People v. Ealy

Decision Date28 May 2019
Docket NumberNo. 1-16-1575,1-16-1575
Citation130 N.E.3d 28,2019 IL App (1st) 161575,432 Ill.Dec. 777
Parties PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Courtney EALY, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtUnited States Appellate Court of Illinois

Michael T. Mulligan, of Mulligan Law, LLC, of Chicago, for appellant.

Kimberly M. Foxx, State’s Attorney, of Chicago (Alan J. Spellberg, Annette Collins, Christine Cook, and Daniel Piwowarczyk, Assistant State’s Attorneys, of counsel), for the People.

PRESIDING JUSTICE MASON delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

¶ 1 Defendant, Courtney Ealy, and his codefendant, Clint Massey, were convicted of murder in the shooting death of Javan Boyd. The State's evidence showed that Boyd, a taxi driver, was waiting for his fare when Ealy and Massey, as shown on security camera video, approached the taxi and shot Boyd. On appeal, Ealy argues that (i) the evidence was insufficient to convict him of murder, (ii) the State's improper comments deprived him of a fair trial, (iii) his right to a speedy trial was violated, and (iv) his 38-year sentence was excessive. We affirm.

¶ 2 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 3 On the night of February 21, 2014, defendants attended a party at 39th Street and Wentworth, in the Wentworth Gardens housing project. Ealy wore a Burberry shirt and white pants, and Massey wore a tiger-striped jogging suit. Also attending the party were Kaprice Johns, Jasmine Brown, Germontay Carpenter, T'Keyah Herbert, and Jerome Anderson.

¶ 4 Defendants left the party with Herbert in Herbert's van.1 After they left, Johns, who remained at the party, got into an argument with a group of women known as "Pretty in Pink" because Johns disliked the song that was being played. As they argued, someone fired a gun into the air multiple times. Johns did not see who fired the shots, but she guessed that the shooter wanted to stop the argument because it was too loud. The gunshots did not hit anyone.

¶ 5 After the altercation, Johns left the party with Brown, Carpenter, and Anderson. They left in Johns's car, with Anderson driving. Carpenter made a phone call to either Ealy or Massey, who were still with Herbert in her van, and told them about the altercation at the party. Carpenter put the call on speakerphone, and Brown could hear Ealy's voice, which she recognized, on the other end.

¶ 6 Anderson drove to Wendy's, where they met up with a red car and Herbert's van. Ealy and Massey exited the van and got into the red car, along with a man named D-Rose. (A fourth man, unidentified at trial, was the driver.) The three vehicles drove back toward Wentworth Gardens in a convoy: first the red car, then Herbert's van, then Johns's car. According to Johns, they intended to "see who shot at [them]" and "deal with the matter."

¶ 7 Meanwhile, Latoya Adams was visiting her mother in Wentworth Gardens. Around 3 a.m. on the morning of February 22, she called for a taxi to go to a friend's house. Javan Boyd was dispatched to the call.

¶ 8 As the three-vehicle convoy approached 38th Street and Princeton, they passed Boyd sitting in his parked car, waiting to pick up Adams. The three vehicles all made a U-turn and came to a stop. Ealy, Massey, and D-Rose disembarked from the red car and approached Boyd's car from the passenger side.

¶ 9 Both Johns and Herbert witnessed the shooting. According to Johns, Ealy and Massey were standing next to each other, with D-Rose behind them. Ealy and Massey spoke to Boyd, and then Johns saw "a light flash from the gun" and Boyd "jumping" as if he was getting shot. At trial, Johns said she did not see the actual gun, but in a prior statement to detectives, Johns identified Ealy as the shooter. After the shooting, D-Rose ran back to Johns's car and got inside, saying "sh**" and "he's dead." Ealy and Massey ran back to one of the other vehicles, and all three vehicles drove away. As they left, Johns could see Boyd "slumped over" in his car.

¶ 10 Herbert saw Ealy and Massey open Boyd's passenger-side door and then saw Massey firing a gun into the car. She heard four or five gunshots, after which Ealy and Massey returned to the red car and drove away.

¶ 11 The shooting was captured on surveillance cameras belonging to the Chicago Housing Authority, which owns the Wentworth Gardens housing project. The video footage was played for the jury. In the videos, three vehicles drove past Boyd's taxi and then came driving back the other way. The convoy leader, a red car, stopped next to Boyd's taxi and two men got out, one wearing a striped track suit (Massey) and the other wearing a brown shirt and white pants (Ealy). They approached Boyd's car from the front passenger side and appeared to be talking to him. Boyd's taxi started backing up, but hit a vehicle parked a couple of feet behind him. (At this point, D-Rose got out of the red car and ran back toward Johns's car.) There was a bright flash of light near Ealy's hand; Boyd's car surged forward and hit another parked car in front. Ealy and Massey ran forward to look in the front passenger window. Ealy returned to the red car, Massey followed him a few moments later, and the three vehicles drove away.

