People v. Gulliford

• Court: Appellate Court of Illinois
• Writing for the Court: BARRY; STOUDER, P. J., and STENGEL
• Citation: People v. Gulliford, 86 Ill.App.3d 237, 407 N.E.2d 1094, 41 Ill.Dec. 596 (Ill. App. 1980)
• Decision Date: 10 July 1980
• Docket Number: No. 78-229,78-229
• Parties: , 41 Ill.Dec. 596 PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William GULLIFORD, Defendant-Appellant.

Page 1094

407 N.E.2d 1094

86 Ill.App.3d 237, 41 Ill.Dec. 596

PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William GULLIFORD, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 78-229.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Third District.

July 10, 1980.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 11, 1980.

Peter Carusona, Robert J. Agostinelli, Deputy State App. Defender, Ottawa, for defendant-appellant.

Gary F. Gnidovec, John X. Breslin, State's Attys. App. Service Commission, Ottawa, Michael M. Mihm, State's Atty., Peoria, for plaintiff-appellee.

BARRY, Justice.

Defendant, William Gulliford, was convicted, following a jury trial in Rock Island County on a change of venue, of felony murder and armed robbery. He was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 35 to 70 years for felony murder and 10 to 20 years for armed robbery with both sentences to run concurrently.

Defendant was initially charged by indictment with 2 counts of murder and 1 count of armed robbery. After guilty verdicts were returned on all counts of the indictment the trial court entered judgment conviction only on the counts charging defendant with felony murder and armed robbery.

The State's evidence tended to establish that on July 23, 1977, Dr. Dominic Volturno was struck on the head with a metal pipe by Michael Robinson and robbed. More particularly, the evidence showed that Mr. and Mrs. Volturno drove into the alley behind their home at approximately 10:00 p. m. on July 23, 1977. At that point, Mrs. Volturno observed a car behind them in the alley. While Dr. Volturno prepared to put the car in the garage, Mrs. Volturno went to the back door of their home. Her daughter, Faith Volturno, let her in. Shortly after entering through the back door to her home, Mrs. Volturno heard a noise that sounded like a "thud". She went outside on the back porch and observed a man with an object in his hands leaning over her husband who was lying at the bottom of the steps. The suspect went through Dr. Volturno's pockets.

Faith Volturno also heard a noise, shortly after her mother returned home. She indicated that the object in the suspect's hands was a pipe.

Several hours later the defendant, one Michael Robinson and a James Hines were stopped and arrested. At the time of the stop, Robinson and Hines were in the front seat of Robinson's car. The defendant was in the back seat.

A chrome plated pipe with blood on it was found on the passenger side of the front seat. The blood on the pipe was later typed as Group B. Dr. Volturno was also typed as Group B. Expert evidence opined that Robinson's fingerprints were on the pipe.

Other evidence established that the defendant, after receiving his Miranda rights, signed a written statement, several hours after his arrest. This statement was admitted into evidence. According to this statement, on the night in question, the defendant, Hines and Robinson were riding in Robinson's car "looking for someone to rob". Hines, who was driving Robinson's car, pulled into an alley and observed a vehicle. Then Hines backed out of the alley and, on Robinson's order, parked on the street. All three exited the vehicle and went through another alley in order to surprise a victim. Robinson was carrying a silver pipe. Hines and the defendant had no weapon. The defendant stood approximately twenty to thirty feet away from Hines and Robinson. He heard a couple of "whacks" and then some footsteps. All three men ran to the car and left.

By stipulation, it was established that personal identification cards and credit cards belonging to Dr. Volturno were found on July 24, 1977, at various street intersections on the south side of Peoria.

Medical testimony indicated that Dr. Volturno was rendered unconscious by a blow to the head. He was found lying face down on the sidewalk near the back stairs. There was blood in his nose and mouth, preventing him from breathing.

Dr. Volturno was taken to St. Francis Hospital in the early morning hours of July 24, 1977. He was first examined by Dr. McLean and found to be comatose. The victim suffered a skull fracture and a hematoma developed on the left side of his brain with swelling. A neurosurgeon was consulted and surgery was suggested. A craniotomy was performed and the blood clot was removed. The surgeon testified that during the surgery he observed that the temporal parietal lobe regions of the brain were bruised. He further testified that the result of this injury would be that Volturno would lose his language function and would not be able to interpret what he saw or heard and probably would not be able to utter verbal sounds. The victim remained comatose and though his condition was critical, the surgery was termed a technical success. However, several days later Volturno developed congestion in his lungs. Tests subsequent to surgery indicated that the swelling of the brain was worse, and that the brain was functioning even less than before surgery. On the morning of his death the victim's lungs were again found to be congested. He died on July 30, 1977.

