People v. Carroll
| Citation | 2021 IL App (4th) 200491 -U |
| Decision Date | 07 June 2021 |
| Docket Number | NO. 4-20-0491,4-20-0491 |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ROGER W. CARROLL JR., Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
NOTICE
This Order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).
Appeal from the Circuit Court of Jersey County
Honorable Eric S. Pistorius, Judge Presiding.
¶ 1 Held: The appellate court affirmed defendant's conviction, finding the trial court did not err in its evidentiary rulings and defense counsel's performance was not deficient under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984).
¶ 2 In April 2018, the State filed an amended information against defendant, Roger W. Carroll Jr., charging him with six felonies associated with Bonnie Woodward's disappearance and death in June 2010. The State charged three counts of first degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(1), (2) (West 2010)), alleging defendant, in June 2010, without lawful justification and with the intent to kill Bonnie Woodward, shot her. First degree murder, a nonprobationable special class felony punishable by 20 to 60 years in prison (730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-20 (West 2010)), in this case included a possible minimum of 25 additional years if defendant was found to have personally discharged a firearm (730 ILCS 5/5-8-1(a)(1)(d)(3) (West 2010)). The second count alleged the same act but that defendant knew such an act created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm to Bonnie Woodward thereby causing her death. Count III alleged defendant committed first degree murder while committing a forcible felony (aggravated kidnapping (720 ILCS 5/10-1(a)(3) (West 2010))) by shooting Bonnie Woodward (720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(3) (West 2010)). The State also charged one count of aggravated kidnapping, a Class X felony (720 ILCS 5/10-1(a)(3) (2010)) and one count of concealment of a homicidal death, a Class 3 felony (720 ILCS 5/9-3.4(a) (West 2010)), but these counts were eventually dismissed before or during trial.
¶ 3 In March 2020, a jury found defendant guilty on all three first degree murder counts and found the personal discharge enhancement had been proved. In October 2020, the trial court sentenced defendant to 40 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) on each count, to run concurrently with an additional 25-year enhancement for discharging a firearm. On appeal, defendant presents seven arguments: (1) the State's display of defendant's photograph to an eyewitness several weeks before trial constituted plain error; (2) the trial court's refusal to allow defendant's counsel to review Nathan Carroll's notes after an in camera inspection and an assertion of attorney-client privilege was error; (3) the admission of other-crimes evidence was error; (4) it was error for the trial court to limit defense counsel's cross-examination of Monica Carroll, which was intended to show a financial interest and bias; (5) admitting testimony regarding the family's attitude toward Nathan Carroll after testifying before the grand jury was error; (6) the trial court's failure to strike and admonish jurors to disregard bad character evidence was error; and (7) ineffective assistance of trial counsel. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.
¶ 5 In April 2018, after several amendments, the State eventually filed an information charging defendant with three counts of first degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(1), (2) (West 2018)), one count of concealment of a homicidal death, and one count of aggravated kidnapping. The aggravated kidnapping and concealment of a homicidal death counts were eventually dismissed prior to the verdict.
¶ 6 In February 2020, at a final pretrial hearing, several motions in limine were addressed. The State sought to present evidence of a domestic battery incident between defendant and his wife which occurred in March 2018 and resulted in a newfound focus on defendant as a suspect in the disappearance of Bonnie Woodward. In addition to the circumstances of the domestic battery, the State sought to introduce certain inculpatory statements defendant made to his wife during the incident as other-crimes evidence. The defense objected on two grounds: spousal communication privilege and any probative value being outweighed by the prejudicial impact. The trial court found the incident and statements admissible, and the State confirmed it would limit the wife's testimony surrounding the incident, as well as defendant's statements.
