People v. Brown
| Decision Date | 18 January 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 75556,75556 |
| Citation | 661 N.E.2d 287,169 Ill.2d 132,214 Ill.Dec. 433 |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
| Parties | , 214 Ill.Dec. 433 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Cortez BROWN, Appellant. |
Roger W. Wenthe and Judith A. Kelley, McDermott, Will & Emery, Chicago, for appellant.
Jack O'Malley, State's Attorney, Chicago (Renee G. Goldfarb and Noreen M. Daly, Assistant State's Attorneys, of counsel) for the People.
Following a bench trial in the circuit court of Cook County, the defendant, Cortez Brown, was convicted of one count of murder. The defendant's death sentencing hearing proceeded before the trial judge sitting without a jury. The trial judge found the defendant eligible for the death penalty (720 ILCS 5/9-1(b)(3), (b)(11) (West 1994)), and further found that there were no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude imposition of a death sentence. The defendant's sentence has been stayed pending his direct appeal to this court. Ill. Const.1970, art. VI, § 4(b); 134 Ill.2d Rules 603, 609(a).
The defendant's conviction in this case arose out of the shooting death of Curtis Sims on June 8, 1990, at 5313 South Bishop in Chicago. Christopher Posey testified at trial that he was sitting on the porch at that address with Sims at the time the shooting occurred. Posey stated that he heard shots being fired, saw two persons firing weapons, and ran upstairs into the building.
Officer James Williamson and Officer Robert Trlak were on uniform patrol in the early morning hours of June 8, 1990. At 2:40 a.m., the two officers came upon a gray Ford in their patrol area. While the officers were talking to the driver, they heard gunfire. Officer Williamson testified that he heard quite a few shots, fired from two distinct weapons. The officers told the driver of the gray Ford to leave the area and proceeded in their squad car toward the location of the gunfire. As they were doing so, the officers saw two black males running toward them in an alley. Both of the officers testified that the shorter of the two men, running in back of the other, was carrying a large black gun, and the taller man was carrying a smaller handgun. The officers were pursuing the men when they saw the same gray Ford they had seen before pull up, and the shorter of the two fleeing men jump into it. The officers pursued the car until, with the car still moving, the two occupants jumped out and ran. Each of the officers chased one of the occupants on foot, but they were unable to apprehend them.
On June 9, 1990, Officers Williamson and Trlak each viewed a lineup and identified Dwayne Macklin as the taller man they had seen running in the alley, and identified Willie Walker as the driver of the gray Ford. On September 21, 1990, Officers Williamson and Trlak each viewed another lineup and identified the defendant as the man running in the alley carrying the large black gun. Both of the officers also examined one of the State's exhibits, a large black .45-caliber Uzi, and stated that it resembled the weapon carried by the shorter man in the alley.
The crime scene revealed shell casings from a .45-caliber weapon and from a 9-millimeter weapon, along with one fired bullet. The autopsy of Curtis Sims' body disclosed that he sustained three gunshot wounds to his back, buttocks and leg. The bullets remained in two of the wounds, but had left the body in the third wound. One .45-caliber bullet and one 9-millimeter bullet were recovered from Sims' body. The pathologist testified that Sims died as a result of the gunshot wounds. The pathologist could not say which of the three wounds caused Sims' death, but agreed that "any three of them" could have killed him.
Following the arrest of Macklin soon after the murder, Macklin gave Chicago Detective Michael Kill information about the location of some weapons. As a result, Detective Kill recovered a 9-millimeter handgun. A firearms expert testified that a 9-millimeter cartridge case recovered from the Sims murder scene was fired from this gun. The police also recovered a .45-caliber Uzi at 5933 South Union in Chicago, as a result of information gained from a suspect arrested in another case. A firearms expert testified that the fired .45-caliber bullets from the Sims murder had the same class characteristics as those he test fired from the recovered Uzi.
On September 20, 1990, the defendant was arrested by police in Park Forest, Illinois, after he jumped out of a moving stolen vehicle. When it was learned that there was a warrant outstanding for the defendant's arrest in Chicago, the defendant was turned over to the Chicago police department. The defendant gave Chicago police an oral and a court-reported statement regarding the Sims shooting. Both of the defendant's statements were admitted into evidence. In his statements, the defendant relayed the following about the shooting of Curtis Sims.