The hospital pathologist, Dr. Kalyanaraman, indicated that the immediate cause of death was an extensive type of pneumonia which had existed in the lungs anywhere from 2 to 4 days. The pathologist testified that the pneumonia was probably caused by the victim's comatose state. The treating physician and neurosurgeon, Dr. Henderson, testified that no pulmonary expert had been called in and that he had never entertained with certainty that his patient had pneumonia because "from a practical standpoint it had no significance". In his opinion the patient was a "lost cause".

Defendant has raised four issues on appeal: (1) Whether the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the legal cause of death was not the intervening acts of the treating physician; (2) Whether the defendant was denied his right to a fair trial because the jury instruction on murder failed to fully and fairly inform the jury of the law applicable to the defense theory that the legal cause of death was an intervening cause; (3) Whether for purposes of double jeopardy, felony murder and the underlying felony are the same offense and defendant's judgment of conviction and sentence for armed robbery should be vacated; and (4) Whether the sentence imposed upon the defendant is excessive because it ignores important mitigating factors surrounding the offense.

The first argument of the defendant is that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the legal cause of Volturno's death was not the intervening acts of the treating physician, i. e., a lack of treatment for the resulting pneumonia, a complication of the injury. One element of the offense of murder which the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt is that of causation. The defendant does not contest the applicability of the legal theory of his accountability for the actions of Michael Robinson who actually struck the victim on the head and subsequently robbed him. His theory is that the treating physician was the independent intervening cause of the death of Volturno. Defendant bases his theory of an intervening legal cause of death upon certain facts brought out in the testimony of the State's witnesses. The State's evidence, as defendant concedes in his brief, tended to show that Robinson caused Dr. Volturno's comatose state with considerable brain damage for which the defendant is accountable. Dr. Kalyanaraman, a pathologist, testified that the immediate cause of death was pneumonia, but she concluded that the proximate cause of death was the patient's comatose state. According to the treating physician, Dr. Henderson, the brain damage which Volturno suffered from the blow to his head caused the comatose state and that same brain damage caused Volturno to not breathe properly. Dr. Henderson testified that the brain damage from the blow to Volturno's head caused him to lack the neurological function to breathe properly. This in turn, made Volturno's body unable to rid his lungs of secretions. When secretions collected in the lungs, the patient had trouble with exchanges of oxygen and carbon dioxide which resulted in pneumonia developing. Dr. Henderson testified that "he died because he wasn't breathing right because his brain wasn't working right".

The law of proximate causation in criminal cases has been aptly summarized in People v. Meyers (1946), 392 Ill. 355, 64 N.E.2d 531. "The law is that when the State has shown the existence, through the act of the accused, of a sufficient cause of death, the death is presumed to have resulted from such act, unless it appears death was caused by a supervening act disconnected from any act of the defendant." (392 Ill. at 359, 64 N.E.2d at 533). It has been generally recognized that where a person inflicts upon another a dangerous wound which is calculated to endanger or destroy life, that person cannot exonerate himself from the consequences of his act by showing that his alleged victim's death resulted from unskillful or improper medical treatment. (People v. Stamps (1972), 8 Ill.App.3d 896, 291 N.E.2d 274; Accord, 100 A.L.R.2d 783). We have read the record and have determined that it shows no evidence of unskillful medical treatment. Defendant's argument is that Dr. Henderson withheld medical treatment for pneumonia which act may have been sufficient to break the chain of causation between Robinson's striking Volturno and his resulting death. We must decide whether Dr. Henderson's alleged non-treatment for pneumonia constitutes an independent supervening cause of Volturno's death. The problem of legal causation arises in both tort and criminal law cases, and they are analogous to each other and have been treated in a similar manner by the courts. Consequently in both the criminal law and in tort law the concept of foreseeability of the ensuing harm caused from the culpable act of a defendant plays a large role. It is generally held that a defendant who inflicts a dangerous...