People v. Carr-McKnight

• Decision Date: 13 August 2020
• Docket Number: No. 1-16-3245,1-16-3245
• Citation: 166 N.E.3d 866,2020 IL App (1st) 163245,445 Ill.Dec. 436
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Amelia CARR-MCKNIGHT, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

2020 IL App (1st) 163245

166 N.E.3d 866

445 Ill.Dec. 436

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.Amelia CARR-MCKNIGHT, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1-16-3245

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Fourth Division.

Filed August 13, 2020

James E. Chadd, Patricia Mysza, and Jonathan Pilsner, of State Appellate Defender's Office, of Chicago, for appellant.

Kimberly M. Foxx, State's Attorney, of Chicago (Alan J. Spellberg and David Greenspan, Assistant State's Attorneys, of counsel), for the People.

JUSTICE BURKEdelivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

¶ 1 Following a jury trial, defendantAmelia Carr-McKnight was found guilty of first degree murder and home invasion.The trial court sentenced her to 30 years' imprisonment for first degree murder and to 21 years' imprisonment for each of her two home invasion convictions.The sentences for home invasion were concurrent to one another, but consecutive to the murder conviction, resulting in a total of 51 years' imprisonment.On appeal, defendant contends that (1) the evidence was insufficient to convict her of the offenses, (2)the trial court erred in allowing the State to impeach her credibility with her prior misdemeanor theft conviction and the State inappropriately impeached her with the conviction on cross-examination, (3) her estranged husband was improperly allowed to testify about two statements she made to him regarding her role in the offenses, (4)the trial court erred when it allowed the State to publish three autopsy photographs of the murder victim, and (5)the trial court improperly restricted her closing argument.For the reasons that follow, we vacate the conviction and sentence for home invasion, but affirm in all other respects.

¶ 2 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 3 A grand jury indicted defendant and codefendant Marvell Fisher with 33 counts of first degree murder, 3 counts of armed robbery, 6 counts of home invasion, and 8 counts of residential burglary, all in connection with the shooting death of Jamar Conner on April 14, 2011.Defendant and Fisher had separate trials.¹The State proceeded to trial against defendant on five counts in the indictment: three counts of first degree murder (counts I, II, and IV) and two counts of home invasion (counts XXXVII and XXXVIII).

¶ 4 Count I alleged that defendant and Fisher committed first degree murder in that they, without lawful justification, intentionally or knowingly shot and killed Conner while armed with a firearm.Count II alleged that defendant and Fisher committed first degree murder in that they, without lawful justification, shot and killed Conner while armed with a firearm knowing that such an act created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm to him.Count IV alleged that defendant and Fisher committed first degree murder in that they, without lawful justification, shot and killed Conner while armed with a firearm during the commission of a home invasion.Count XXXVII alleged that defendant and Fisher committed a home invasion in that they, without authority and while armed with a firearm, knowingly entered Arkyisha Sloan-Carr's residence, knew or had reason to know that one or more people were present, and used force or threatened the imminent use of force upon Sloan-Carr within her residence.Count XXXVIII alleged that defendant and Fisher committed home invasion in that they, without authority and while armed with a firearm, knowingly entered Sloan-Carr's residence and knew or had reason to know one or more people were present, and they used force or threatened the imminent use of force upon Conner within her residence.

¶ 5 A. The State's Case

¶ 6Arkyisha Sloan-Carr testified that, in April 2011, she was receiving social security disability checks through the mail as the payee on behalf of her estranged husband, Cedric Carr, who at that time was in county jail.²Arkyisha and Cedric were the parents of two young children.Originally, Cedric's father was Cedric's payee, but later Cedric changed the payee to Arkyisha because he did not trust his father.After Arkyisha became Cedric's payee, he was arrested and placed in county jail.Once there, Arkyisha was supposed to cash his check and deposit the money in his name at the county jail.Despite this arrangement, Arkyisha used the money to support herself and their two children.All told, after Arkyisha became Cedric's payee, she kept the majority of the money and only provided him with $100.Although at one point during the trial, Arkyisha acknowledged not being entitled to the money, she also testified that she kept the majority of the money because she and Cedric "both agreed * * * that we were going to take care of our two children together with the rest of the money."

