People v. Gosier

Decision Date19 September 1991
Docket NumberNo. 69277,69277
Citation145 Ill.2d 127,582 N.E.2d 89,163 Ill.Dec. 823
Parties, 163 Ill.Dec. 823 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Harry L. GOSIER, Appellant.
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
[163 Ill.Dec. 826] Charles M. Schiedel, Deputy Defender, Peter L. Rotskoff, Asst. Defender, Office of State Appellate Defender, Springfield, for appellant

Roland W. Burris, Atty. Gen., Springfield (Terence M. Madsen and Bradley P. Halloran Justice THOMAS J. MORAN delivered the opinion of the court:

[163 Ill.Dec. 827] Asst. Attys. Gen., Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

Defendant, Harry Gosier, was charged with committing two separate murders and two separate aggravated criminal sexual assaults, in Champaign County. During his trial, the defendant pled guilty to all the charges. Following his guilty pleas, the trial court found that the defendant was eligible for the death penalty. Subsequently, the jury that had originally been impaneled to determine guilt found that there were no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude the imposition of the death sentence. The trial court then sentenced the defendant to death for the murders, and to consecutive 60-year sentences for the two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault. The death sentence was stayed (134 Ill.2d R. 609(a)), pending direct appeal to this court (Ill. Const.1970, art. VI, § 4(b); 134 Ill.2d R. 603).

Concerning his guilty plea, the defendant raises as issues whether: (1) his plea violated the constitution because he was never admonished that he could plead guilty but mentally ill; (2) the trial court properly denied his request to withdraw his guilty plea, and substitute a plea of guilty but mentally ill; and (3) the trial court properly denied his post-trial motion to withdraw his guilty plea.

Concerning his sentencing hearing, the defendant raises as issues whether: (1) the death sentence was properly imposed; (2) he was denied a fair sentencing hearing when the trial judge admitted out-of-court statements made by defendant's three-year-old daughter; (3) the trial judge's questioning of a mitigation witness was proper; (4) he was denied a fair sentencing hearing because of the prosecutor's improper closing argument; (5) the sentencing jury had jurisdiction to sentence him to death; (6) the trial court properly denied his motion for a continuance prior to the second stage of the death penalty hearing; (7) the jury should have been specifically instructed to consider his guilty plea as a mitigating factor at sentencing; (8) the trial court properly refused to modify the verdict form, and instruct the jury that the only alternative to death was a life sentence without possibility of parole; (9) the jury instructions, taken as a whole, precluded the jury from considering mercy within all the factors in aggravation and mitigation; (10) he was denied his right of allocution; and (11) the trial court properly refused his request to limit the State to one closing argument.

The defendant additionally claims that the Illinois death penalty statute is unconstitutional.

The defendant was charged, in a Champaign County grand jury indictment, with the murders of his mother-in-law, Mae Halcrombe (Mae), and his sister-in-law, Soynda Halcrombe (Soynda). He was also charged with sexually assaulting Soynda and his estranged wife, Lesia Halcrombe Gosier (Lesia).

Prior to trial, the defendant requested to proceed pro se, and the trial court granted his request. Defendant later made a request that counsel be reappointed, which the trial court granted. Thirteen days before the trial began, the defendant again requested that the trial court dismiss his attorney and allow him to proceed pro se. After questioning and admonishing the defendant, the trial court granted this request, but asked that the public defender, Joseph Hooker, assist the defendant as backup counsel.

A jury trial then began as scheduled. The State's fourth witness was to be defendant's wife, Lesia. Immediately before Lesia's testimony was to commence, a recess was taken because the defendant appeared to be "emotionally upset seated at counsel table, visibly and audibly crying." When trial reconvened, Lesia was also emotionally upset and unable to compose herself. While she attempted to regain her composure, the defendant informed one of the deputies that he wished to plead guilty to all the charges. The jury was removed from the courtroom and the defendant told the trial judge: "Your Honor, can't none of us undo the past. And I still love my Following the entry of defendant's guilty plea, a death sentence hearing commenced. The defendant requested, and received, counsel to represent him throughout the remainder of the proceedings. The first stage of the sentencing hearing was held before the trial judge alone. At this stage, the judge found the defendant eligible for the death penalty because of the presence of the following aggravating factors: (1) the defendant committed more than one murder; and (2) the murders were committed during the course of an aggravated criminal sexual assault.

