People v. Kulpin

• Decision Date: 08 February 2021
• Docket Number: No. 2-18-0696,2-18-0696
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Michael KULPIN, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

2021 IL App (2d) 180696
180 N.E.3d 800
449 Ill.Dec. 875

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Michael KULPIN, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 2-18-0696

Appellate Court of Illinois, Second District.

Opinion filed February 8, 2021

James E. Chadd, Thomas A. Lilien, and Christopher McCoy, of State Appellate Defender's Office, of Elgin, for appellant.

Richard D. Amato, State's Attorney, of Sycamore (Patrick Delfino, Edward R. Psenicka, and Adam Trejo, of State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor's Office, of counsel), for the People.

JUSTICE ZENOFF delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

449 Ill.Dec. 878

¶ 1 Defendant, Michael Kulpin, appeals his convictions of first degree murder ( 720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(1) (West 2016)) and concealment of a homicidal death ( 720 ILCS 5/9-3.4 (West 2016) ), following a bench trial. He was sentenced to an aggregate term of 63 years’ imprisonment. He challenges the denial of his suppression motion and argues on various grounds that his sentence is invalid. We affirm.

¶ 2 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 3 On June 24, 2016, a De Kalb County grand jury charged defendant by superseding indictment with two counts of first degree murder, aggravated domestic battery ( 720 ILCS 5/12-3.3(a) (West 2016)), and concealment of a homicidal death. The victim was 19-year-old Moorea Des Roches. Defendant and Moorea were living together at 906 Kimberly Drive, Apartment 1, in the city of De Kalb when the police discovered her body inside defendant's bedroom closet on June 5, 2016. An autopsy revealed that Moorea was stabbed and bludgeoned multiple times.

¶ 4 A. The Motion to Suppress Evidence

¶ 5 Prior to trial, defendant moved to suppress evidence that the police seized from his apartment during a warrantless search. The following testimony was introduced at the February 15, 2018, hearing on the motion to suppress.

¶ 6 1. Officer Jonathan Jursich

¶ 7 On Sunday, June 5, 2016, at 8:40 p.m., Jonathan Jursich, a De Kalb police officer, was dispatched to Apartment 1 at 906 Kimberly Drive in reference to a missing person report. The dispatcher advised Jursich that Susan Des Roches was attempting to contact her daughter, Moorea, as she had not seen or spoken with Moorea since the previous Friday.

¶ 8 Jursich did not locate Moorea's car in the apartment building's parking lot. He looked in the apartment's windows but saw no one present. No one answered his knock at the apartment's door. He returned to the police department and contacted Susan.

¶ 9 Susan told Jursich the following. Susan had custody of Moorea and defendant's infant child. However, Susan allowed Moorea to keep the child the previous Friday night. Moorea was supposed to return the child to Susan on Saturday. On Saturday morning, Susan received a text sent from defendant's phone. Susan said that Moorea and defendant shared the same phone. The text said that Moorea was dropping off the child because she was called into work early. However, defendant brought the child to Susan, which was unusual, because Susan did not get along with defendant.

¶ 10 Susan described Moorea's relationship with defendant as marred by domestic

180 N.E.3d 804

449 Ill.Dec. 879

violence and physical abuse. Susan told Jursich that defendant had been arrested for domestic violence against Moorea. When Susan asked defendant why Moorea was not dropping off the child, defendant said that Moorea had been called into work early. Susan texted Moorea throughout Saturday about the child. Some of the texts that Susan received in response, which were purportedly from Moorea, referred to the child as "Bub." Susan said that defendant was the only person who called the child "Bub."

¶ 11 Susan further told Jursich that, later Saturday afternoon, she received a call from Moorea's supervisor at Portillo's Restaurant in Batavia. The supervisor was worried because Moorea had not shown up for work. On Sunday, Susan went to defendant and Moorea's apartment, looking for Moorea. Susan did not find either Moorea or her car. When Moorea's supervisor informed Susan that Moorea did not come into work on Sunday either, Susan called the police. After she made that call to the police, Susan spoke on the phone with defendant, who said that Moorea had again been called into work early. Defendant then hung up on Susan.