¶ 7 During April 2011, Arkyisha was living with her boyfriend, Jamar Conner, and her two children in a third-floor apartment located on the 7600 block of South Kingston Avenue in Chicago.Although Arkyisha was still married to Cedric, she had "kicked" him out of the apartment months before she had met Conner, which was some time during the winter of 2010 or 2011.During the first week of April 2011, Arkyisha checked her mailbox to see if she received the usual social security disability check, but it never arrived.As a result, Arkyisha contacted the social security office and had them reissue the check.Around this time, defendant, who was Cedric's sister, came to Arkyisha's apartment and inquired about the check.Their conversation "started to escalate" because defendant wanted Arkyisha to cash the check she did not have.After informing defendant of this, Arkyisha told defendant to leave, which she did.At that time, defendant was legally married to Rick McKnight, but they had been separated for two years.They had multiple children together, including Brandon, Ricky and 10-year-old Jeremiah.The children lived with defendant and Rick at various times.

¶ 8 In the morning of April 14, 2011, Arkyisha received the reissued social security disability check.Later in the day, Jeremiah was at his grandmother's house with defendant; defendant's boyfriend, Marvell Fisher; Ricky; Brandon; and other family members.Jeremiah left his grandmother's house with defendant, Fisher, Ricky and Brandon to go to Arkyisha's residence.Ricky drove and parked in front of Arkyisha's apartment building.According to Jeremiah, all five of them entered the apartment building, though Ricky stayed "downstairs" and Brandon stayed on the second floor.Meanwhile, Jeremiah, defendant and Fisher went up to the third floor.Jeremiah stayed by the stairway while defendant and Fisher went to the front door of an apartment.

¶ 9 It was around 3:40 p.m., and Arkyisha, Conner and her children were in their apartment.Arkyisha and Conner were watching television in their bedroom, while her children were taking naps in another bedroom.Arkyisha heard a knock at the front door of her apartment, went to the door, looked through the peephole, and observed defendant and Jeremiah.Arkyisha walked back toward the bedroom and told Conner that it was defendant at the door and to ignore her, thinking that defendant would eventually leave.According to Jeremiah, after defendant knocked and received no answer, she tried to hear if anyone was inside.Jeremiah heard noises and what appeared to be arguing inside.Meanwhile, Arkyisha observed Conner stand up, walk to the door and open the door a little bit.Both Arkyisha and Jeremiah observed that Conner began to have a conversation with defendant.Defendant asked Conner where Arkyisha was, but Conner asserted that Arkyisha was not there.Defendant told Conner that she heard Arkyisha in the apartment, but Conner again asserted that Arkyisha was not there.

¶ 10 According to Arkyisha, after Conner, who had nothing in his hands, again asserted that she was not there, defendant suddenly "bum rushed" the door and entered the apartment followed by Fisher, both without permission.Immediately after defendant and Fisher were inside, Fisher began wrestling with Conner.Arkyisha grabbed Conner's cell phone to call the police.As she grabbed the phone, Arkyisha could not see defendant but observed that Fisher was beginning to overpower Conner near the front door.While Arkyisha attempted to "work" Conner's phone, which she had difficulty with because she did not know how to slide his phone up, she heard a gunshot.Arkyisha testified that she never had a firearm inside her apartment.After hearing the gunshot, she ran to her children's bedroom and locked the door.

¶ 11 Inside her children's bedroom, Arkyisha was able to open the phone and dial 911.Suddenly, defendant"kicked the door in" and grabbed the phone from Arkyisha's hand.Defendant slammed the cell phone down, put it in her pocket, and began yelling about the social security disability check.Arkyisha described defendant as "going a little bit berserk."Although Arkyisha did not see where he came from, Jeremiah had entered the room.Defendant told him to "go get my gun" because she was "fitting to kill" Arkyisha.Shortly afterward, Arkyisha heard a young male voice say that someone had called the police.Upon hearing that, defendant looked at Arkyisha and said "I'll be back for you."Defendant and Jeremiah then left the apartment.

¶ 12 However, according to Jeremiah, after defendant told Conner that she heard Arkyisha in the apartment, Conner tried to shut the door on defendant.But defendant pushed back and forced her way into the apartment.Conner then "tried to hit"defendant, and they began fighting.Fisher followed defendant into the apartment and began fighting with Conner, as well.Jeremiah, meanwhile, stood by the front door.Although he really could not see what was happening, the fighting sounded more intense than just a scuffle.Sometime into the fighting, Jeremiah heard a gunshot.At trial, when asked who fired the gun, Jeremiah asserted that it was Fisher because when they had exited the vehicle...