People v. Eveans

• Decision Date: 04 January 1996
• Docket Number: No. 4-93-0354,4-93-0354
• Citation: 277 Ill.App.3d 36,660 N.E.2d 240
• Parties: , 214 Ill.Dec. 49 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Tammy L. EVEANS, a/k/a Tammy L. Corbett, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 240

660 N.E.2d 240

277 Ill.App.3d 36, 214 Ill.Dec. 49

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Tammy L. EVEANS, a/k/a Tammy L. Corbett, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 4-93-0354.

Appellate Court of Illinois,

Fourth District.

Argued April 19, 1995.

Decided Jan. 4, 1996.

Daniel D. Yuhas, Deputy Defender, Office of State Appellate Defender, Arden J. Lang (argued), Asst. Defender, Office of the State Appellate Defender, Springfield, Defendant-Appellant.

Vince Moreth, State's Attorney, Carlinville, Norbert J. Goetten, Director, State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, Robert J. Biderman, Deputy Director, State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, David E. Mannchen (argued), Staff Attorney, State's Attorney Appellate Prosecutor, Springfield, Plaintiff-Appellee.

Justice KNECHT delivered the opinion of the court:

After a bench trial, defendant Tammy Eveans, a/k/a Tammy Corbett, was convicted of four counts of murder, a violation of section 9-1 of the Criminal Code of 1961 (Code) (Ill.Rev.Stat.1989, ch. 38, par. 9-1 (now codified at 720 ILCS 5/9-1 (West 1992))). She was sentenced to two concurrent terms of natural life imprisonment and now appeals her conviction. We affirm in part and vacate in part.

I. BACKGROUND

Defendant was charged with four counts of murder of two of her children, Robert Eveans (born July 31, 1987, and died September 25, 1987) and Amy Cecille Eveans (born August 16, 1988, and died September 1, 1988). At the time of trial defendant had already been convicted of murdering her oldest child, Ricky, whose death prompted authorities to reexamine the earlier deaths and charge defendant with murder. Defendant pleaded not guilty to two counts alleging she intentionally or knowingly caused their deaths and two counts alleging she engaged in conduct knowing it created a strong probability of their deaths.

Prior to the bench trial, defendant moved to suppress statements she made to Jersey County Sheriff Frank Yocom. At the suppression hearing, Sheriff Yocom testified he was called to the jail because defendant was crying and requested to see him. On arrival, he advised her who her attorney was and she should talk to him. She replied she knew her rights and wanted to talk to Sheriff Yocom. He again told her she should be aware of her constitutional rights and she should talk to her attorney. She replied she had not been honest with the sheriff and Lieutenant Wayne Watson of the Illinois State Police, and wanted to get some "things off her chest" about Robert and Amy. She wanted a meeting the next morning with her attorney, Sheriff Yocom, and Lieutenant Watson. She said she had not been perfectly honest with her attorney, and wanted to "get all of this out in the open." Sheriff Yocom asked no questions. She made these statements on her own. The meeting never transpired. No other evidence was presented. The trial court denied the motion to suppress, finding defendant's statements were voluntary and self-initiated.

Defendant, asserting the marital privilege, also moved to suppress testimony from her former husband concerning admissions to him she killed their two children. The trial court denied the motion. At the bench trial, the following testimony and evidence was adduced.

Richard Eveans (Richard) was the former husband of defendant. Together they had three children, Ricky, Robert, and Amy Cecille, in order. While he was away on a trip, defendant called and told him she was in the basement doing laundry and Robert had either fallen or their son Ricky had pulled Robert off a table. A few days later, Richard returned home when Robert was admitted to the hospital because he had stopped breathing. Robert was hooked to a monitor and appeared to be breathing normally. Robert never had any trouble breathing before or after he was admitted to the hospital. Richard took off work for a few days to console defendant. The first day he went back to work, Robert died in the hospital.

At different times during their marriage, defendant gave three different versions of being raped when she was younger. First, she claimed before they were married, she had been raped by her boyfriend. Later she claimed she had been grabbed as she was getting into her car, dragged to an apartment, and raped by a man who looked vaguely familiar. Later her story was the same as the second version, except this time the rapist was a black man.

Their daughter Amy did not exhibit any medical problems prior to her death. On the morning she died, Richard and defendant were asleep when the alarm clock went off. Defendant jumped out of bed, ran into the baby's room "like she knew something was wrong," and yelled something was wrong with Amy. Richard went into the room and saw Amy was cold and stiff. After Amy's death, and while consoling defendant, he asked her why she jumped out of bed that morning. She replied she dreamed Amy's name was in place of Robert's name on his headstone in the cemetery, so when she awoke she ran to see if Amy was all right.

