Pierre Donte’ Joshlin v. DWIGHT NEVEN, Warden; and ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR THE STATE OF NEVADA

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
PIERRE DONTE’ JOSHLIN,
Petitioner-Appellant,
v.
DWIGHT NEVEN, Warden; and
ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR THE
STATE OF NEVADA,
Respondents-Appellees.
No. 16-16669
D.C. No.
2:13-cv-01014-JAD-NJK
MEMORANDUM*
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Nevada
Jennifer A. Dorsey, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted August 16, 2018
San Francisco, California
Before: SCHROEDER, SILER,** and GRABER, Circuit Judges.
Petitioner-Appellant Pierre Joshlin appeals from the district court’s order
denying his petition for habeas relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. We affirm.
FILED
AUG 28 2018
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
** The Honorable Eugene E. Siler, United States Circuit Judge for the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, sitting by designation.

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In light of the prosecution’s improper comments, the only material dispute in
this appeal is whether the Nevada Supreme Court erred in its application of the
harmless error standard. See Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 637 (1993).
We have independently reviewed the record in this case. Although the state
court may have failed to recognize that the burden was on the state to establish a
lack of prejudice resulting from constitutional error, given the weight of the
evidence presented against Joshlin, there was no “‘reasonable possibility’ that the
error was harmful.” Davis v. Ayala, 135 S. Ct. 2187, 2198 (2015) (quoting Brecht,
507 U.S. at 637). The jury heard testimony describing the physical and
circumstantial evidence linking Joshlin to the shooting. The police presented
testimony of their pursuit of Joshlin from the stolen vehicle to the dumpster in
which he was found, during which they maintained nearly constant visual
surveillance. Joshlin was found in that dumpster with a Glock pistol matching ten
of the bullet casings at the scene of the shooting. The gloves found with Joshlin in
the dumpster contained gunshot residue.
The evidence against Joshlin was substantially stronger than that against his
co-defendant, Jemar Matthews. As the court in Matthews recognized, “[u]nlike
Joshlin, who was found in a dumpster with a handgun linked to the shooting, there
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was no evidence directly linking Matthews to either the shooting or the robbery.”
Matthews v. Neven, 250 F. Supp. 3d 751, 765 (D. Nev. 2017).
AFFIRMED.
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