People v. Forcum

• Citation: 279 Ill.Dec. 431,344 Ill. App.3d 427,800 N.E.2d 499
• Decision Date: 07 November 2003
• Docket Number: No. 5-01-0692.,5-01-0692.
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Donald FORCUM, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

800 N.E.2d 499

344 Ill. App.3d 427

279 Ill.Dec. 431

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Donald FORCUM, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 5-01-0692.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Fifth District.

November 7, 2003.

Daniel M. Kirwan and Larry R. Wells, both of State Appellate Defender's Office, of Mt. Vernon, for appellant.

Michael Wepsiec, State's Attorney, of Murphysboro (Norbert J. Goetten, Stephen E. Norris, and T. David Purcell, all of State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor's Office, of counsel), for the People.

Justice DONOVAN delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Donald Forcum, appeals the order of the circuit court of Jackson County, sentencing him to natural-life imprisonment for first-degree murder, 30 years' imprisonment for attempted first-degree murder, 30 years' imprisonment for armed violence, and 30 years' imprisonment for home invasion. On direct appeal to this court, defendant raises three issues: (1) whether a special interrogatory denied defendant a fair trial where the subject of the interrogatory—whether the crime was committed in an exceptionally brutal or heinous manner—was not an element of the offense, (2) whether defendant was denied a fair trial due to the repetition and emphasis of prejudicial evidence, including gruesome photographs, hearsay, the attribution of the decedent's mental state, and the presentation of a letter and a taped message during the State's closing argument, and (3) whether his convictions for home invasion and armed violence should be vacated because they violate the one-act/one-crime rule. For the following reasons, we affirm defendant's convictions and sentences for first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and home invasion, and we vacate defendant's conviction for armed violence.

BACKGROUND

This case involves the brutal murder of a young woman, Renee DiCicco, and the savage attempted murder of Renee's new boyfriend, Brett Janecke, by defendant, Renee's former boyfriend. Defendant and Renee lived together in Carbondale for a period of time during their involvement in the house Renee resided in at the time of her murder. The relationship ended in the spring of 2000. After the breakup, Renee was introduced by her cousin to a man named Brett, who lived in Chicago. Renee and Brett began a long-distance relationship, talking on the phone several times a week. A few weeks before her murder, Renee visited Brett in Chicago. After this visit, Brett sent Renee roses. Shortly after sending the roses, Brett began to receive intimidating and threatening messages on his answering machine. Among other things, the caller stated that he was not "Renee's ex [sic]" but was "her current and forever lover." Brett called Renee about the messages and asked Renee, "[W]ho is this psycho pussy calling me on my answering machine?"

On Wednesday, June 7, 2000, Renee returned home from a trip to find a 22-page letter waiting for her from defendant. The rambling letter showed defendant's anger and hatred toward Renee. In this letter, defendant called Renee names such as tramp, liar, whore, enchantress, and harlot. Defendant expressed his anger over the breakup and his feelings of betrayal. Finally, defendant concluded the letter with a warning about what he would do if she attempted to contact him: "[I will] come crashing down upon the heads of * * * Brett [and others] with a thunderous vengeance and furious anger and they will know that my name is Houdini because I can disappear and reappear just like magic you see, and no man nor [sic] beast nor [sic] nothing [sic] man-made can either hold or contain me." After reading the letter, Renee became upset and contacted Brett for comfort. The next day, Thursday, June 8, 2000, Brett arrived in Carbondale to visit Renee.

On Friday, June 9, 2000, Renee worked until 3 p.m. After work, Renee and Brett spent the rest of the afternoon canoeing and swimming. They ate dinner at Quatro's Pizza and then picked up a bottle of wine. They returned to Renee's apartment around 11 p.m., consumed some wine, talked for a while, and then fell asleep on the couch.

