People v. Doehring
| Decision Date | 30 September 2021 |
| Docket Number | 1-19-0420 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Christopher DOEHRING, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
James E. Chadd, Douglas R. Hoff, and Jonathan Krieger, of State Appellate Defender's Office, of Chicago, for appellant.
Kimberly M. Foxx, State's Attorney, of Chicago (Alan J. Spellberg, John E. Nowak and Joseph Alexander, Assistant State's Attorneys, of counsel), for the People.
¶ 1 Defendant Christopher Doehring, and codefendant Samuel Parsons-Salas, were charged in a 102-count indictment with charges stemming from a home invasion that occurred on September 21, 2009, at 3555 West Sunnyside Avenue, in which Angelina Escobar and Alex Santiago were killed. Defendant's case was severed from that of his codefendant, and after a jury trial, defendant was convicted of two counts of first degree murder ( 720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(1) (West 2008)) (counts XXXIII and XXXIV), two counts of first degree murder (id. § 9-1(a)(2) ) (counts XXXIX and XL) and two counts of home invasion (id. § 12-11(a)(3)) (counts LXIX and LXX).1 The trial court imposed concurrent sentences of natural life plus a 15-year firearm enhancement on counts XXXIII and XXXIV, and concurrent sentences of 30 years on counts LXIX and LXX. The court merged the convictions in counts XXXIX and XL into the convictions in counts XXXIII and XXXIV.
¶ 2 Defendant filed a timely notice of appeal. We have jurisdiction under article VI, section 6, of the Illinois Constitution ( Ill. Const. 1970, art. VI, § 6 ) and Illinois Supreme Court Rule 603 (eff. Feb. 6, 2013) and Rule 606 (eff. Mar. 12, 2021), governing appeals from final judgments of conviction in criminal cases.
¶ 3 For the reasons that follow, we affirm in part and vacate in part.
¶ 5 In September of 2009, Santiago and Escobar resided together in a third-floor apartment at 3555 West Sunnyside Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. Santiago sold drugs. At approximately 9:30 p.m. on September 20, 2009, Officer K. Tierney2 encountered Santiago and two other individuals, Kelvin Lee and Kevin Wendell, by a broken-down vehicle at 3552 West Lawrence Avenue. Officer Tierney testified that 3552 West Lawrence Avenue is between one-half mile and one mile from 3555 West Sunnyside Avenue. As is customary when an officer encounters a civilian, this encounter was recorded on a "contact card."
¶ 6 At trial, Angel Torres, who sold drugs with Santiago, testified that on September 20, 2009, sometime between 8 and 10 p.m., he and his girlfriend Brittney went to Santiago and Escobar's apartment. At some point in the evening, Brittney left so that Torres and Santiago could conduct business. Such "business" consisted of bagging up drugs (marijuana, cocaine, crack, and ecstasy) and counting money. Torres's share of the money was about $1500. At around midnight, Torres left the apartment and returned to Brittney's apartment.
¶ 7 Misael Salas testified that in 2009 he was 17 years old and often saw defendant whom he knew from the neighborhood. On September 20, 2009, at about 9 or 10 p.m., Salas and his older brother, codefendant Parsons-Salas, went to defendant's house to hang out. The three drank alcohol and smoked marijuana. Later that evening, the three got into defendant's van. Defendant drove, codefendant sat in the front passenger seat, and Salas sat in the van's back seat. Defendant said to codefendant, "let's go hit this lick," and codefendant nodded his assent. Salas explained that a "lick" meant to "take something from somebody else." Defendant parked the van in an alley by Sunnyside Avenue. Defendant and codefendant then retrieved handguns from a small slot in the dashboard and exited the van.
¶ 8 While Salas remained in the van listening to his iPod, he heard two "pops." While remaining in the rear seat, Salas picked the keys off of the van's floor and turned on the ignition. Defendant and codefendant returned to the van and their original seats, returned the firearms to the slot in the dashboard, and drove off. Salas saw his brother holding a clear plastic bag containing marijuana and cocaine. Defendant then said, "I got them, they are gone."
¶ 9 On September 21, 2009, at 1 a.m., Sharon Curtis, who resided in a building located across the street from 3555 West Sunnyside Avenue, was talking on the phone when she heard what sounded like gunshots. Curtis called 911 and, while she spoke with the operator, looked out her front window and saw a person run out of the building across the street. The person, whose face was not visible and whose gender she could not determine, stopped, paused, and ran eastbound on Sunnyside Avenue. Curtis described the individual as "small-framed" and wearing what appeared to be a flannel-like checkered shirt.