                [163 Ill.Dec. 828] family and I'm guilty Your Honor.  I'm guilty."   The [145 Ill.2d 135] trial court admonished the defendant concerning the consequences of a guilty plea, and then accepted his plea
                

The first witness called at the second stage of defendant's death penalty hearing was his estranged wife, Lesia, who testified as follows: that she was the defendant's wife, but was currently separated from him; that she had filed for a divorce because of marital problems that she and the defendant were having; that prior to, and after, the filing of the divorce papers, the defendant repeatedly contacted her and asked for a reconciliation, or alternatively, made threats against her and her family; and that she told the defendant that it was too late for a reconciliation, and obtained a restraining order prohibiting him from contacting, or coming near, either her or their daughter, India.

Lesia also testified: that on the day of the offenses, she and India were living at her parents' home in Champaign; that she arrived at the house in the early afternoon to have lunch with her sister, Soynda; that, after walking in the front door, she noticed that the garage door looked like it had been "broken into," and that she called out for Soynda; that the defendant then approached her, holding a handgun (he also had a knife and a barbecue fork sticking out of his pants); that, as he approached her he was yelling "March 2nd," the date set for their divorce proceedings; that the defendant was drinking a beer and told her that she did not "stand up for him with her family"; that there was blood on the defendant's clothes, and he told her that he had already killed Soynda; that he also told her that he had been watching the house, and knew when the various family members should arrive home; that the defendant then took her into her bedroom, and had India leave the room, at which point he forced her, at gunpoint, to have intercourse with him; and that after the defendant finished, he got dressed and tied her up with an extension cord, and gagged her with a pillow case.

Lesia further testified: that the defendant was upset that everyone was late getting home and repeatedly told her that he would "blow her head off"; that the defendant saw a car drive up, and he left her in the bedroom; that she then heard her mother, Mae, enter the house, encounter the defendant, and talk with him as they moved around the house; that she then heard three gunshots and a fall to the ground; that the defendant then came back into the room, pointing a rifle at her; that she had loosened the cord around her hands and began to struggle with the defendant; and that, during the struggle, the defendant hit her on the head and she lost consciousness, regaining it only after the police arrived.

Porter Halcrombe, husband of Mae and father of Lesia and Soynda, testified in aggravation as follows: that, the evening before the offenses, the defendant called and asked him to send Lesia and India home; that he told the defendant that the decision was up to Lesia; that the defendant also asked if he would be going to work in the morning, and he answered that he would; and that when he arrived home on the day of the offenses, he found his wife Mae's body in their bedroom.

Dr. Stanley Babowski, a pathologist at Burnham Hospital in Champaign, testified as follows: that he performed autopsies on both Soynda and Mae; that Soynda had abrasions about her body, and that the cause of her death was a gunshot wound to the head; that the results of vaginal examination revealed the presence of viable sperm; and that an autopsy of Mae revealed Ethel Mae Tillman, the mother of defendant's first wife, Linda, testified as follows: that the defendant and Linda had marital difficulties, beginning shortly after their marriage in 1983; that, within a year of their marriage, defendant threatened Linda with a knife; that shortly thereafter, Linda and Terrenie (the couple's only child) moved out of the marital abode in Champaign, and moved in with Ethel in Florida; that the defendant then moved into her house, to live with Linda and Terrenie; that, over the next few years, defendant moved in and out of her house; that the defendant engaged in a number of violent episodes, including breaking out some windows with his fist and with a chair; and that the marriage between the defendant and Linda ended in divorce, with Linda receiving custody of Terrenie.

[163 Ill.Dec. 829] that she died as a result of any of three gunshot wounds to her head.

Tracy Jobe, an investigator with the Champaign police department, testified that she interviewed the defendant's daughter, India, a few days after the offenses occurred. Over the defendant's objections, Jobe testified that, during the interview, India told her that she saw her father hurt her grandmother by...

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