People v. Barrow
| Decision Date | 29 January 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 80332.,80332. |
| Citation | 749 N.E.2d 892,195 Ill.2d 506,255 Ill.Dec. 410 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Ronald BARROW, Appellant. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Leonard L. Cavise, Chicago, for appellant, and Ronald Barrow, Menard, appellant pro se.
No appearance for the People.
The defendant, Ronald Barrow, appeals from an order of the circuit court of La Salle County dismissing, without an evidentiary hearing, his amended petition for post-conviction relief. Because the defendant was sentenced to death for the underlying murder conviction, the present appeal lies directly to this court. 134 Ill. 2d R. 651(a).
In May 1985, following a jury trial in the circuit court of La Salle County, the defendant was convicted of murder, armed robbery, residential burglary, and burglary. The same jury later found him eligible for the death penalty because of his commission of murder during the course of a felony. See Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 38, par. 9-1(b)(6). The jury also found that there were no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude a sentence of death. Accordingly, the trial judge sentenced the defendant to death for the murder conviction. The judge also sentenced him to a 30-year prison term for armed robbery and to a 15-year prison term for residential burglary, with the sentences to be served consecutively; no sentence was imposed on the conviction for burglary. On direct appeal, this court affirmed the convictions and sentences. People v. Barrow, 133 Ill.2d 226, 139 Ill.Dec. 728, 549 N.E.2d 240 (1989). The United States Supreme Court denied the defendant's petition for a writ of certiorari. Barrow v. Illinois, 497 U.S. 1011, 110 S.Ct. 3257, 111 L.Ed.2d 767 (1990).
The defendant later instituted the present action by filing a pro se petition for post-conviction relief in the circuit court of La Salle County. The court appointed counsel to assist the defendant, and counsel filed an amended petition. The defendant subsequently requested leave to file a "supplemental pro se post-conviction petition," which the court denied. The State moved to dismiss the amended petition, and, after hearing arguments, the court granted the State's motion and dismissed the amended petition without an evidentiary hearing. The circuit judge concluded that the defendant's post-conviction claims were barred by the doctrine of res judicata, did not allege an issue of constitutional magnitude, or did not involve errors that would have affected the outcome of defendant's trial. The defendant brings this appeal from the dismissal of his amended post-conviction petition, and we now affirm the judgment of the circuit court.
The testimony introduced at the defendant's trial is set forth fully in this court's opinion on direct appeal. Barrow, 133 Ill.2d at 238-45, 139 Ill.Dec. 728, 549 N.E.2d 240. Because much of this evidence is also relevant to the arguments raised in these post-conviction proceedings, however, we find it helpful to present a detailed summary of the trial testimony here.
Darlene Brown, the victim's daughter, testified that on February 18, 1984, she was with her father, Joseph O'Berto, at his home from about 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. The next afternoon, on February 19, Brown, her husband, and her father-in-law found O'Berto lying in the basement of his home in a pool of blood; he had been shot in the head. The front door of the house was unlocked, and several rooms were in disarray. Brown determined that some of her father's possessions were missing, including his wallet, which usually contained about $500 in hundred-dollar bills, a bankbook showing $20,000 on deposit, and a gold money clip. Hayden Baldwin, a crime scene technician, testified that several of the stairs leading to the victim's basement had been "torn up" and, in the basement, he observed an empty safe and three slot machines. Baldwin examined the front and rear doors of the victim's house and found no signs of forced entry.
Leroy Blum, the victim's next-door neighbor, testified that on February 18, 1984, he observed the outside light at the victim's home go off around 9 p.m. and then turn on again around 10:30 p.m. Around 1:15 a.m., Blum noticed that the light was on; later, at 3 a.m., Blum awoke and saw that the light was off.