¶ 10 Officer Tierney and Officer Charlotte Gonzalez responded to the 911 call and, after speaking with Curtis, went to Santiago and Escobar's apartment, where they observed that the front door was kicked in and heard a female voice inside the apartment faintly calling for help. Upon entering the bedroom, Office Tierney observed Escobar attempting to crawl toward the door. Escobar had multiple gunshot wounds. Santiago was leaning up against the bed, apparently shot but still breathing. Officer Tierney told the dispatcher to send an ambulance, and the victims were subsequently transported to the hospital. Both Santiago and Escobar died later that day.
¶ 11 On September 21, 2009, between 1:45 a.m. and 2 a.m., Detectives Arthur Young3 and Anthony Green were working at the Area 5 Detective Division (Area 5) at Grand and Central Avenues when they were assigned to investigate the shooting at 3555 West Sunnyside Avenue. Detective Young went up to Santiago and Escobar's third-floor west apartment and noticed that the door frame to the apartment was damaged and that parts of the door frame and deadbolt locking device were on the floor. A shoeprint was also visible on the front door.
¶ 12 Sergeant Young described the scene of the shootings. In the first bedroom, both sides of a blue sheet on the bed had blood on it, and a large pool of blood went from the bed to the floor. There was blood splatter on the wall. Three cartridge casings were found in the bedroom, along with packaged cannabis and what appeared to be crack cocaine and cash.
¶ 13 Salas testified that after his brother and defendant got back into the car, they drove to defendant's residence at 3449 North Hamlin Avenue. The three went to the apartment of defendant's friend, David Huff, who resided in a different apartment in the same building. Salas testified that Huff was a neighborhood drug addict.
¶ 14 Salas testified that his brother carried the plastic bag containing the drugs into the apartment, and defendant brought both handguns inside. At some point defendant left with the guns. Defendant later returned, and everyone started smoking marijuana. Another individual, "Tony," also showed up at the apartment that morning.
¶ 15 Salas saw defendant pull his brother aside to talk and agreed that he heard defendant say words to the effect of "right when you were looking for the s*** right before I shot her she was the like begging for her life like, oh Lord, please don't kill me?" Salas also saw defendant try to cook the cocaine. Later, when Tony left the apartment, Salas's uncle picked up him and his brother and drove them home.
¶ 16 Anthony Ramirez, who was in custody at the time of trial, testified that he was 28 years old and had a pending misdemeanor driving under the influence (DUI) case. Ramirez testified that he was not in custody on the DUI case. Ramirez testified that the State did not offer him anything in exchange for his testimony.
¶ 17 In 2009, Ramirez had known defendant for 15 years and visited him weekly. Defendant drove and paid for a dark blue van that Ramirez owned but never used. Ramirez had another van that he drove. On September 21, 2009, at about 2:30 a.m., defendant called Ramirez and asked him to drive defendant home. Ramirez agreed, and upon arriving at the residence, accompanied defendant to Huff's downstairs apartment. Ramirez knew Huff through defendant and claimed that Huff was not home when they arrived. Codefendant and Salas, whom Ramirez had met on several occasions before September 21, 2009, were in the apartment.
¶ 18 Ramirez saw a quarter-pound of marijuana on a table and a revolver in defendant's hands. Ramirez testified that defendant took him to another part of the apartment that was not visible to Salas and codefendant and "said that he had just shot somebody in the neck and that [codefendant] shot the girl twice in the chest." Defendant told Ramirez that the shooting occurred in the area of Central Park and Sunnyside Avenues.
¶ 19 After spending about an hour in Huff's apartment and smoking some marijuana, Ramirez drove home and watched television. Later that morning, Ramirez saw the story about the shooting at Central Park and Sunnyside Avenues on the news.
¶ 20 Huff testified that, in September 2009, he resided at 3449 North Hamlin Avenue with his wife and three children. The three-story house had a total of four apartments in it. Huff lived in the basement apartment, and defendant lived in the attic apartment. Huff knew defendant for a few months and saw him a lot. The two were good friends and drank, played video games, and watched television together.
¶ 21 On September 20, 2009, at about 11:30 p.m., Huff was home with his three children. Huff's wife, Laura, was not home because the two argued earlier that day. Huff was in his living room watching television, and his children were asleep in bed when defendant came over and said that he was leaving to do something and would be back later. Defendant asked Huff to lock the front door. Huff agreed and fell asleep after watching television. A couple...
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