People v. Davis

Citation290 Ill.Dec. 580,213 Ill.2d 459,821 N.E.2d 1154
Decision Date16 December 2004
Docket NumberNo. 95614.,95614.
PartiesThe PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Taiwan M. DAVIS, Appellant.
CourtIllinois Supreme Court

Daniel M. Kirwan, Deputy Defender, and E. Joyce Randolph, Assistant Defender, of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, Mt. Vernon, for appellant, and Taiwan M. Davis, Centralia, appellant pro se.

Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Springfield, and William Haine, State's Attorney, Edwardsville (Gary Feinerman, Solicitor General, and Linda D. Woloshin and Jay Paul Hoffmann, Assistant Attorneys General, Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

Justice FITZGERALD delivered the opinion of the court:

On October 1, 1998, defendant Taiwan Davis was charged by indictment with two counts of first degree murder of Richard Skelton. Count I alleged first degree knowing murder (720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(2) (West 1998)), and count II alleged first degree felony murder predicated on mob action (720 ILCS 5/25-1(a)(1) (West 1998)). At the jury instructions conference, the circuit court of Madison County indicated it would give defendant's tendered involuntary manslaughter instructions only as an alternative to count I knowing murder. The State then moved to dismiss count I, which the court allowed. As a result, the trial court declined to give involuntary manslaughter instructions. The jury convicted defendant of felony murder.

The appellate court affirmed. 335 Ill.App.3d 1102, 270 Ill.Dec. 116, 782 N.E.2d 310. We granted leave to appeal (177 Ill.2d Rs. 315, 612(b)) to address two issues: (1) whether defendant's conviction for felony murder was based on a predicate felony inherent in the killing so that it must be vacated under People v. Morgan, 197 Ill.2d 404, 259 Ill.Dec. 405, 758 N.E.2d 813 (2001); and (2) whether the trial court committed reversible error by refusing to give involuntary manslaughter instructions. For the following reasons, we affirm the appellate court.

BACKGROUND

Late in the evening of August 10, 1998, Richard Skelton learned that his recently purchased television set was missing. Richard believed his girlfriend and his two sisters had sold it for crack cocaine. Richard's younger brother, Fred, picked him up at a bar called Wick's with Richard's son Jason, Jason's girlfriend Dawn Herrin, Richard's daughter Shelly Garrett, and Jill Walter. In two cars, the group drove to the 1100 block of Seventh Street in Alton, Illinois, where they believed the television may have been sold.

Members of the group exited the cars and began knocking on doors and asking about the television. The group had some familiarity with the area. During their search, Fred met a prior acquaintance, Bruce Stewart. Fred asked Stewart about the television and then asked some men on a porch "if they had heard of any television set being sold in this area for drugs." Richard also asked individuals about the television. Dawn testified that Jason was trying to get his father to leave before anything started, but Richard refused, saying that he was not going to leave until he got his television back. The pair continued across the street to Timothy Lee's duplex, where Lee and several friends were sitting on the porch.

An argument began, and Lee told them to get off his property. Fred testified that, "they told us that we were in the wrong neighborhood to even be asking questions." Fred heard a door slam across the street, turned, and saw "several guys coming from behind [him]." Fred stated, "It was a pretty scary situation at that time when they started coming at me." According to Fred, defendant was not part of either group; however, Shelly was able to identify defendant at that time. Fred turned back around and was "split in the head with a club" and "knocked out" for 20 to 30 seconds. Shelly testified that she was also attacked by four or five persons.

When Fred woke up he saw "ten or better" men beating Richard. Shelly stated that it was 20 men. "Every one of them" was beating Richard. They kicked Richard in the head, face, and ribs for about five minutes. "He didn't have a chance to fight back," stated Fred. According to Fred, "They was saying slurs, you know, shouldn't have been in this area, and they'd kick him. They was cussing and yelling and hollering like kind of rejoicing that he got whopped like he did." Shelly described the situation by stating, "They was actually pulling each other out of the way and they was, you know laughing, kick him, you know hitting him, kick his ass, and so, you know, everything was, I was trying to get to him. I was yelling that's my father." Jason testified similarly, stating, "Most all the guys that I could see that was there was participating in it like it was, you know, fun or something, a game to them." The crowd "was cheering them on and rooting them on and trying to get in there to help their friends basically kill him." None of the group around Richard attempted to stop the incident, according to Jason.

