People v. Fair

• Citation: 201 Ill.Dec. 23,159 Ill.2d 51,636 N.E.2d 455
• Decision Date: 24 March 1994
• Docket Number: No. 71231,71231
• Parties: , 201 Ill.Dec. 23 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Robert FAIR, Appellant.
• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois

Page 455

636 N.E.2d 455

159 Ill.2d 51, 201 Ill.Dec. 23

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Robert FAIR, Appellant.

No. 71231.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

March 24, 1994.

Rehearing Denied May 27, 1994.

Certiorari Denied Nov. 28, 1994.

See 115 S.Ct. 586.

[159 Ill.2d 57] [201 Ill.Dec. 29] Rita A. Fry, Public Defender, Chicago (Jeffrey M. Howard and Stephen L. Richards, Asst. Public Defenders, of counsel), for appellant.

Roland W. Burris, Atty. Gen., Springfield, and Jack O'Malley, State's Atty., Chicago (Terence M. Madsen, Asst. Atty. Gen., Chicago, and Renee Goldfarb and James E. Fitzgerald, Asst. State's Attys., of counsel), for the People.

Chief Justice BILANDIC delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a jury trial in the circuit court of Cook County, defendant, Robert Fair, was convicted of the murders of Candace Augustus, and her 11-year-old son, Gregory. (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 38, par. 9-1(a)(1).) The same jury which convicted defendant determined that he was eligible for the death penalty based upon two statutory aggravating factors: (1) murder of two or more individuals (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 38, par. 9-1(b)(3)); and (2) murder of an individual under 12 years of age which resulted from exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior indicative of wanton cruelty. (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 38, par. 9-1(b)(7).) After the jury found no mitigating circumstances sufficient to preclude imposition of the death sentence, the trial judge sentenced defendant to death.

The defendant's sentence has been stayed pending direct review by this court. (Ill. Const.1970, art. VI, § 4(b); 134 Ill.2d Rules 603, 609(a).) For the following reasons, we affirm defendant's convictions and death sentence.

SUMMARY OF FACTS

The evidence at trial established that after the victim, Candace Augustus, failed to report to work on October 17, 1987, at the restaurant where she was employed, her co-workers became concerned. An employee from the restaurant notified Candace's mother, Mary Sieg, of her absence. Mary Sieg was alarmed because there had been some problems between Candace and defendant, who was her boyfriend at the time.

During the early morning hours of October 18, 1987, Candace's brother, Steven Augustus, and Mary Sieg drove to the trailer home in Dixmoor, Illinois, where Candace lived with her son Gregory. As they drove into the trailer park, Steven noticed that the trailer was dark and that Candace's car was missing. The door to the trailer was locked.

After receiving no response to his knock, Steven broke a window to enter the trailer. He entered his nephew's room and turned on the bedroom light. He looked on the bed and found the comforter in disarray with blood spattered all over the wall next to the bed. He pulled back the blanket and found the entire side of his nephew's head covered with blood. Because Gregory's body was cold to the touch, Steven believed him to be dead.

Steven then left Gregory's room and walked down the hallway into his sister's Illinois State Police Investigator Dexter Bartlett, an evidence technician, processed the crime scene. Bartlett was found to be an expert in the field of blood-spatter and flight interpretation, which is a scientific formula used by crime technicians to measure through mathematics the velocity and type of instrument used to inflict an injury. The cast-off patterns found in Gregory's room revealed that he was struck with a bludgeoning weapon, such as a baseball bat. The blows leveled at Gregory's head were delivered with a high degree of impact, which caused his skull to break open. Bartlett found several pieces of skull and brain matter on the comforter which was removed from Gregory's head. Brain matter was also found on the bedroom wall and curtain. Because the victim was found lying on his left side in a very relaxed state, Bartlett opined that the victim was asleep at the time the attack occurred and never woke up. There was no apparent struggle or disturbance in his room. The amount of blood present on the baseball bat indicated that Gregory was the first victim bludgeoned to death.

[201 Ill.Dec. 30] bedroom. He found Candace's lifeless body lying on her back across the bed, still clutching a pillow over her face. After she did not answer when he called her name, Steven telephoned the police.

Investigator Bartlett found Candace's body lying across the bed, with an aluminum baseball bat underneath her legs. After removing the pillow which covered Candace's head, Bartlett noted that her face and head were caved in and disfigured.

