People v. Lawler

• Decision Date: 28 February 1990
• Docket Number: No. 5-88-0139,5-88-0139
• Parties: , 141 Ill.Dec. 612 PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Stanley K. LAWLER, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 799

551 N.E.2d 799

194 Ill.App.3d 547, 141 Ill.Dec. 612

PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Stanley K. LAWLER, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 5-88-0139.

Appellate Court of Illinois Fifth District.

Feb. 28, 1990.

Daniel M. Kirwan, Deputy Defender, Larry R. Wells, Asst. Defender, Office of the State Appellate Defender, Mt. Vernon, for defendant-appellant.

Paul Hillis, State's Atty., Salem, Kenneth R. Boyle, Director, Stephen E. Norris, Deputy Director, Matthew E. Franklin, Staff Atty., Office of the State's Attys. Appellate Prosecutor, Mt. Vernon, for plaintiff-appellee.

Justice GOLDENHERSH delivered the opinion of the court:

After a jury trial, defendant, Stanley K. Lawler, was found guilty of aggravated criminal sexual assault (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 38, par. 12-13(a)(1)) and was sentenced to 12 years in the Department of Corrections. In this cause defendant raises the following issues: (1) whether defendant was denied a fair trial because the jury was allowed to hear the content of a telephone conversation between the complaining witness and her father in which she alleged that she was being abducted by an armed man, and (2) whether defendant was denied a fair trial because the trial court allowed the jury to consider defendant's 1979 robbery and aggravated battery convictions. We reverse and remand.

The complaining witness, age 21, was the first witness to testify. She told the jury that on the evening of July 17, 1987, her son went to visit his father, the victim's first husband. The victim lived in Shattuc with her second husband, and her ex-husband lived in Mt. Vernon. According to the victim, this was only the second time her son had an overnight visitation with his father. She was concerned and called her ex-husband several times to check on her son. Her telephone calls were not answered. The victim called her father and asked him to accompany her to Mt. Vernon to check on her son, but her father declined to go along with her. She then went by herself to Mt. Vernon. The victim stated she arrived in Mt. Vernon at approximately 12 a.m. on July 18, and went to her ex-husband's house, but no one answered the door. She also made several phone calls to her ex-husband's house from a convenience store in Mt. Vernon. She was not able to reach her husband. Between 3:30 and 4 a.m., she decided to drive back to Shattuc.

On her way back, she stated, a car pulled into the left lane as if to pass her. The driver of this car was defendant. When defendant was alongside the victim's vehicle, he rolled down his window and told her that her driver's side rear tire was wobbling and about to come off. The victim had hit a pot hole earlier in the evening and was concerned that this had caused some damage. The victim pulled into a nearby empty parking lot in order to check her tire. Defendant pulled in behind her, parked his car, and walked toward her car. Defendant told her that her left wheel was about to fall off. The victim opened her door and checked the tire, but could see nothing wrong with it. Defendant told her it was the other tire, so the victim got out of her car and she and defendant examined the rear wheels. The victim saw nothing unusual, so she went back inside her car. Before she could shut her door, defendant drew a pistol from his waistband and told the victim to move to the passenger side of the car. Defendant then got into the car with her and drove back toward the Interstate. Defendant had the gun on the driver's seat between his legs. The victim then attempted to deceive defendant by telling him that her ex-husband had stolen her child, that a search party was looking for her son, and that she needed to call her father to let him know where she was or the search party would begin looking for her as well. Defendant drove the victim's car to a pay telephone at a Hen House Restaurant located off the Interstate and allowed the victim to make a phone call. She testified that she called her father collect while defendant was standing behind her. The victim stated that she wanted to let her father know something was wrong and that she was in trouble, so she told her father that her ex-husband had taken her son and that her father should get the "police out looking." In order to alert him that something was amiss, she asked if Liz and Dave were there. Liz and Dave were fictitious names she used to make her father suspicious. He did become suspicious and then asked her a series of questions about who she was with, to which the victim generally answered "Yes" or "No." Her father learned that she was with an armed "weirdo" and that she was between Centralia and Mt. Vernon and could not get away. Her father suggested that she should try to get defendant to take her to Hardee's Restaurant in Mt. Vernon. Her father stated that he would have the police there waiting for her.

