People v. Lewis

• Decision Date: 08 January 2019
• Docket Number: NO. 4-15-0637,4-15-0637
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Noble LEWIS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

2019 IL App (4th) 150637 -B
123 N.E.3d 1153
429 Ill.Dec. 94

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Noble LEWIS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.

NO. 4-15-0637

Appellate Court of Illinois, Fourth District.

FILED January 8, 2019

James E. Chadd, Jacqueline L. Bullard, and Sonthonax B. SaintGermain, of State Appellate Defender’s Office, of Springfield, for appellant.

Jacqueline Lacy, State’s Attorney, of Danville (Patrick Delfino, David J. Robinson, and Linda S. McClain, of State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor’s Office, of counsel), for the People.

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

429 Ill.Dec. 97

¶ 1 In March 2015, the State charged defendant, Noble Lewis, Jr., with home invasion ( 720 ILCS 5/19-6 (West 2014) ) and domestic battery (subsequent offense) ( 720 ILCS 5/12-3.2(a)(2) (West 2014) ). In April 2015, a jury found defendant guilty of domestic battery but not guilty of home invasion. The trial court later sentenced him to five years in prison.

¶ 2 Defendant appealed, arguing that (1) the State failed to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; (2) the trial court erred because, when the deliberating jury requested to hear again the compact disc recording of the victim's 911 call, the court had the jury brought into the courtroom where the compact disc was replayed in the presence of the court, both counsel, and the defendant; (3) his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel; and (4) this court should vacate the purported fines imposed by the circuit clerk but not imposed by the judge.

¶ 3 In People v. Lewis , 2018 IL App (4th) 150637, 421 Ill.Dec. 662, 100 N.E.3d 679, this court rejected defendant's first three arguments but agreed with his fourth. Accordingly, we vacated the clerk-imposed fines, and we otherwise affirmed the trial court's judgment.

¶ 4 Defendant filed a petition for leave to appeal with the Supreme Court of Illinois.

123 N.E.3d 1157

429 Ill.Dec. 98

In September 2018, the supreme court denied defendant's petition but entered the following supervisory order:

"In the exercise of this Court's supervisory authority, the Appellate Court, Fourth District, is directed to vacate its judgment in People v. Lewis , case No. 4-15-0637 (04/13/18). The appellate court is directed to consider the effect of this Court's opinion in People v. Vara , 2018 IL 121823, 425 Ill.Dec. 498, 115 N.E.3d 53, on the issue of whether it has jurisdiction to address and vacate the clerk-imposed fines in this matter." People v. Lewis, No. 123582, 424 Ill.Dec. 388, 108 N.E.3d 811 (Ill. September 26, 2018) (supervisory order).

¶ 5 In accordance with the supreme court's direction, we vacate our earlier opinion in this case, filed April 13, 2018. Further, after considering the effect of the supreme court's opinion in Vara on the issue of whether this court has jurisdiction to address and vacate the clerk-imposed fines in this matter, we conclude that we do not. Accordingly, we adhere to and reinstate our prior opinion in this case in all respects except regarding the matter of clerk-imposed fines. We conclude, in light of the supreme court's decision in Vara , 2018 IL 121823, ¶ 23, 425 Ill.Dec. 498, 115 N.E.3d 53, that we lack jurisdiction to review the clerk-imposed fines in this case that were not included as a part of the trial court's final judgment. Thus, we decline to address this issue.

¶ 6 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 7 Defendant's jury trial occurred in April 2015, and the following facts are undisputed.

¶ 8 From about 9:30 to 11 a.m. on February 28, 2014, defendant's then-girlfriend, Kelly Glore, had coffee in Danville, Illinois, with a friend, Glen Fink. At the time, defendant, a mechanic by trade, was working on a car and drove it to Auto Zone to buy some parts. While there, he received a telephone call from Glore, who wanted him to pick her and Fink up from K-Mart because it was too cold for them to wait for the bus. Defendant did so, dropped Fink off at his destination, and dropped Glore at her apartment on Fairweight Avenue. Defendant then resumed work on the car.

