People v. Douglas
| Decision Date | 21 October 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 1-03-2564.,1-03-2564. |
| Citation | 839 N.E.2d 1039 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Otis DOUGLAS, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Office of the State Appellate Defender, Chicago (Michael J. Pelletier and J. Michael True, of counsel), for Appellant.
Cook County State's Attorney, Chicago (Richard A. Devine, Renee Goldfarb, Alan J. Spellberg and Jessica J. Lechter, of counsel), for Appellee.
MODIFIED ON DENIAL OF REHEARING
Following a jury trial, defendant Otis Douglas was convicted of home invasion and of the first degree murder of Michael Carter. The trial court imposed an extended-term sentence of 70 years for the murder and a consecutive 30-year term for the home invasion. On appeal, defendant challenges the effectiveness of his trial counsel, contending that his attorneys failed to object to hearsay evidence and did not request an instruction on concealment of a homicide even though counsel conceded that defendant concealed Carter's death. Defendant also raises several arguments regarding his extended-term sentence, which was imposed based on the jury's finding that the killing was accompanied by exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior indicative of wanton cruelty and the trial court's consideration of various factors. For the reasons that follow, we affirm defendant's convictions and sentence.
Defendant was charged with first degree murder, home invasion and concealment of a homicidal death. Before trial, the State dismissed the concealment count via a nolle prosequi and tried defendant on the remaining two offenses.
The testimony presented at trial revealed a love triangle among Carter, defendant and Donna Lindo. Lindo testified that she and Carter began dating in the early 1990s and that they lived together. When Carter moved to Maryland in February 1999, they maintained a long-distance dating relationship. Later in 1999, Lindo met defendant at a club, and they began dating. Lindo testified that shortly thereafter, she told defendant about her romantic relationship with Carter. Defendant told Lindo that he lived with another woman and their child but that his relationship with the woman was not good.
Lindo stated that Carter visited her in November 1999 and stayed for two weeks. Meanwhile, Lindo and defendant began to see each other three times a week, with defendant spending the night at Lindo's townhouse in Des Plaines. However, Carter was planning to return to Illinois from Maryland and wanted to live with Lindo. Lindo testified that when defendant told her he wanted to move in with her, she said he could not because her boyfriend was "coming home." Lindo said defendant "seemed upset" at that news. Defendant told Lindo he wanted to continue their relationship after Carter moved in, and Lindo refused.
However, defendant spent the night at Lindo's residence on February 14, 2000. The next day, Lindo told defendant that Carter would be visiting her that week and asked defendant not to call her or come to her townhouse during Carter's visit. Lindo testified that she communicated with defendant solely via his cellular phone and did not know his last name or home address.
Lindo expected Carter to arrive on the morning of February 17, 2000, and she stayed home from work that morning to wait for him and also to await a furniture delivery. When Lindo left for work at 10 a.m. after the furniture was delivered, Carter had not yet arrived. Lindo testified that on her way to work, she called defendant and they had a "casual conversation" about her new furniture.
Carter called Lindo between noon and 12:30 p.m. to tell her he had arrived at her townhouse and was watching TV and eating crackers in the basement. Carter called Lindo a second time and told her someone had been calling the townhouse and hanging up when he answered. Lindo suggested that Carter check the caller ID to determine the origin of the calls. Carter did and said the caller's number was blocked. Lindo called defendant and asked if he had been calling her home and hanging up. Defendant said he was not.
Lindo testified that at about 1:30 p.m., she spoke to Carter for a third and final time. During their conversation, another call came through via call waiting. Carter switched to the other call and then returned to Lindo and told her the phone was "messing up." At that point, their call was disconnected. Lindo's repeated calls to her home were unanswered.