After the victim got off the telephone, she and defendant returned to her car and drove to an isolated location. Defendant then exited the vehicle and walked to the front of it. The victim was unsure where the pistol was at this time and hoped that defendant had left it in the car. She then moved to the driver's seat and attempted to start the car. Before the victim could drive away, defendant put the gun to her head and stated, "You fucked up now, bitch." Defendant then reached in and took the keys out of the ignition and pulled the victim into the back seat and forced her to disrobe. According to the victim, defendant then penetrated her vagina with his penis. The victim informed defendant that she was not using birth control and asked defendant not to ejaculate in her. Defendant complied with her request and ejaculated in a towel the victim had in her car. Defendant told the victim she was very attractive and that it was a shame that he was going to have to kill her. Defendant also asked her if she had ever been raped before. The victim then put her clothes on and exited the vehicle in order to urinate.

When the victim got back in the car she told defendant she was sorry she had not been a better sexual partner, but that she was very hungry and promised defendant she would be better if she got something to eat. She then suggested that they drive to Hardee's in Mt. Vernon, but defendant said that Hardee's in Centralia was closer. On the way there, defendant stopped back by his car to roll up his windows. A large, black car followed them into the parking lot where defendant had left his car. The victim opened the passenger door and jumped from her door. She then noticed that the black car was her father's car. She ran back to her father's car and jumped into it, telling her father, "Shoot him, Dad. Shoot him." Defendant then drove off in her car. The victim pointed out defendant's car to her father and her father drove back to defendant's car. Her mother then wrote down the license plate number.

The victim identified People's exhibit No. 1, a Taurus 9 millimeter automatic, as the gun that defendant used to abduct her. She testified that she did not consent to have sex with defendant, but did so only to save her life.

Lori Lawler, defendant's wife, testified that on July 17, 1987, defendant came home from work between 6:45 and 7 p.m. and told her that he had to leave again to go to Indianapolis as part of his job as a truck driver. Defendant ate dinner, took a shower, and then left again. Before defendant left his house he placed his gun, a Taurus 9 millimeter automatic, which had been on top of the refrigerator, in the Lawlers' bedroom closet. Mrs. Lawler did not see her husband take the gun out of the house on July 17. On the evening of July 17, Mrs. Lawler spent the night at her mother-in-law's home. She was afraid to spend the night alone because of a recent unsolved murder in the area. Mrs. Lawler went home on the morning of July 18 to get some clothes for her children. At her father-in-law's suggestion, she also retrieved the gun, which was still in the closet. The following Monday morning, Detective Leming of the Department of Criminal Investigation asked her for the gun and she gave it to him.

Detective Leming testified that he took the victim's car to Ronald Durr, an auto body repair man. Mr. Durr testified as an expert that on July 18, 1987, he checked the victim's rear tires and found no wobble. Detective Leming also testified that he did not detect a wobble.

The victim's father testified that in the early morning hours of July 18, 1987, he received a telephone call from his daughter. He testified that the conversation was unusual and made him suspicious. He began asking his daughter a series of questions that could be answered with a "Yes" or "No" and found out that she was with an armed "weirdo" she did not know and that she could not get away. Through the conversation, he determined that she was somewhere between Centralia and Mt. Vernon. He then got a gun and he and his wife picked up the victim's current husband. The trio then began searching for her. On the east side of Centralia, the father saw what he thought was the victim's car. He followed the car into a parking lot and then stopped his car, blocking the parking lot exit. He saw the victim jump from the passenger side of her car. The victim told him to shoot, so he fired a shot into the air. The victim got into his car and was hysterical. She was crying and shaking. As they drove away, the victim pointed out defendant's car. He had his wife write down the license plate number. He then took his daughter to the police station.

The mother related the same account as her husband. The victim's husband also described the same version of events.

Sandra Rutledge, a registered nurse at the hospital where the complaining witness was taken on the morning of July 18, 1987, testified that the victim was brought into the hospital at approximately 5:30 a.m. According to Rutledge, the victim was hysterical and crying, but had no physical...