Shelly identified defendant hitting Richard more than six times with a stick. Fred saw defendant with a stick in his hand, and observed defendant throw the stick down as he fled. Jason testified that he saw defendant in the group around Richard, but did not see anyone with a stick. Jason did not know if defendant hit Richard because Jason was trying to get his girlfriend out of the fray. Dawn Herrin did not see the crowd of 15 or 20 people hit Richard, but did see defendant holding something as he was crossing the street to join the crowd. Jill testified that she was a block away and saw a fight with Richard in the center, but could not identify anyone specifically in the beating. Each of the witnesses admitted that they omitted reference to defendant in their initial reports to police, but, according to the witnesses, such omissions were because they were not asked or they were still emotional from the incident.

As the police were arriving, the group beating Richard fled. Alton police officer Michael Bazzell was called to the scene of a fight "around midnight." He observed a "white male laying partially in the roadway." Richard was not conscious and did not have a pulse. Bazzell unsuccessfully performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He observed "the majority of his face was covered with blood." The victim arrived by ambulance at the Alton Memorial Hospital emergency room in cardiac arrest. According to a nurse, Richard had abrasions on his forehead and bruises to both sides of his face. After attempts to revive Richard failed, Richard was pronounced dead at 12:50 a.m. on August 11, 1998.

Dr. Raj Nanduri performed a postmortem examination on the victim. Dr. Nanduri testified to bruises, abrasions, and scratches about Richard's face. He stated there was a "massive hemorrhage underneath the scalp in the temple region" and that the wounds were consistent with blunt force injury to the head. Dr. Nanduri did not observe fractures of the skull or intracranial hemorrhage. Richard's chest exhibited a wound consistent with blunt-force injuries and the left fifth and sixth ribs were broken. There were injuries to the back of the neck consistent with a beating of the victim. Dr. Nanduri additionally stated that Richard had very advanced coronary atherosclerosis and a 0.183 blood-alcohol level. He determined the cause of death to be "cardiac arrythmia precipitated by blunt trauma to head and chest in patient with advanced atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease" with "acute ethanol intoxication" being a significant contributing condition of death.

Dr. Nanduri testified it was possible that a stick could have caused some of Richard's blunt-force injuries. However, he could not state whether the blunt-force injuries were actually caused by a stick. Dr. Nanduri explained, "[A] stick can cause a pattern which is consistent with the object. And if you have that, then you can for sure take the dimensions and measurements of the stick and the injuries on the body and you would be able to say that, in all probability this weapon or similar object would have caused the particular injury." He did not find that pattern in this case. Dr. Nanduri would expect that if someone hit a victim six times directly with a stick, then a pattern would be observable on the victim.

Several police officers canvassed the area soon after the incident. Officer Anthony Ventimiglia, the crime scene technician, arrived to the scene after Richard had been removed. The beating occurred around a Ford Escort parked on the south side of 7th Street. A light blue broomstick was found just to the west of the Ford Escort. Ventimiglia identified the broomstick in court, which was approximately three feet in length and one-half inch in diameter. Photographs also depicted Richard's eyeglass lens, a wristwatch, medical supplies, and "some blood that was in the roadway" near the Ford Escort. Photographs depicted numerous severe bruises and lacerations about Richard's head. Ventimiglia did not notice any blood on the stick.

Alton detective Scott Golike testified that he first saw defendant in a duplex belonging to Lisa Haynes at 1118 East 7th Street at approximately 2 a.m., August 11, 1998. Golike testified that defendant stated that he had been inside and did not see the incident. In a witness statement at 2:23 a.m. on August 11, defendant stated that he heard a commotion outside, so he looked outside through the window. He saw Timothy Lee arguing with a bunch of people about a television set, but he never saw a fight because his friend's mom told them to stay out of it.

Golike interviewed defendant again several hours later at the police station. After being advised of his constitutional rights, defendant altered his story. According to Golike, defendant stated, with a tear in his eye, that he had, in fact, beaten the victim three or four times with a stick. In his written statement, signed at 7:45 a.m. on August 11, defendant stated that he previously lied...

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