People v. Gonzalez
| Decision Date | 12 December 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 1-05-3779.,1-05-3779. |
| Citation | 900 N.E.2d 1165 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Gilberto GONZALEZ, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
Anita Alvarez, State's Attorney of Cook County, Chicago, IL (James Fitzgerald, Alan J. Spellberg, Samuel Shim and Anjana Hansen, Asst. State's Attorneys, of Counsel), for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Patricia Unsinn, Deputy Defender of Cook County, Chicago, IL (Terry L. Campos and Tomas G. Gonzales, Asst. Appellate Defender, of Counsel), for Defendant-Appellant.
Following a jury trial, defendant, Gilberto Gonzalez, was found guilty of first degree murder and of personally discharging a firearm which proximately caused the death of the victim, Jesse Sandoval. The trial court sentenced defendant to a term of 48 years' imprisonment. On appeal, defendant contends that: (1) he was denied a fair trial because the trial court failed to take any remedial action when it knew that a juror may have fallen asleep during some of the proceeding; (2) the trial court improperly instructed the jury on felony murder based on the predicate offense of aggravated discharge of a firearm; and (3) he was denied a fair trial by improper comments made by the prosecution during closing arguments. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.
Defendant was charged by indictment with the first degree murder of Jesse Sandoval, aggravated discharge of a firearm at Manuel Rayo, and aggravated discharge of a firearm at Eduardo Negrete. The first degree murder charge was brought under three different theories — intentional murder, knowing murder (also called strong probability murder), and felony murder. See 720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(1), (a)(2), (a)(3) (West 2004). The felony murder theory used aggravated discharge of a firearm as the predicate felony. See 720 ILCS 5/24-1.2(a)(2) (West 2004).
The following evidence was presented at trial.
Jorge Serrano testified that at approximately 7:30 p.m. on December 2, 2002, he was on the northeast corner of 21st Place and Washtenaw Street with Selena Carreto and Amanda Magdaleno. It was dark and snowing at the time, but Serrano could "see everything." because the area was lit by streetlights. Serrano observed a police car traveling the wrong direction on Washtenaw and then observed a tan, four-door Oldsmobile with a window rolled down pull behind the police vehicle and travel in the wrong direction on Washtenaw. Serrano identified defendant as the driver and sole occupant of this vehicle. A couple of minutes later, defendant drove past the group and then Serrano saw the victim cross the street to the south side of 21st Place and walk between two parked vans. Defendant stopped his vehicle on the corner of 21st Place and Washtenaw Street and waited. When the victim "glanced out" from between the vans, defendant "started unloading his weapon" and, according to Serrano, fired approximately 10 shots at the victim. Defendant then drove away and Serrano chased after him until he reached Cermak Street, where he flagged down a police vehicle and pointed out defendant's vehicle to the officers. Approximately 20 minutes later, the police brought defendant back to the area and Serrano identified him as the shooter.
Manuel Rayo testified that he and Eduardo Negrete were walking south on Washtenaw Street at approximately 7:20 on the evening of the murder. Rayo also observed defendant follow the northbound police vehicle and testified that he noticed the vehicle because it's window was rolled down even though it was snowing at the time. Shortly thereafter, as he and Negrete were walking east on 21st Place, Rayo again saw defendant, who was the sole occupant of the tan vehicle, driving west on 21st Place in the direction of Washtenaw. When defendant turned left onto Washtenaw, Rayo heard gunshots and, although he did not see the face of the person who fired the weapon, he saw sparks coming from the driver's side window of the tan vehicle. Rayo testified that he "hit the floor" because the gunshots were fired in both his and the victim's direction. When he got up, Rayo saw the victim lying on the ground. Rayo identified defendant as the shooter to the police.
Eduardo Negrete testified to substantially the same sequence of events as did Rayo. Negrete was able to see the face of the person who fired the weapon from the tan vehicle and identified defendant as the shooter. Negrete testified that defendant initially fired three shots in another direction and then fired approximately four shots in the direction of the area where he, Rayo and the victim were standing. Negrete further testified that he, Rayo and the victim were all in defendant's "line of fire," and he believed that defendant was shooting at each of them. When the shots were fired, Negrete hid behind a tree and saw the victim "go down." The following day, Negrete identified defendant in a lineup at the police station as the person who shot the victim.