Between 3:30 and 4 p.m., Lindo's son called Lindo as he customarily did when he returned home from school. Lindo asked him to see if Carter was in the basement. Lindo's son told her no one was in the basement and that "red stuff" was on the floor and some speakers had been overturned. Lindo returned home to find splashes of blood on the walls of her basement laundry room and clothing on the floor. A handwritten note left on Lindo's bed upstairs stated: "Bicth [sic], when I come back I'm going to kill you." A jacket and luggage also were found in Lindo's bedroom; those items were later identified by Carter's mother as belonging to her son.
Des Plaines police and evidence technicians testified that blood was found on the floor of the laundry room and throughout the room, including in the utility sink. A plate of crackers was found on the floor of the basement near the laundry room. Footprints led from the laundry room to Lindo's bedroom, where the threatening note was found.
The testimony of Izette Curtis and Wilton Jackson, two acquaintances of defendant, established that defendant borrowed a car from them on February 17 and that he was carrying an ax. Curtis and Jackson later found bloodstains on a tool found in the car's trunk. In a search of defendant's residence on February 18, police recovered a pair of jeans with bloodstains and DNA that matched Carter.
Lindo had testified that defendant drove a white Lexus. Salvador Avalos, who lived in the townhouse next to Lindo's, testified that he saw a white Lexus parked near Lindo's unit at about 2:30 p.m. on February 17. On prior occasions, Avalos had seen defendant in the Lexus; Avalos later identified defendant in a police lineup. A second witness testified to seeing a white Lexus in the townhouses' parking lot between 2 and 4 p.m. Donald Donerson, a neighbor of defendant, testified that he saw defendant washing his car with a hose and cleaning out the trunk between 3:40 and 4 p.m. on February 17.
The parties stipulated to defendant's cell phone number and Lindo's home phone number and to records of phone calls made from and received at those numbers. The parties also stipulated that defendant cancelled his cellular phone account on February 17 and received a new cell phone number.
On February 29, Carter's partially burned body was recovered from an auto body shop. Adrienne Segovia, a deputy Cook County medical examiner, testified that she performed an autopsy on Carter's body, which was headless. The forearms and lower legs had been severed. Stab wounds were present on the chest and back, and Segovia testified that based on evidence of hemorrhaging in the wounds and inhaled blood in the lungs, the stab wounds occurred while Carter was still alive. An ax wound near Carter's spinal cord showed signs of hemorrhaging, which indicated that the wound was inflicted while Carter was alive. Segovia testified that the irregular nature of the wounds that severed Carter's head and limbs also was consistent with being caused by an ax. The limbs were severed after death. Photographs of Carter's wounds were shown to the jury.
The jury was instructed that if it found defendant guilty of first degree murder, it must then decide whether the murder was accompanied by exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior indicative of wanton cruelty. The jury convicted defendant of first degree murder and home invasion and also found that Carter's death was accompanied by exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior indicative of wanton cruelty.
Before sentencing, the trial court heard testimony in aggravation and mitigation. The court sentenced defendant to an extended term of 70 years for the murder and a consecutive 30-year sentence for home invasion. Defendant's motion for reduction or modification of his sentence was denied.
Defendant raises three arguments of ineffectiveness of his trial counsel. Defendant first asserts that Lindo's testimony detailing her telephone conversations with Carter prior to the murder was hearsay and counsel was ineffective in failing to object to its admission. Defendant also argues that his attorney was ineffective in conceding defendant's guilt as to the concealment of Carter's body and failing to request an instruction on that offense. Defendant's third claim of ineffectiveness involves the absence of jury instructions defining "brutal" and "heinous" and outlining the factors to be considered in finding defendant eligible for an extended-term sentence. We initially address defendant's first two ineffective assistance contentions, and we will consider his argument as to the propriety of certain jury instructions and factors pertaining to his extended-term sentence along with his additional challenges to his sentence.
Defendant first contends that his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to object to Lindo's testimony about her three telephone conversations with Carter after he arrived at her townhouse. He asserts that the content of those conversations was inadmissible hearsay that discredited the defense's theory that although defendant concealed Carter's body, he did not commit the murder.
To support a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must show that counsel's representation fell below an objective standard of...
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