People v. Hayes

• Citation: 564 N.E.2d 803,139 Ill.2d 89,151 Ill.Dec. 348
• Decision Date: 21 November 1990
• Docket Number: No. 64701,64701
• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois
• Parties: , 151 Ill.Dec. 348 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Clarence HAYES, Appellant.

Page 803

564 N.E.2d 803

139 Ill.2d 89, 151 Ill.Dec. 348

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Clarence HAYES, Appellant.

No. 64701.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 21, 1990.

[139 Ill.2d 102] [151 Ill.Dec. 352] Randolph N. Stone, Public Defender, Chicago (Alison Edwards, Asst. Public Defender, of counsel), for appellant.

Richard M. Daley, State's Atty., Chicago (Inge Fryklund, Renee Goldfarb and Carol L. Gaines, Asst. State's Attys., of counsel), for the People.

Lisa S. Simmons and Susan J. Flieder, of Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon, and Roslyn C. Lieb, Chicago, for amicus curiae Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc.

Justice WARD delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant, Clarence Hayes, was convicted following a jury trial in the circuit court of Cook County of the murder of Ronald Nelson and on six related counts of armed robbery. The defendant waived a jury for purposes of a capital sentencing hearing, and the trial judge sentenced the defendant to death and imposed concurrent 30-year sentences for each of the six armed robbery counts. The death sentence was stayed (107 Ill.2d R. 609(a)), pending direct appeal to this court (Ill. Const.1970, art. VI, § 4(b); 107 Ill.2d R. 603).

The defendant raises 25 issues on appeal which, for ease of review, are grouped to reflect whether the issues relate to pretrial, trial or sentencing matters. The issues which relate to the pretrial stage include (1) whether the trial court erred in ordering the defense to disclose to the State potentially impeaching statements by prosecution witnesses to a defense investigator; (2) whether the State improperly used the grand jury process to obtain pretrial discovery from defense witnesses; (3) whether the defendant was deprived of his sixth amendment right to have counsel present at pretrial lineups; and (4) whether his conviction must be reversed because the warrant for his arrest failed to articulate probable cause on its face. The defendant raises nine issues concerning the conduct of the trial itself: (1) whether he was denied a fair trial when a State witness testified that the police tried for two weeks to apprehend him; (2) whether his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination was violated by testimony that he failed to "turn himself in" to the police; (3) whether his fourth amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures was violated by testimony that the police secured a warrant for his arrest; (4) whether he was denied a fair trial by the introduction of testimony that witnesses did not identify persons other than the defendant; (5) whether he was denied a fair trial by the admission of testimony regarding the details of third-party identifications of the defendant; (6) whether testimony and prosecutorial remarks regarding the victim's family deprived him of a fair trial; (7) whether testimony that the defendant made racial comments as he fled the scene of the crime deprived the defendant of a fair trial; (8) whether he was denied a fair trial by the admission of evidence suggesting prior criminal conduct; and (9) whether the cumulative effect of improperly admitted evidence denied the defendant a fair trial. The defendant's allegations of error at the sentencing phase include: (1) whether the defendant's death sentence must be vacated because the circuit court relied in aggravation upon section 5-5-3.2(a)(9) of the Unified Code of Corrections (Ill.Rev.Stat.1985, ch. 38, par. 1005-5-3.2(a)(9)), in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution; (2) whether section 5-5-3.2(a)(9) violates the first amendment of the United States Constitution; (3) whether section 5-5-3.2(a)(9) violates the equal protection provisions of the United States and Illinois Constitutions; (4) whether section 5-5-3.2(a)(9) is inapplicable to the facts in this case; (5) whether the defendant was denied a fair sentencing hearing by the admission of victim impact evidence; (6) whether the defendant was denied a fair sentencing hearing by the introduction of testimony by the victim's son that the defendant would kill again; and (7) whether the cumulative effect of inadmissible information and impermissible aggravating factors made the sentencing result unreliable, in violation of the eighth amendment. The defendant also raises a number of challenges to the constitutionality of the Illinois death penalty statute, which, as we discuss below, we need not address.