Amanda Magdaleno testified to substantially the same sequence of events as did Serrano. Magdaleno testified that she was not able to see who was driving the tan vehicle that was following the police car north because there was snow on the vehicle. Magdaleno was standing on the northeast corner of 21st Place and Washtenaw with Selena Carreto, Serrano and the victim when she again saw the tan vehicle driving on 21st Place toward Washtenaw. That vehicle began to turn left onto Washtenaw and the victim crossed the street behind it and tried to hide between two parked vans on the south side of 21st Place. Magdaleno was unable to see who was in the tan vehicle but saw at least five gunshots being fired from the vehicle's open driver's side window. Magdaleno and Carreto then ran to Carreto's nearby home, looked out the window, and saw the victim lying on the ground. She was subsequently taken to a nearby alley by the police, where she saw that the tan vehicle had struck a telephone poll. She identified it as the same vehicle from which the shots were fired.
Selena Carreto testified to substantially the same sequence of events as did Magdaleno. She also could not see who was driving the tan vehicle the first time it passed the group because of the snow and, although she heard the gunshots and saw "light" after the vehicle passed by the second time, she did not see the face of the person who fired the shots because her vision was blocked by a building.
Dr. John Scott Denton, a forensic pathologist and the deputy medical examiner at the Cook County medical examiner's office, performed an autopsy on the victim. Dr. Denton testified that in his opinion, to a reasonable degree of medical and scientific certainty, the victim died of a gunshot wound to the back and the cause of death was homicide.
Chicago police officer David Williams was on patrol with his partner at approximately 7:30 p.m. on December 2, 2002, when he observed a tan Oldsmobile traveling south on Washtenaw Street and then turn west onto Cermak. Officer Williams testified that he noticed the car because it was snowing outside and the car was covered in snow except for the driver's side window. As Officer Williams approached a stoplight, he was flagged down by Jorge Serrano, who pointed to the tan vehicle and said, "[t]hat guy in that car just shot my friend." Officer Williams then turned on his vehicle's emergency lights and the tan vehicle, which was stopped ahead at the red light, turned and "took off." Officer Williams chased the vehicle at a "high speed" until it turned into an alley, where the driver exited the moving vehicle. At that time, Officer Williams observed a blue steel handgun in the driver's left hand. He identified defendant as the driver of the vehicle.
Officer Williams then exited his vehicle, drew his weapon, and ordered defendant to drop the weapon. When defendant threw his weapon to the ground and "took off," Officer Williams pursued him on foot while his partner remained in the alley with the car and the gun. Officer Williams eventually encountered defendant behind a house, drew his weapon, identified himself as the police, and ordered defendant to stop. Defendant paused momentarily and then jumped over a fence. Officer Williams grabbed defendant but was unable to hold onto him. At that point, Officer Williams was met by Officers Bocanegra and Huges.
Chicago police officer Marcos Bocanegra testified that he and his partner, Officer Huges, met Officer Williams behind the house and received a description of the suspect. Officer Bocanegra observed footsteps in the snow and followed them to a storage area underneath a stairwell at a nearby building, where he saw a door that had been kicked in and a lock that was on the ground. The officer followed the footsteps inside the storage area and found defendant hiding behind a door. Office Williams later identified defendant as the person he had chased on foot through the alley.
Forensic investigator Peter Larcher of the Chicago police department processed the crime scene where the victim was shot. He found a .40-caliber cartridge case in the snow on Washtenaw and a fired bullet to the east of the cartridge case on 21st Place. Larcher also observed two nearby vans that were damaged by gunfire. Larcher processed the alley where defendant exited his vehicle and, in a gangway just off of that alley, found a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol. Larcher then went to the police station at approximately 10:30 p.m. on the night of the murder and performed a gunshot residue test on defendant.
Linda Engstrom, who was a forensic scientist and latent print examiner with the Illinois State Police Forensic Science Center at the time of the murder, testified that she examined the cartridge case and the weapon and found no latent prints suitable for comparison.
Brian Parr, a forensic scientist with the Illinois State Police, testified that he was unable to...
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