People v. Lawson
| Decision Date | 01 December 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 73277,73277 |
| Citation | 644 N.E.2d 1172,206 Ill.Dec. 119,163 Ill.2d 187 |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
| Parties | , 206 Ill.Dec. 119 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Carl Earl LAWSON, Appellant. |
Roland W. Burris, Atty. Gen., Springfield , for the People.
Defendant, Carl Earl Lawson, was indicted for the first degree murder of eight-year-old Terrance K. Jones by the grand jury of St. Clair County. Following a jury trial, defendant was found guilty and convicted of murder (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 38, par. 9--1(a)(1)). He subsequently waived jury sentencing and was sentenced to death based on several statutory aggravating factors (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 38, par. 9--1(b)(7)). Defendant's death sentence was stayed (134 Ill.2d R. 609(a)), pending direct review by this court (Ill. Const.1970, art. VI, § 4(b); 134 Ill.2d R. 603). After careful review, we reverse and remand for retrial based on a finding of reversible trial error.
On July 28, 1989, between 7 and 8 a.m., the body of eight-year-old Terrance Jones (known as T.J.) was found lying face down approximately 15 or 16 feet inside a small, abandoned church located at 1825 Kansas Street in East St. Louis, Illinois. T.J.'s body was found, following a neighborhood search, after he was discovered missing from his nearby home, sometime after 11 p.m. on July 27, 1989.
The child had been stabbed several times in the back, chest, and arm, and his throat had been cut. He was clothed in a T-shirt with his underpants pulled down around the knee area and on only one leg. Forensic tests revealed no physical evidence of sexual assault, and no presence of seminal fluids. Although an autopsy was performed on the body, it was impossible for medical examiners to determine the time of the child's death.
The interior of the small church was dusty, dirty and in a state of complete deterioration. Trash, old furniture and drywall substance from the collapsing ceiling and walls were present throughout. The exterior yard was littered with broken bottles and glass and overgrown with weeds. Although there were two entrances to the church, front and back, the back yard area was so choked with weeds that entrance by that route was difficult. The front yard was also overgrown, but there was a pathway leading into the church. In order to see the child's body, one had to walk beyond the threshold of the church's front doorway.
Prior to death, T.J. resided with Pam Burts, his mother, Lisa McDonald, his 14-year-old sister, and his 10-year-old brother in a home partitioned into several apartments, which belonged to defendant's extended family. Defendant, Alberta Lawson, his mother, and various other relatives lived in the home. In total, about 11 or 12 people lived in the Lawson home, which was located at 1817 Kansas Street, approximately 40 yards, or two houses west, of the abandoned church.
In the early part of the summer of 1989, Burts and defendant became romantically involved, but subsequently ended their relationship about two or three months prior to the murder. Testimony varied concerning whether defendant was not upset, upset, or very upset over the relationship's demise. Sometime after the relationship ended, defendant was observed standing on the roof of the Lawson home, in the company of his sister, Ella Gossett. Defendant had other girlfriends, however, after the relationship with Burts ended. Defendant also assisted Pam Burts as she searched for T.J., sometime after she returned from work at around 4 or 5 a.m. on July 28. He was heard to say then that T.J. was not his "damn" child.
During the morning hours following the discovery of T.J.'s body and before the arrival of the police at around noon, many people in the surrounding neighborhood entered the church and observed the body. Defendant was among those who entered the church before police arrived. According to several witnesses, defendant walked around the body and also removed Pam Burts from the church after she collapsed upon viewing the Milton Wilson, an individual unknown to people in the neighborhood, was also in the church following the discovery of the body. Wilson acted "crazy," as if he were on drugs, pointing out various drug paraphernalia located around the body, and speculating out loud that the killer was possibly then present in the church. Wilson was also pointing out various parts of his own body where he had been stabbed previously. Wilson's arms appeared to have been freshly scratched, and there was blood on them. Wilson showed a witness at the scene some crack cocaine. Wilson also pulled a covering blanket off the body after Burts entered the church.
[206 Ill.Dec. 122] child's body. Defendant was also witnessed trying to prevent Burts from entering the church and viewing the body.
