal and all post-conviction proceed- ings available in state court, Goodloe petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. After the district court denied relief on all of his claims, this court 2 No. 18-2908 granted a certificate of appealability on his claim that evidence was admitted at his trial in violation of the Confrontation Clause. We later expanded that certificate to include his assertion that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance. We now affirm the district court’s denial of habeas relief. I. We presume that the factual findings of the state court are correct for the purposes of habeas review unless the petitioner rebuts the presumption of correctness by clear and convincing evidence. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1). Goodloe has not provided clear and convincing evidence rebutting the state court findings and so we defer to the state court’s version of events. Weaver v. Nicholson, 892 F.3d 878, 886 (7th Cir. 2018). Shortly before 2 a.m. on December 24, 2002, police officers Joseph Hodges and Jason Venegas responded to a call of “shots fired” near 113th Street and South Edbrooke Avenue in Chicago. On arriving at the scene, the officers found Pierre Jones on the ground, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the leg. Officer Hodges called for an ambulance as two additional officers, Ronald Bialota and Michael Martinez, arrived at the scene. It was then 1:58 a.m. Officer Bialota asked Jones who shot him, and Jones replied, “Damon shot me.” Jones also told the officers that Damon was wearing a “black hoodie.” Officers Hodges and Venegas remained with Jones while Officers Bialota and Martinez searched for the offender. Approximately a minute and a half later, Bialota and Martinez encountered Goodloe coming out of an alley near 114th Street and Prairie Avenue, just a few blocks away from the scene of the crime. Goodloe was wearing a black hoodie under a jacket, No. 18-2908 3 but was not armed. After initially telling the officers that his name was Mario, Goodloe produced identification revealing that his first name was Damon. Within minutes, the officers brought Goodloe back to the scene, where paramedics were working on Jones in the back of an ambulance. Officer Bialota asked Jones, “Is this the individual that shot you?” Jones replied, “That’s him, he’s the one that shot me.” Officer Martinez asked Jones if he was a hundred percent sure that Goodloe was the one who shot him, and Jones replied, “Yeah, that’s the guy.” The officers then arrested Goodloe, with the arrest report indicating that he was taken into custody at 2:03 a.m. Jones died at a hospital approximately an hour later, of the gunshot wound to his leg that had caused massive internal bleeding. At trial, over Goodloe’s objections, the State entered into evidence Jones’s statements to the officers identifying Goodloe as the shooter. Additional evidence also implicated Goodloe. Gunshot residue tests performed on his hands within a few hours after the shooting revealed that he either recently fired a gun or was close to a gun when it was fired.1 A disinterested witne