At approximately 12 a.m. on June 8, 1990, the defendant was standing with Willie Walker near the corner of 59th Street and Union Avenue in Chicago. The two men were approached by Dwayne Macklin. Both Macklin and the defendant were members of the Gangster Disciples street gang. Macklin told the defendant and Walker that some members of a rival gang, the Vice Lords, had been bothering Macklin when he went to visit his girlfriend. Macklin asked whether defendant and Walker wanted to "go over to 53rd and Bishop to see some Vice Lords." The defendant understood Macklin's suggestion to mean that he wanted to go there to shoot some Vice Lords. The defendant agreed to go with Macklin.
Macklin thereafter rented a car to take the three men to their destination. Walker drove the car. Both the defendant and Macklin carried guns. According to the defendant, Macklin carried a .45-caliber Uzi and the defendant carried a .25-caliber semiautomatic weapon. Walker drove the car to the corner of 53rd and Bishop and dropped off the defendant and Macklin. The defendant and Macklin then walked a short distance to 5313 South Bishop, where two men were sitting on the porch. According to the defendant, Macklin said "what's up" to the men and started shooting at them with the Uzi. The defendant stated that Macklin fired between 9 and 13 shots and that the defendant stood next to him during the shooting "watching his back." Both the defendant and Macklin then fled the scene.
Also following his arrest on September 20, 1990, the defendant was questioned regarding the murder of Delvin Boelter. The defendant gave a statement regarding the Boelter murder at that time. Because there is some interplay between this case and the Boelter case, we briefly discuss the Boelter murder.
Delvin Boelter, a member of another rival gang, the Black Disciples, was shot to death in an alley on September 16, 1990. Four men, including the defendant, were charged with Boelter's murder. One man pled guilty to murder and one man was tried and acquitted of the murder. The defendant was tried, jointly with the fourth man, at a jury trial presided over by the same trial judge who conducted the trial in this case. The defendant and his codefendant were both found guilty of Boelter's murder. The conviction against the defendant was based upon an accountability theory, as it was not alleged that the defendant actually shot Boelter. While this appeal has been pending, the defendant's conviction for the Boelter murder was reversed by the appellate court, and the cause was remanded for a new trial (No. 1-92-2732 (unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23)).
In the instant case, the defendant was found guilty, after a bench trial, of one count of murder. Prior to trial, the defendant signed a jury waiver for sentencing. The trial judge found the defendant eligible for the death penalty, and thereafter heard evidence in aggravation and mitigation. The trial judge found that there were no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude the death penalty and, accordingly, sentenced the defendant to death.
The defendant raises several challenges to the propriety of his murder conviction and death sentence. With regard to his conviction, the defendant contends that reversal is warranted because: (1) his inculpatory statements to police regarding the shooting were involuntary, and (2) the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he caused Sims' death. With regard to his death sentence, the defendant also asserts several challenges; however, due to our disposition of this case, we address only the following contentions: (1) that the defendant's waiver of a jury for sentencing was invalid; (2) that his eligibility for the death penalty was not sufficiently proven; and (3) that the Illinois death penalty statute is unconstitutional. For the reasons stated below, we affirm the defendant's murder conviction but vacate the defendant's death sentence and remand for a new death sentencing hearing.
Trial Issues
The defendant asserts that his oral and written statements to police inculpating himself in the Sims shooting were involuntary and were therefore improperly admitted at his trial. We disagree.
The State first urges us to find that the defendant has waived this issue because he did not, prior to the commencement of his trial for the Sims murder, move to have his statements suppressed. As the State points out, prior to the Boelter murder trial, all of the defendants, including this defendant, filed motions to suppress their statements. The trial judge denied the defendant's motion to suppress. The State submits that, because the defendant did not renew his motion to suppress prior to or during the Sims murder trial, the defendant has waived the issue in this case. We decline to find waiver here. It appears that the pretrial litigation of both the Sims murder case and the Boelter murder case proceeded simultaneously, and the defendant's ...
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