People v. Gill
| Decision Date | 31 December 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 1-89-1637,1-89-1637 |
| Citation | 637 N.E.2d 1030,264 Ill.App.3d 451 |
| Parties | , 202 Ill.Dec. 294 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Glenn GILL, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
Randolph N. Stone, Public Defender of Cook County, Chicago (Pamela Pfrang, Assistant Public Defender, of counsel), for appellant.
Jack O'Malley, State's Attorney, County of Cook, Chicago (Renee Goldfarb, James E. Fitzgerald, Asst. State's Attys., Noreem M. Daly, Sp. Asst. State's Atty., of counsel), for appellee.
MODIFIED ON DENIAL OF REHEARING
A jury convicted defendant, Glenn Gill, of first degree murder and armed violence predicated on first degree murder for the stabbing death of John Melvin Cooper (hereafter "the deceased"). The trial court sentenced defendant on both convictions to concurrent terms of 25 years imprisonment.
On appeal defendant raises the following contentions:
(1) he was deprived of due process safeguards because the initial indictment process was flawed;
(2) his purported confession was not corroborated by other evidence;
(3) his testimony stating the stabbing was accidental was not improbable, uncorroborated nor contradicted;
(4) the prosecutor misstated evidence during closing argument;
(5) the defense counsel's misunderstanding of the law regarding self-defense and accident and failure to submit an instruction regarding prior inconsistent statements made by a key prosecution witness denied defendant effective assistance of counsel;
(6) the Illinois first degree murder and second degree murder statutes violate due process;
(7) the Illinois Pattern Instructions used at trial where the jury was instructed on both first degree murder and second degree murder violated his due process rights;
(8) his conviction for armed violence predicated on first degree murder must be vacated since it is based upon the same physical act as the conviction for first degree murder; and
(9) the trial court abused its discretion in sentencing defendant.
For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the convictions and vacate the sentence for armed violence. The evidence adduced at trial was as follows. The deceased's sister, Ms. Cooper testified as a life and death witness. She stated that on July 3, 1988, she was living with her mother and the deceased in Markham, approximately five houses from Ms. Estelle Smith's home. On that day, the defendant and his ex-wife, Alice Harris came to her home to see the deceased. Ms. Cooper testified that she knew the defendant was a boarder at Ms. Smith's home. The deceased did not leave home when the visitors stopped over; however, he left his home at approximately 1:30 to 2:00 that afternoon. The next time Ms. Cooper saw the deceased, he was lying in the grass near the driveway of Ms. Smith's home. She accompanied the deceased to the hospital where he subsequently died.
Essie Smiley, a neighbor, who lived two houses away from Ms. Smith's house testified that he could see right into her backyard and had a view of the yard and the barbecue grill. On the day in question, Mr. Smiley had been barbecuing in his own backyard. During the day, he observed the defendant, another man and two women in the Smith backyard. He later saw the defendant running up the embankment behind the houses and observed that defendant had a butcher knife in his hand which he threw across 167th Street. Mr. Smiley never saw or heard any one arguing in Ms. Smith's backyard; however, he heard the defendant yell, "B ----, pick me up" as he ran a couple of feet up the embankment. Mr. Smiley also helped one of the investigating police officers find the butcher knife which was "sticking in the ground." He identified a photograph of the knife and the knife itself in open court.
Several police officers testified. Officer Quinlan testified that he arrived at the scene and observed the victim lying in the grass area between the houses, bleeding from the left side of his back. He spoke to Alice Harris and Estelle Smith. Officer Quinlan also investigated the yard area and his testimony of where the grill was located was consistent with that of Mr. Smiley. Detective Barron testified that he was assigned to investigate the incident and later that evening he received a call from the Chicago Police Department informing him that the defendant had turned himself in to the police. He brought the defendant back to the Markham Police Department, where early on the morning of July 4th the assistant State's attorney (ASA) interviewed the defendant in Detective's Barron's presence and obtained a statement from him.