Brain matter which had emerged from the top of her head was smeared over her face. Candace had bruises on her hands and forearms. The blood spatter on the bedroom wall and ceiling indicated that the injury to the victim had been rendered by a blunt instrument. It was Bartlett's opinion that the injuries to both victims were consistent with being struck with a baseball bat with a high degree of velocity from the weapon itself.

While investigating Candace's room, Bartlett found an unsheathed knife on the top of the cable television box. Joseph Ambrozich, a forensic scientist and expert fingerprint examiner, conducted tests on the knife. Ambrozich found 12 points of comparison on the knife to defendant's fingerprints.

Dr. Robert Kirschner of the Cook County medical examiner's office performed the autopsies on the victims. Three blows, which were consistent with being struck with a baseball bat, resulted in the severe blunt trauma injuries to the head that led to Gregory's death. A gaping laceration on the right side of Gregory's head extended approximately eight inches from the rear to the front of the head. Multiple skull fractures were associated with the laceration. Dr. Kirschner noted extreme injury to several parts of the brain. Dr. Kirschner concluded that Gregory's death occurred almost instantaneously because the infliction of the wound on the right side of the head would have rendered him unconscious.

The autopsy of Candace also revealed severe blunt trauma injuries and lacerations to the head. The autopsy showed partial tearing away of the skin from the scalp and multiple depressed skull fractures exposing the underlying brain tissue. The brain itself showed extreme injury, as the right frontal lobe was partially pulverized, and the left frontal lobe also had extensive damage. There were multiple bruises involving the upper facial tissues, bridge of the nose, and the right temporal region as well as extensive injuries to both the upper and lower lip. Bruises and injuries on Candace's left hand were defensive type injuries. The injuries to Candace were consistent with having been stricken by a baseball bat approximately five times.

Officer Michael Morgan of the Dixmoor police department headed the investigation into the victims' deaths. Officer Morgan spoke with Lisa Renison, who also worked at the same restaurant where Candace was employed. Renison had spoken with Candace about her relationship with defendant. Candace and her son had known defendant for approximately 10 years, and at one time they lived together with him and his common law wife and children in California. About six weeks earlier, defendant "showed up" on Candace's doorstep upon returning to Illinois The Dixmoor police contacted defendant's common law wife, Linda Coslet, who lived in California. Coslet told the Dixmoor officers that defendant had some relatives in Coahoma County, Mississippi, in the vicinity of Clarksdale. She also indicated that she was quite afraid of defendant and was not surprised that he could do something like this.

[201 Ill.Dec. 31] from California. Candace had taken defendant into her home because he had nowhere else to go. However, Candace did not want defendant in her home because he was not working, and she did not want her son to be subjected to his lifestyle. Renison believed that Candace was afraid of defendant. Renison knew that Candace was upset after work on the evening of October 16. Candace told Renison that she was going to tell defendant that she wanted him out of her house that night.

Officer Morgan spoke with the Coahoma County sheriff's office in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He learned that defendant was in the vicinity. Apparently, defendant told several relatives that he returned to Mississippi because he was involved in a murder in Chicago. Officer Morgan also discovered that defendant had a criminal background of armed robbery and theft.

On October 21, Officer Morgan and another Dixmoor officer drove to Mississippi. Upon their arrival, they spoke with several of defendant's friends and relatives. The officers left cards with those interviewed, and asked them to tell defendant to contact them at the Coahoma County sheriff's department.

In the early morning hours of October 23, defendant voluntarily walked into the Coahoma County sheriff's office. Defendant identified himself to Officer Gibson, the officer on duty at the time, and asked whether someone was looking for him. Deputy Gibson searched defendant around 1:45 a.m. in the lobby of the station. According to defendant, he was then placed in a locked detention room for 90 minutes until the Dixmoor officers arrived at the station. Defendant was advised of the Miranda warnings by the Coahoma County officers. He initialed a form which indicated that he understood those warnings. Defendant was not handcuffed, fingerprinted or photographed at that time, nor was he told that he was under arrest. The Coahoma County officers placed defendant in a waiting room and did not question him.

The Dixmoor police officers arrived at the Coahoma County sheriff's office around 3 a.m. The Dixmoor officers showed defendant the Miranda waiver which he had previously signed. The officers started the questioning by asking if he knew the reason why he was here, to which defendant replied that it was his understanding that it was for murder. He did not appear to be...