People v. Hiles-Sloan

Citation2022 IL App (1st) 180882 UB
Decision Date23 November 2022
Docket Number1-18-0882
PartiesTHE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Respondent-Appellee, v. LYNNESIA HILES-SLOAN, Petitioner-Appellant.
CourtUnited States Appellate Court of Illinois

2022 IL App (1st) 180882-UB

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Respondent-Appellee,
v.
LYNNESIA HILES-SLOAN, Petitioner-Appellant.

No. 1-18-0882

Court of Appeals of Illinois, First District, Sixth Division

November 23, 2022


This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County No. 07 CR 18083 (01) The Honorable Thomas Joseph Hennelly, Judge, presiding.

JUSTICE TAILOR delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.Presiding Justice Mikva and Justice Walker concurred in the judgment and opinion.

ORDER

TAILOR JUSTICE

¶ 1 Held: We reverse the circuit court's sua sponte dismissal of petitioner's section 2-1401(b-5) petition, and remand for further proceedings.

¶ 2 Petitioner, Lynnesia Hiles-Sloan, appeals from the circuit court's sua sponte dismissal of her section 2-1401(b-5) petition (735 ILCS 5/2-1401(b-5) (West 2018)) seeking relief from her 58-year prison sentence for the vicious murder of her blind, disabled, and severely malnourished minor daughter, and for a new sentencing hearing, on the basis that she was a victim of domestic violence. We find that Hiles-Sloan's petition failed to allege sufficient facts to state a claim under

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section 2-1401(b-5), but the circuit court erred by dismissing the petition with prejudice. Hence, we reverse the circuit court's judgment and remand with instructions for the circuit court to appoint counsel and allow Hiles-Sloan to replead.

¶ 3 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 4 In May 2012, Hiles-Sloan pleaded guilty to one count of first degree murder in connection with the death of her daughter, Shavon. The State presented the following factual basis for the plea. In August 2007, Shavon was 13 years old, blind, and severely learning disabled. Hiles-Sloan gave a statement to the police that, on August 3, 2007, she and her husband, Gabriel Sloan,[1] went to the currency exchange with their children. When Shavon kept falling down, Sloan slammed Shavon to the ground, threw her against a wall, and hit her head into the ground. Sloan suggested that Shavon was pretending to have seizures and Hiles-Sloan agreed with him. Hiles-Sloan grabbed Shavon by the hair, threw her through a door, and hit Shavon with an extension cord and a wooden board. Shavon became unresponsive. A repair person was in the home at the time, and neither Hiles-Sloan nor Sloan called 911 until the repair person left. Hiles-Sloan and Sloan hid the wooden board in an alley a block away from their home, which police officers later recovered after Hiles-Sloan led them to it. Shavon was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. Shavon had suffered extensive external and internal injuries and was malnourished. The medical examiner declared Shavon's death a homicide.

¶ 5 The circuit court considered evidence in aggravation and mitigation, a presentence investigation report, a victim impact statement from Shavon's biological father, and Hiles-Sloan's apology to the court, although those materials are not included in the record before us. The circuit

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court sentenced Hiles-Sloan to 58 years in prison. The circuit court denied a subsequent motion to withdraw the plea, and Hiles-Sloan did not appeal.

¶ 6 In December 2017, Hiles-Sloan filed the pro se section 2-1401(b-5) petition at issue in this appeal and made the following domestic violence allegations:

"I am a battered women who was physically abused by Gabriel Sloan, who is my co-defendant on this case. He use [sic] to beat me upside my head, punch me, kick me and control me and my children. This abuse started after the death of my mother Altira Hiles in December of 1999. My oldest son Joevonne witnessed this abuse, my mother-in-law Carolyn Sloan and my youngest son Lavon. My oldest son Joevonne will be making a statement to the abuse. That will be added later in supporting documents
My husband was abusive to my daughter and I felt responsible for this. *** I believed [Sloan] had caused her death and because I didn't protect her due to being abused myself it was my fault.
* * * Upon entering [the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC)] I was diagnosed with PTSD, [d]epression and anxiety disorder. I believe I suffered from all of this prior to incarceration and as such these conditions affected my ability to understand the nature of my acts or to conform my conduct to the requirements of the law.
Petitioner believes that had this evidence been known by the court at the time of trial or sentencing petitioner may have received a lesser sentence."
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Hiles-Sloan asserted that, under Public Act 99-384 (eff. Jan. 1, 2016) (amending 735 ILCS 5/2-1401), she was "entitled to a new sentencing hearing using [her] abuse as a mitigating factor."

¶ 7 There is a second part to Hiles-Sloan's petition that is unrelated to the domestic violence she allegedly suffered. She alleges that in August 2013 and February 2014, Sloan's attorney, Brendan Max, visited her in prison and informed her that a second autopsy revealed that Shavon died from dehydration and that Shavon "was not starved to death, abused or murdered." Max showed her a copy of the second autopsy report but never gave her a copy. However, because no argument is raised on appeal as to these allegations, we do not address them any further.

¶ 8 According to the certificate of service, Hiles-Sloan mailed the petition, along with a motion to appoint counsel, to the clerk of the circuit court and the State's Attorney's office on December 8, 2017, by placing the petition in the mail at the Logan Correctional Center.

¶ 9 On February 6, 2018, after the time had expired for the State to respond, the circuit court, in open court with an assistant state's attorney and assistant public defender present, stated "[t]the petition for relief of...

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