Harry Hockings, an Illinois state trooper, testified that on March 15, 1984, Judy Herron informed him that her boyfriend, Harold "Smokey" Wrona, who was then serving a sentence in a Maryland state prison, had information regarding the victim's death and wanted to talk to Hockings about the case. Officer Hockings and La Salle County Sheriff Pete Wahl met with Wrona in the Maryland prison where Wrona was incarcerated. Officer Hockings testified that, because of the information provided by Wrona, arrangements were made with Maryland law enforcement authorities to have Wrona released from prison so that he could meet with the defendant and provide an opportunity for the defendant to incriminate himself in the matter. On April 6, 1984, Wrona met the defendant in Maryland in a hotel room specially equipped with hidden audiovisual equipment. After making a number of incriminating statements to Wrona, the defendant was arrested and charged with the offenses involved here.
At trial, Wrona explained that he first met the defendant in July 1983, while they were both incarcerated at a Maryland prison. Wrona testified that, while in prison, he told the defendant that, in 1966, two of his friends had committed a burglary at a home in Cedar Point, Illinois, stealing $64,000 that they had found under a basement stair. Wrona further related to the defendant that his friends told him that they had also found three "barrels of change" in the basement, which they did not take. Wrona told the defendant that his friends later learned that an additional $175,000 was hidden in a basement stair where they had not searched.
Wrona testified that the defendant visited him in the Maryland prison on February 2, 1984, following the defendant's release on bond pending appeal. According to Wrona, the defendant asked about the Cedar Point robbery, sought directions to the town, and had Wrona describe the house involved.
Wrona further testified that the defendant visited him again in prison several weeks later, on February 24, 1984. On that occasion, the defendant said that he had made "a pretty good score" in Cedar Point. According to Wrona's testimony, the defendant recounted that he and his brother, Bruce Barrow, had watched the victim's home for about one week. Late one night, the defendant knocked on the victim's front door and asked to use the telephone because he was having car trouble. The defendant then stuck his foot in the door, pushed the victim back into the house with a gun, and handcuffed him. The defendant said that the victim's wallet contained five one-hundred dollar bills and that he also found a bankbook showing a balance of $18,000. In the basement, the defendant saw an empty safe and three slot machines covered with plastic. The defendant stated that he and his brother "tore a couple stairs up" but did not find any money hidden under them. The defendant also told Wrona that he asked the victim where the money was; because the man could not hear, the defendant then "whipped him." While pointing a finger to his head, the defendant said that he "had to take him out of it." Wrona also testified that the defendant said that he and his brother wore gloves the entire time they were in the victim's home. The defendant related that he disposed of the gun in a river in Indiana later that night, just before he was stopped by an Indiana state trooper for speeding.
The tape recording of the defendant's conversation with Wrona in the Maryland hotel room was also played for the jury, and a transcript of the recording was received into evidence. As recorded on the tape, the defendant told Wrona that "everything went just like * * * we had planned it." The defendant said that, after watching the victim's home for a week, he forced his way into the residence one evening after midnight. The defendant stated that although he hit the victim "all over," the victim refused to tell the defendant anything except "where he kept change." The defendant said that he then searched everywhere but could find only an empty safe in the basement. The defendant also stated that he "pulled up" the first two stairs leading to the basement but did not find any money there. Wrona asked the defendant what kind of gun he used, and the defendant replied that it was a "hot, nine mil[limeter]" from Delaware. The defendant stated that he tossed the gun off a bridge on his return trip east.
The State also presented evidence showing that the defendant, who lived in Maryland, was in the vicinity of Cedar Point around the time of the victim's murder. Judy Herron, Wrona's girlfriend, testified that in February 1984 the defendant and his brother, Bruce, visited her home in Seatonville, which is about 20 miles from Cedar Point. Herron testified that the defendant was driving a white car and that he told her that he was staying at the Holiday Inn motel in Peru under an assumed name. According to Herron, the defendant and his brother returned several days later. At that time, the defendant told Herron that his brother had been stopped for a traffic offense the previous evening, and that they had been lucky because the police officer had not discovered a gun that was in the car at the time.
Several other witnesses at trial also gave testimony establishing that the defendant was in the area at the time of the offenses involved here. An employee of a car rental agency in Delaware testified that on February 11, 1984, the defendant rented a white Ford Thunderbird, with license plate number 744741. A clerk at the Holiday Inn motel in Peru testified that defendant and another man checked into...
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