¶ 9 At 4:30 or 5 p.m., he finished with the car and arrived at Glore's apartment around 5:30 p.m. He cooked supper, which he and Glore ate while drinking vodka. Around 7 or 8 p.m., a man whom defendant knew, Michael Roberson, arrived at the apartment, and defendant introduced him to Glore.

¶ 10 At this point, the accounts from Glore and defendant as to what happened substantially differ.

¶ 11 A. The State's Case in Chief

¶ 12 1. The Testimony of Kelly Glore

¶ 13 Glore testified that when Roberson came over, he and defendant smoked crack cocaine. As she was lying on a mattress in the living room, Roberson looked over at her and asked, " ‘Ma'am, which room do I get?’ " Thinking he was just talking nonsense because he was high, she at first ignored him. When he repeated the question, she responded, " ‘What do you mean, which room do you get?’ " He explained he had paid defendant $50 to live in her apartment.

¶ 14 Upon receiving this news, Glore asked defendant to come with her to the bedroom so she could talk with him. During their conversation in the bedroom, she told defendant "he needed to leave and sober up for a couple of hours." The prosecutor asked her:

"Q. What happened?

A. At that point, I saw a look in his eyes, and I got scared and ran outside. I

429 Ill.Dec. 99

123 N.E.3d 1158

ran to the apartment steps, ran to the side of the apartment, and I called the police, and then I ran back up the steps and ran toward my apartment, and [defendant] was going to throw me over the balcony, so I braced myself between the balcony and the girl's apartment door[,] and that's when he was punching me in the head and face."

¶ 15 After defendant "let [her] up," she went back into her apartment. Both he and Roberson had "[taken] off." Defendant "probably realized that [she had] called the cops."

¶ 16 The police arrived at her apartment, and she told them what had happened. The police looked for defendant but could not find him. They told her to call them back if he returned.

¶ 17 About 2 a.m., defendant kicked in the door of her apartment. When he did so, she was lying on the mattress in her living room and had not left the apartment since the police had been there. She explained what happened next, as follows:

"At first, he came after me with a staple gun. Then he grabbed a kitchen chair and put a hole in the wall, broke the kitchen chair, and then he put a mask on his face, and I asked [him] why he was putting the mask on his face, and he said so that way when he kills me, we [sic ] couldn't identify him. Then he put some gloves on, and I asked him why he put the gloves on. He said because that way they won't get any fingerprints from him. He had two knives in his hand[,] and he came to the mattress and jumped on top of me and told me he was going to kill me. First, he wanted to get the phone, but I had the phone stuffed under the mattress in my hand, and—when he had the knives to my neck, I told him—I took the [B]ible out to him, and then he got up, but it was God that called 911, because I couldn't see what I was calling. And then the police came in."

¶ 18 On cross-examination, Glore denied she smoked crack cocaine with Roberson when he came to her apartment with defendant, but she admitted smoking crack cocaine three months before the trial. She remembered going to the police station and giving a statement to a detective named Lewallen, but because "[it had] been a long time [ago]," she could not remember everything she had told him. She remembered telling him about the staple gun. However, she could not remember whether she told the detective that defendant had been living with her on Fairweight Avenue or that he had hit her eight times.

¶ 19 She agreed with defense counsel that this was "not the first time [she had] called the police on [defendant]," but she could not remember the date when she previously had done so. She and defendant had known each other for only a year prior to the trial. A previous battery occurred sometime when they lived together on Main Street before she moved to Fairweight Avenue. She had defendant arrested for domestic battery on that previous occasion, and "[h]e spent some time in jail." When he was released from jail, she allowed him to move back in with her on Main Street because she loved him.

¶ 20 2. The Recording of Glore's First 911 Call

¶ 21 The first 911 call that Glore made in the early morning of March 1, 2014, lasted 5 minutes and 20 seconds. The State played a compact disc, on which the call was recorded. In the 911 call, Glore, wailing and sobbing, identified her attacker as "Noble Lewis, Jr." She stated that he had left after punching her, she currently was alone in the apartment, and this was not the first time he beat her up.

429 Ill.Dec. 100

123 N.E.3d 1159

¶ 22 3. The Testimony of Kyle Harrold

¶...