¶ 12 Adams came outside to pick up her taxi and found Boyd hanging out of the driver's side of his car. She asked him if he was okay. He did not respond. Someone else had already called the police, so Adams called the taxi company to inform them that their driver had been shot. She then remained at the scene and cooperated with police when they arrived.

¶ 13 After leaving the scene of the shooting, Johns dropped Anderson off at his house and then drove to the Shell gas station at 55th Street. Ealy was waiting there. He entered Johns's car, told her that he dropped his iPhone at the scene, and asked her to help him retrieve it. Brown said that it was stupid to go back, but Johns agreed to do it. On the way there, Ealy spoke about the shooting. He said that he asked the victim if he was "from over here" and specified the part of Wentworth Gardens where the party had been. The victim said he was. Ealy also said "man down," which Johns understood to mean the victim was dead.

¶ 14 By the time Johns returned to the scene of the crime, police had already cordoned off the area. Johns parked the car and approached on foot. She told officer Chris Martin that she had dropped her phone nearby and asked whether she could retrieve it. Martin refused, explaining that it was a crime scene.

¶ 15 Johns returned to her car and drove closer to the crime scene. While in the car, she spoke with Sergeant Arthur Young. She gave him a fake name ("Brianna Johns") and also a fake story, telling him that she was driving in the area when she heard several gunshots and saw a man with braided hair and a dark sweater near the victim's car; she got scared and dropped her phone near the victim's car. Johns then gave Young the phone number. Although Johns did not have Ealy's number memorized, Ealy told her the number as she was speaking to Young. At trial, Johns recalled that the number began with "773-803."

¶ 16 Officers did, in fact, find an iPhone in the middle of the street near the victim's vehicle. Pursuant to a search warrant, detectives conducted data extraction on the phone, which revealed that its number was 773-809-****. The phone was also swabbed for DNA; testing revealed a mixture of at least three DNA profiles that were not suitable for comparison.

¶ 17 A latent fingerprint impression recovered from Boyd's passenger side window was identified as belonging to Ealy. Inside Boyd's car, the police recovered three 9mm fired cartridge casings and two 9-millimeter fired bullets; additionally, the medical examiner recovered two more 9-millimeter bullets from Boyd's chest. Kellen Hunter, a firearms examiner for the Illinois State Police, determined that the bullets were all fired from a single gun, and the cartridge casings were all fired from a single gun. He was unable to determine whether the bullets and cartridges were fired from the same gun, since it is impossible to match a fired bullet to a fired cartridge casing. He also could not determine what kind of gun they were fired from, since both 9-millimeter revolvers and 9-millimeter semi-automatic weapons exist.

¶ 18 Ealy moved to sever his trial from Massey's. Massey did not move for severance.

After a hearing, the motion was denied. Ealy and Massey were tried together before a jury. For both defendants, the State sought a conviction for first degree murder and a 15-year sentence enhancement for being "armed with a firearm" during the commission of the offense. The jury was instructed concerning accountability as to both the murder and the firearm allegation. Specifically, for the firearm allegation, the jury was instructed to determine whether "the defendant, Courtney Ealy, or one for whose conduct he is legally responsible was armed with a firearm."

¶ 19 The jury found both defendants guilty of first degree murder, but it found that the firearm allegation was proven only as to Massey. Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court sentenced Ealy to 38 years' imprisonment.

¶ 20 II. ANALYSIS

¶ 21 Ealy argues that (i) the evidence was insufficient to convict him of first degree murder, (ii) his right to a fair trial was violated by improper prosecutorial comments during opening and closing arguments, (iii) his right to a speedy trial was violated, and (iv) his 38-year sentence was excessive. We consider these arguments in turn.

¶ 22 A. Sufficiency of the Evidence

¶ 23 Ealy's first contention is that the evidence was insufficient to convict him of first degree murder. Specifically, he argues that the State failed to prove the requisite intent necessary to hold him accountable for Massey's actions. The State disagrees and additionally argues that we need not limit our review to evidence of accountability, since the evidence was also sufficient to prove Ealy guilty directly.

¶ 24 It is well settled that a general verdict of guilty will not be...

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3 cases
  • People v. Wilson
    • United States
    • United States Appellate Court of Illinois
    • March 26, 2020
    ...a close association with those co-offenders after the commission of the crime. See People v. Ealy , 2019 IL App (1st) 161575, ¶ 32, 432 Ill.Dec. 777, 130 N.E.3d 28 (sufficient evidence to convict the defendant of first degree murder under a theory of accountability where he and his co-offen......
  • People v. Jackson
    • United States
    • United States Appellate Court of Illinois
    • July 9, 2020
  • People v. Whittenburg, 1-16-3267
    • United States
    • United States Appellate Court of Illinois
    • May 28, 2019
    ...any argument directed at the circuit court's judgment from which he appeals. The relief he seeks is squarely covered by Rule 472(a). 432 Ill.Dec. 777130 N.E.3d 28 By rule, defendant must first file a motion in the circuit court requesting the correction of any sentencing errors specified in......

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