After defendant signed the Miranda waiver form and agreed to make an oral statement, assistant State's attorney Donnelly conducted an interview of the defendant. Donnelly then had the oral statement reduced to writing. He read the statement to defendant who in turn read and signed the statement and initialled the changes. With regard to the stabbing, the written statement related only that:
Donnelly also testified to certain details about the stabbing which allegedly were told to him by the defendant, but were not included in the written statement. Donnelly stated that he recalled the defendant also saying, "that Cooper (the deceased) had grabbed him, grabbed the defendant in this type of fashion, meaning grabbing both shoulders, with both hands, in this type of fashion, and then Gill, in response to that, and taken his left hand, after being grabbed on both shoulders, had taken his left hand and pushed Cooper aside in this fashion, to his left side, and then as Cooper had went by his body after he pushed him in this fashion, he had the knife in his right hand and then took the knife and put it into Cooper's back, in that fashion." According to Donnelly, defendant told him that when he pushed Cooper aside to the left, he stabbed Cooper as he "had went by his body." Donnelly stated that defendant never mentioned the victim grabbing him around the legs or picking him up from the ground. On cross-examination, Donnelly acknowledged that he did not include in the written statement everything the defendant told him. Following testimony by the medical examiner, the State rested.
Defendant testified in his own behalf. He stated that he engaged in an ongoing argument with the deceased during the day. Defendant also stated that the deceased knocked him down by hitting him with his fists. The deceased picked up a brick and threatened to hit defendant until Ms. Smith told the Melvin to put down the brick. The deceased then struck him in the head with one hand and bent down and picked up defendant.
Defendant denied telling the assistant State's attorney that the deceased grabbed him with both hands in the manner testified to by Donnelly. However, defendant recalled telling Donnelly that the deceased picked him up around the legs. He also testified that he could not read well, only having completed the eighth grade.
Alice Harris testified that when defendant and the deceased were arguing, the discussion became loud. She saw the deceased with a brick which Ms. Smith told him to put down. After the brick incident Ms. Harris went back into the garage; she did not see any stabbing, tussling, wrestling or fighting.
In rebuttal, the State presented the testimony of an assistant State's attorney and two police officers. One officer testified that she heard Ms. Harris' responses to the investigating officer given immediately after the incident. Ms. Harris allegedly told the officer that she saw defendant with a butcher knife, that she saw deceased with a wooden chair, that she observed the two men arguing and that she also saw defendant stab the deceased in the back.
Officer Quinlan also testified that when she was first questioned, Ms. Harris admitted hearing an argument between defendant and the deceased. Ms. Harris also stated at that time that defendant had a knife in his hand when he exited the yard. The defendant instructed Ms. Harris to "get the car" and "pick him up" as he ran up the hill.
The assistant State's attorney repeated that defendant never mentioned during questioning that the deceased picked him up or flipped defendant over his back. After closing argument and instructions to the jury, defendant was convicted of first degree murder and armed violence.
Defendant first contends in his supplemental brief that the indictment process was flawed and his due process rights were violated because he was not charged with the lesser crime of manslaughter. He argues that a verbatim reading of his statement to the ASA, which according to his interpretation clearly describes an accidental act of an involuntary nature, should have precluded the grand jury from charging him with the offense of first degree murder.
The defendant has argued that his constitutional rights were violated at the indictment stage because the State did not indict for a charge less than first degree murder and, related thereto, the evidence did not support an indictment for first degree murder. As such, the defendant argues that the State improperly manipulated the Grand Jury to return an indictment for first degree murder. It is the State's position that defendant's argument is totally without merit in that it is within the State's sole discretion to determine the charges to be brought against a defendant. Furthermore the defendant cannot properly challenge the sufficiency of the evidence at the indictment stage.
The law in Illinois is clear that it is within the discretion of the State to determine what charges are to be brought when an offense has been committed. (People v. Travis (1981), ...
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...is so improbable, unsatisfactory, or unconvincing as to raise a reasonable doubt of defendant's guilt.” People v. Gill, 264 Ill.App.3d 451, 459, 202 Ill.Dec. 294, 637 N.E.2d 1030 (1992). ¶ 32 Bertha and Morrissette testified that they observed some women trying to get Hayes out of the club ......
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...the Illinois appellate court has fully set forth the underlying facts, we will only summarize them here. People v. Gill, 264 Ill. App.3d 451, 202 Ill.Dec. 294, 637 N.E.2d 1030 (1992). Gill and his former wife, Alice Harris, attended a barbeque at the home of Ms. Gabrielle Cooper. Ms. Cooper......
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