Brett testified that during the early morning hours of Saturday, June 10, 2000, he woke from his sleep on Renee's couch to Renee asking, "What are you doing, Donnie?" Prior to this, Brett had not heard any knocking at the door or heard any sounds of a break-in. Brett got up off the couch and saw the arm of someone in the apartment. The intruder told Brett, "Now you get to call me a psycho pussy to my face." Brett recognized the voice to be the same as the voice that had left the threatening messages on his answering machine. At that point, an object hit Brett twice on the side of his head. He fell to the couch with his knees on the cushions, his hands on the back of the couch, and his back to defendant. Seconds after his fall onto the couch, an object flashed in front of Brett's face, and he reached out to grab it. Defendant pulled it away and the object cut deep into the flesh on Brett's hand. The knife came slashing down again at Brett, and as he tried to duck his chin down, the knife sliced through his lip over his teeth and over his eye. Renee was screaming and then Brett felt something cut through his neck. Blood started to flow down Brett's chest and back. Renee then tried to get in between defendant and Brett. She jumped on Brett's neck, and the weight caused him to start to fall down. Although Brett began to feel lightheaded from the loss of blood, he tried to catch himself on the arm of the couch and he kicked at defendant. He fell to the ground and could not get back up. He lay on the floor unable to move, blood streaming from his neck and face.

Brett then heard Renee ask: "Am I going to die now? Am I going to die now?" To which he heard defendant respond, "Yes, you're going to die now, [b]itch." Brett then heard a gurgling noise coming from the direction of Renee. Renee's hand, which had been holding Brett's toe, went limp. Defendant then walked to where Brett lay, hit him on the head, and stated, "Told you not to fuck with me, you son of a bitch." Brett heard defendant drag Renee into another part of the house. Brett was unable to move because he was lightheaded from blood loss.

Brett testified that he then heard defendant return to where he was lying. Although Brett was conscious, he was unable to move, due to his injuries. Defendant started slashing at Brett's neck with the knife. Brett lay on the floor, taking the pain and unable to move. Defendant finally stopped cutting into Brett, walked to another part of the room, and then moments later walked back to Brett and said, "I'll see you in hell." Defendant then walked out the back door.

Renee's neighbor, Cecilia Potter, testified that while she was sitting in her living room, she heard banging and crashing coming from Renee's house. Cecilia and her mother ran outside to see what was happening and observed the walls of Renee's house shaking and items falling off of Renee's porch and heard what sounded like people stomping around inside. They heard Renee scream and then silence. They ran inside and called 9-1-1.

Officers responded to the 9-1-1 call. Inside Renee's apartment, the officers found Brett lying on the floor. At first, they thought he was dead, but he mumbled and they realized he was still alive. Before the ambulance arrived to take Brett to the hospital, Brett told one of the officers that the attacker had mail at the apartment with his name on it. The officer followed a trail of blood that led them to Renee's bedroom. Officers found that a full-length mirror attached to the wall near the entrance to Renee's bedroom was shattered and there were blood smears on the wall. Renee's dead body was lying on her bed. She lay on her back on the bed with her knees bent and hanging over the side of the bed. She was covered in blood and knife wounds. The shorts she had been wearing had been removed and were wrapped around her right wrist, and her arms were lying above her head.

Renee had numerous deep, gaping defensive cuts on her forearms and hands. She had cutting wounds on her right shoulder, bruises on her thighs, a stab wound on her foot, and multiple deep-cutting wounds on her face and thighs. Defendant had made multiple slashes with his knife across the soft tissues of Renee's neck, which had sliced all of the flesh around Renee's neck except for one small, one-inch section in the back of her neck. Defendant's knife cut through Renee's skeletal muscle in her neck, her voice box, her windpipe, and the two jugular veins on either side of her neck. The knife nicked the bone of her spine. Renee died of blood loss from the multiple cutting wounds that she had received to her face, neck, chest, and extremities.

There were no signs of forced entry at Renee's apartment. In the living room, police found a large pool of blood, clumps of Renee's hair on the floor, and splatters of blood on the television, couch, and walls. A blood trail with drag marks led back into Renee's bedroom. A Band-Aid box and Band-Aid wrappers were on the floor covered in blood and fingerprints. A blood trail led into the bathroom. The floor and vanity in the bathroom were covered with blood drops. There was also an open box of matches and a can of paint thinner. Defendant's latent fingerprints were found on the paint thinner. Brett testified that prior to his falling asleep that night, the blood-covered Band-Aid box had not been lying on the living room floor and the matches and paint thinner had not been present in the bathroom. In the kitchen area, there was a trail of blood leading toward the back door to the back porch area of the house, and the officers found defendant's bicycle outside, near the back door.

Investigators searched defendant's residence and found a used Band-Aid on his dresser. In addition, they found a blood stain in the sink area of his bathroom. They collected defendant's boots, which were found...