¶ 7 At trial, the State's first witness was Scott Golike, a lieutenant with the Alton Police Department, where he had been a police officer for over 27 years. Over the course of his law enforcement career, he had been involved with 65 to 75 homicide investigations. At the time of his testimony, he was a special investigator for the Madison County State's Attorney's Office. In 2010, he was chief of detectives and oversaw the Bonnie Woodward investigation. He testified to the various circumstances which led authorities to become suspicious about the unexplained disappearance of Bonnie Woodward in 2010. These included her unexplained absence from work, conversations with friends and family, and the fact that her truck was foundin her workplace parking lot, apparently abandoned, with the doors locked and windows down. Several employees said they observed an interaction between an unknown man and Bonnie in the parking lot sometime before she disappeared. Based on descriptions of the person and the vehicle he appeared to be driving, defendant became a suspect approximately one month after her disappearance. A search warrant was executed on defendant's property, and investigators seized firearms and ammunition, but the case went cold until March 2018 when defendant's neighbor contacted Golike, prompting him to contact Detective Nick Manns about defendant's then pending domestic battery investigation.
¶ 8 Golike laid the foundation for admission of a redacted version of defendant's interview with police. After defendant was Mirandized (see Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966)), he was questioned both at his property and later after being transported to the station for a recorded interview. During the interview, defendant denied ever speaking with Woodward or being around, handling, or touching her vehicle. Toward the end of the interview, Golike asked, Defendant responded, "[N]o, there's no way that my fingerprints are on that car door ***." Later in the trial, a fingerprint analysis expert with the Illinois State Police testified that a fingerprint and palmprint located on Woodward's truck door matched defendant's fingerprint card.
¶ 9 Nick Manns spent over 25 years in federal law enforcement before becoming a detective with the Jersey County Sheriff's Office in 2017. He testified that in March 2018, he received a report of defendant committing a domestic battery against his wife (Monica) and viewed photographs of her injuries. A police search for defendant in the Jerseyville area was unfruitful. Manns, being familiar with the area, drove by defendant's home after his shift, and hefound defendant lying unconscious in a wooded area far off the road. Found on defendant were a bag of syringes and insulin, which defendant later admitted using, intending to commit suicide because "he hurt his wife bad." While investigating the domestic battery, Manns learned from Detective Golike that defendant was suspected in Bonnie Woodward's disappearance 10 years earlier.
¶ 10 Nathan Carroll, defendant's son, now 25 years old, was 16 when Bonnie Woodward disappeared. He knew Bonnie's stepdaughter (Heather) through a church group. In June 2010, after Heather ran away from Bonnie's home, his father (defendant) offered to have Heather live with them until she was 18 and able to be on her own. Nathan, testifying under a grant of immunity, said he never met Bonnie but that defendant told him she "was a bad person" who was constantly "mean and aggressive and abusive" towards Heather and that Bonnie "needed to go away and never come back." When the family was vacationing with in-laws in late June 2010, defendant told Nathan that Bonnie "needed to die." Nathan testified he attempted to talk defendant out of doing anything but eventually, at defendant's direction, Nathan and he returned to Jerseyville a day earlier than his wife and Heather, who had accompanied them on the trip. Nathan said once they arrived, defendant drove to Bonnie's place of work, pointed at her truck, and said, "[G]ood[,] she is working today." Nathan testified defendant was familiar with Bonnie's work schedule because he had questioned Heather about what time Bonnie would typically arrive and leave for work. Nathan said once defendant arrived home from the trip, he showered, shaved, dressed, loaded his gun, and said, "[T]his has gotta happen whether you like it or not," before leaving. In preparation for the murder, Nathan erected a tent away from the house with the idea that defendant would tell Bonnie that Heather was staying inside the tent to lure Bonnie inside. When defendant returned, Nathan testified he heard eight or nine gunshots froman area behind the garage. When he walked outside through the garage, he saw the lower part of human legs wearing tan "scrub pants." Defendant told him "not to go back there because it's ugly." He saw defendant start up the tractor, scoop the body up in the front loader, and dump the body in a large brush fire previously lit by Nathan. According to Nathan, when defendant showed him Bonnie's cell phone, Nathan took it, smashed it with a hammer, put it in a plastic bag, and threw it on the fire. Nathan and defendant both...
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