¶ 12 Jursich testified that—after speaking with Susan—he, Sergeant Todd Wells, and Sergeant Mark Tehan decided to return to defendant's apartment. They arrived there at 10:07 p.m. Upon arrival, Jursich located Moorea's car in the parking lot. Jursich knocked on the apartment door and heard movement from inside the apartment. He went outside and looked through the windows, but he did not see anything. Jursich returned to the apartment door. Eventually, defendant opened the door, and Jursich informed him that the officers were making a well-being check on Moorea. Jursich asked defendant to step outside the apartment into the hallway. Jursich testified that, in his opinion, defendant was under the influence of drugs. According to Jursich, defendant had difficulty standing. Meanwhile, Tehan was speaking with another male, later identified as Michael Meszaros. Jursich saw Meszaros inside defendant's apartment when defendant opened the door to the officers.

¶ 13 Defendant told Jursich that he had taken Moorea to work that morning in an Uber. Jursich informed defendant that Moorea had not been at work that day. Defendant repeated that he had dropped Moorea off at work that morning. Defendant added that he used the Uber to go to a job interview. Defendant stated that he was "recently" in the company of Meszaros and Meszaros's girlfriend, Kaileigh Jung-Herman. Jursich asked defendant if Moorea was in the apartment and defendant said no. Jursich then asked defendant if he, Meszaros, and Jung-Herman had been the only persons in his apartment. Defendant stated that he was "not sure." When Jursich asked defendant how he could not be sure who was in his apartment, defendant repeated that Moorea was not there. Jursich then told defendant that the most important thing to Jursich was to find Moorea. Defendant stated that he wanted Jursich to find Moorea. Jursich then told defendant that the police needed to make sure that Moorea was not in the apartment. Wells offered to search only in places where a human could be located.

¶ 14 Then, defendant stated: "There's something in the closet that will put me in jail for a very long time." Jursich asked what that was, and defendant answered that there were "marijuana and a crack pipe in the apartment." Jursich asked defendant for permission to search the apartment. Defendant refused to give permission.

¶ 15 According to Jursich, defendant admitted to having used crack and marijuana

449 Ill.Dec. 880

180 N.E.3d 805

that day. When defendant complained of feeling sick, Jursich escorted him outside the apartment building to dry heave. When they returned to the hallway, Officer Elizabeth Fabro was present. Fabro stayed with defendant while Jursich conferred with Tehan and Wells. Jursich, Tehan, and Wells then decided to enter defendant's apartment without a warrant, to conduct a well-being check on Moorea. Jursich checked the living room and the bathroom. He testified that they were looking only in "areas big enough to where a human could fit in."

¶ 16 2. Officer Elizabeth Fabro

¶ 17 Fabro responded as Jursich's backup to the 8:40 p.m. dispatch to defendant's apartment. She testified that she did not see Moorea's car in the parking lot and that no one answered defendant's door when the officers knocked. She looked in defendant's apartment windows. There was a light on, and she saw a comforter on the bedroom floor. She saw no evidence of criminal activity or signs that anyone needed help, so she left.

¶ 18 At trial,¹ Fabro testified that she switched to bike patrol after 9 p.m. Later, Jursich needed an additional unit at defendant's apartment building, so she "pedaled" there at about 10:24 p.m. Fabro testified that she met up with the other officers inside defendant's apartment building at 10:46 p.m. Jursich asked Fabro to stand with defendant while Jursich conferred with Tehan and Wells. Fabro noted that defendant did not "look well." Fabro testified that defendant's head was "bobbing back" and his eyes were "kind of rolling." She stated that defendant "looked very tired" and his eyes would "roll back." Defendant told Fabro that he had been "doing drugs," including heroin, all day. Fabro stayed with defendant until Jursich placed him in handcuffs.

¶ 19 3. Sergeant Mark Tehan

¶ 20 On June 5, 2016, Tehan arrived at defendant's apartment building at 9:55 p.m. Jursich and Wells were already there. Tehan announced that they were with the De Kalb Police Department as he knocked on defendant's door. Several minutes later, defendant opened the door. While Jursich and Wells spoke with defendant, Tehan spoke with Meszaros and Jung-Herman. Both individuals denied having seen Moorea.

¶ 21 Wells told Tehan that he was working with the police department's drug investigation team to obtain a search warrant for...