When police arrived at around noon, they observed a crowd of people around the church and several adult males exiting. After securing the area, police recovered various items, some of which were located in the immediate proximity of the body (matchbook covers, cellophane cigarette wrappers, a piece of a page from a pornographic magazine, a small tube of metal, commonly known as a "straight-shooter" or a "crack" pipe), and on top of a nearby space heater (spoon, saucer, steel wool material, rag, cigarette butt). Police also recovered an empty Stag beer bottle, which was described by them as not being dirty, from a corner area of the church, about 10 feet from the body.
During the investigation, a police crime scene analyst observed several shoeprints in a substance which appeared to be dried blood. Subsequent forensic tests revealed the substance to be human blood consistent in type with the victim's. The bloody shoeprints were on two pieces of wooden paneling located immediately to one side of the body. The shoeprints bore the word "Pro-Wing," a brand of gym shoe indisputably worn by many individuals in the immediately surrounding neighborhood. Based on the fact that the blood was dried, the police analyst concluded that the shoeprints must have been made at the time of the murder. Police recorded the temperature at the scene, however, as being 93 degrees Fahrenheit.
At the direction of the crime scene analyst, police looked for persons in the crowd wearing Pro-Wing gym shoes. Police saw no one in the crowd other than defendant wearing the Pro-Wing shoe and requested that he give them his shoes for purposes of elimination, which he did. According to police, defendant's shoes were relatively clean on visual inspection. Police also inspected the church's exterior and the back stairs of the nearby Lawson home, but observed no bloody shoeprints.
Police questioned Milton Wilson at the scene. Wilson approached police officers in their cars. When questioned, Wilson produced false identification and said that Barbara Lawson, defendant's sister, had brought him to the area that morning to visit the Lawson family. Police checked Wilson's clothing and gym shoes, which appeared to be blood-free and of a different brand than the Pro-Wing gym shoe. Wilson told police that he suffered from a skin disease which caused him to scratch his arms. At some point during the continuing police investigation, Wilson submitted to fingerprinting, but police did not obtain a palm or fingertip print from him.
As part of the ongoing police investigation, defendant later voluntarily gave police a statement. Following a grand jury investigation and receipt by police of results from forensic testing, defendant was indicted for T.J.'s murder.
Disposition of this matter requires review of the following evidence adduced at trial. At the time of the murder, the Lawson two-story home was divided into several apartments. Old, unlighted, wooden stairs were located on the outside, towards the side rear of the home. The stairs were not readily visible from directly in front of the Lawson home. The stairs led from a first-floor area near the door to defendant's bedroom to a door on the second floor which entered a kitchen. Pam Burts' and T.J.'s bedrooms were located on the second floor of the home.
At around 5 p.m., on the evening of July 27, 1989, Pam Burts left the Lawson residence to go to her new job at the Sportsman Sometime after Burts arrived at the bar, defendant entered and observed Burts as she was being trained by her male supervisor. According to defendant's statement to police and their subsequent investigation, defendant left the bar after a few minutes, stopped briefly at a taxicab stand and then returned to the Lawson home. Defendant was witnessed at the cab stand wearing a pair of black biker shorts.
[206 Ill.Dec. 123] bar in downtown East St. Louis. Neighbors saw defendant walk Burts to a waiting taxicab and saw them kiss one another goodbye.
At some time before 11:30 p.m., T.J. bathed and came down to the first floor of the Lawson home to ask Alberta Lawson for a popsicle. After Lawson went into the kitchen and found that some previously prepared popsicles were not yet frozen, T.J. left the kitchen. Lawson presumed that he returned to his second-floor bedroom.
At sometime after 11 p.m., Lisa McDonald, T.J.'s sister, noticed that he was missing, and she and other children playing in and around the Lawson home began looking for him throughout the house. When the children could not find T.J. in the house, they told Alberta, who began searching with them throughout the surrounding neighborhood.
The State's evidence of defendant's whereabouts and activities on the evening of July 27 differed from defendant's evidence. The State advanced...
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