In April 1990, Richard visited defendant in the county jail. She admitted placing her hand over Robert's mouth and suffocating him, and placing her hand over Amy's mouth and suffocating her. Defendant said she laughed when she did this and could not understand why Richard had not awakened when she was killing Amy.

Richard never saw defendant act as other than a loving mother with their children and his stepdaughter, who occasionally stayed with him and defendant. He noted on numerous occasions defendant thrashed around in bed with violent nightmares and he was unable to wake her.

William Davis met defendant while a fellow inmate in the Jersey County jail. She told him she placed a pillow over the face of her "other child" (apparently Robert) and killed the child. Defendant told him at least a dozen times what she had done, and said, "there was no witnesses, so she couldn't go to jail." She also told him she had been raped when she was younger by a group of black men in an abandoned building.

Charles Enneian met defendant while a fellow inmate at the Jersey County jail. In a telephone conversation with her in the summer of 1990, she told him "when Amy and Robbie died, they both kicked their legs real hard like a little baby would kick their legs trying to swim in the water." Defendant also recounted a rape when she was younger by a white man who dragged her from her car to an apartment.

Debra Sinks also met defendant while in jail. In addition to two versions of the rape from her past, defendant told her she had contacted Sheriff Yocom because she wanted to confess and tell the truth about the deaths of her children. Sheriff Yocom then repeated his testimony from the suppression hearing.

Lynn Chism, an acquaintance of defendant, had a phone conversation with defendant in November 1989, while defendant was being held in jail. Chism told defendant she had "no doubt" defendant had killed Robert and Amy. Defendant started crying and said, "It was my hands. It wasn't me, it was my hands." However, when Chism yelled at defendant, "You killed Robbie," defendant answered, "No, Ricky." Defendant then said she "had nothing to do with killing Amy."

Dr. William Drake, a coroner's physician for Jersey County, performed an autopsy on Amy. She died from cardiorespiratory arrest due to anoxia (a lack of breathing). He considered this to be sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) (a/k/a crib death) and had no evidence of "foul play" at the time. SIDS is "a failure to breathe for unknown reasons." Autopsy findings for SIDS and death by suffocation are indistinguishable in a tiny baby.

Brandie Eveans, 12 years old, is Richard's daughter and the stepdaughter of defendant. She lived with defendant for a time. She once saw defendant put her hand over Robert's mouth. He started shaking and kicking his legs. Brandie also saw defendant place her hand over Amy's mouth and Amy started kicking her legs. Brandie ran to her bedroom and hid because she was afraid defendant was "going to get her." Defendant also told Brandie yet another version of the rape incident. On the day Ricky died, Brandie heard defendant say to Ricky in a "loud" and "mean" voice something like, "you are going to die."

Gina Eveans was married to Richard's brother and was a friend of defendant. Defendant told Gina she had been in the basement doing laundry when Ricky pulled the tablecloth off the kitchen table, which pulled Robert down off the table. Ricky was 13 months old at the time, and could not yet walk. When Gina went to defendant's house to get clothes for defendant and Ricky, there was no tablecloth or blood on the floor. The second time Robert was taken to the hospital Gina saw defendant lean over Robert and say, "Don't worry, baby, I got even." Gina also noted defendant had told her on numerous occasions she was going to get even with her husband, Richard, for being away from home so much.

Raj Nanduri, a forensic pathologist, performed an autopsy on Robert in September 1987, and determined the cause of death was meningitis. She later performed an autopsy on Ricky and was aware Amy had died of SIDS. Nanduri suggested the reinvestigation of the two earlier deaths. Meningitis is not always fatal, and the findings of Robert's autopsy were not inconsistent with death by suffocation. Suffocation in a small child usually leaves no traces, so almost every death of a small child is not inconsistent with suffocation.

Mary Case, a pathologist, reviewed the records of Robert and Amy. She believed Robert had only localized brain inflammation, not meningitis, and his cause of death was undetermined. A child his age, 7 1/2 weeks, rarely shows signs of suffocation. SIDS is commonly accepted to occur only after the baby is at least one month old. Amy was 16 days old at death. A diagnosis of SIDS requires an investigation of family history. Her office prohibits the diagnosis of SIDS in a family where another child has already...