At the defendant's trial, the State introduced the testimony of four of the armed robbery victims and of two bystanders. Roger Nelson, the murder victim's son, testified that he and his fiancee, Sandra Wissink attended church services on March 17, 1985, with his mother, Marion Nelson, and his father, Ronald Nelson (the victim). The family attended services at the Roseland Christian Ministries Center, located at 110th Street and Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The Nelson family lingered for 10 or 15 minutes after the church services ended to talk to the pastor of the Center, Reverend Van Zanten, and his wife, Donna. At approximately 1:45 or 1:50 p.m., the Nelsons and Sandra left the church and walked across the street to the fenced lot where they had parked their cars. As they walked toward their cars, a man holding a gun approached them and ordered them into Ronald Nelson's car. The gunman, whom Roger identified as the defendant, wore a long dark coat, a baseball cap with a Playboy insignia and a light-colored shirt.

The gunman crouched by the open door on the driver's side of the car and demanded their money. After the men handed the assailant their wallets and the women gave him their purses, the assailant insisted that they were holding something back. He demanded more money and threatened to kill someone if he discovered they were holding out on him. When the Nelsons told the gunman that they had given him everything they had, he became angry and insisted that they were lying. He pointed the gun at each person in the car, telling them that he would kill someone if necessary.

After approximately five minutes, Donna Van Zanten, the pastor's wife, and her son, Kent, walked out of the church toward the parking lot. As Donna and Kent approached, the assailant waved the gun at them and ordered them into the car.

Donna and Kent got into the back seat with Roger and Sandra. After Donna handed the assailant her purse and Kent gave him his wallet, the assailant continued to threaten the passengers and demanded more money. Approximately five minutes after the Van Zantens got into the car, the assailant grabbed the victim's lapel and saw that he had a checkbook in his inside pocket. The victim explained to the assailant that he did not give him the checkbook because he did not think he would be able to use it. The assailant handed the checkbook back to the victim, called him a "god damn lying bastard" and fatally shot him in the abdomen. The assailant then stood up, clutched the purses to his chest and jogged away. Sandra Wissink Nelson, Donna Van Zanten and Kent Van Zanten also testified at trial. Their description of the events leading up to the shooting death of Ronald Nelson coincided with that of Roger Nelson.

Larry Stewart and Harold Smith, two bystanders, testified that they were working on a car near the parking lot when they heard arguing and a loud "bang like" noise. They testified that they saw a man with a gun, clutching some purses, running toward them. As the assailant ran by, he told the witnesses, "You brothers, you be cool because you know them was honkies over there." They then heard Roger, whom Harold knew from the Center, shout to them that the man on the run had just "shot my Dad."

Several of the witnesses testified regarding their involvement in the subsequent investigation of Ronald Nelson's death. Roger Nelson testified that he spent between six and seven hours after the shooting at the police station with Sandra Wissink and the Van Zantens, looking at pictures, but did not identify any of the photos as the assailant. Kent Van Zanten testified that he and his mother rode around the neighborhood with the police for 1 1/2 hours after the shooting but were not able to find the offender. He also testified that he looked through at least five books of photographs the day of the shooting in an effort to find the assailant. He testified that a few days after the shooting, he and his mother spoke with a police artist, who prepared a composite sketch. Kent testified, however, that the sketch did not look like the assailant. Donna Van Zanten testified that she and her son looked with the police for the assailant on the day of the crime and that Detective McWeeny of the Chicago police department showed her photo arrays on three separate occasions, but that she was unable to identify anyone in the photos.

Detective McWeeny testified for the State that he brought Larry Stewart, one of the bystanders, to Area 1 Violent Crimes to look at photo books on March 29, 1985. Apparently, all previous photo arrays had been collected from Area 2 Violent Crimes. Stewart looked through a number of books and picked out Clarence Hayes' photo. Detective McWeeny then obtained a more recent photo of the defendant and assembled a photo array for the other witnesses. According to Detective McWeeny, bystander Harold Smith and Donna and Kent Van Zanten identified the defendant's photograph from this array.

Detective McWeeny testified that he went to Clarence Hayes' home at 10727 South Indiana and asked an elderly man if he could speak to Clarence Hayes. The officer left his business card and asked the man to have Clarence call him when he got home. Over defense objection, the officer testified that after making approximately six attempts to locate the defendant at his parents' home, the police obtained an arrest warrant and formed a stakeout at a currency exchange. The stakeout...