People v. Ligon

• Citation: 847 N.E.2d 763
• Decision Date: 30 March 2006
• Docket Number: No. 1-04-1389.,1-04-1389.
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Dennis LIGON, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

847 N.E.2d 763

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Dennis LIGON, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1-04-1389.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Fourth Division.

March 30, 2006.

Rehearing Denied March 24, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Michael J. Pelletier, State Christopher M. Smith, Assistant Appellate Defender, Chicago, for Appellant.

Richard A. Devine, State's Attorney of Cook County, Chicago (James E. Fitzgerald, Samuel Shim, Owen D. Kalt, of counsel), for Appellee.

Justice GREIMAN delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a jury trial, defendant Dennis Ligon was found guilty of aggravated vehicular hijacking and was sentenced to natural life in prison. On appeal, defendant contends (1) that he was not proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; (2) that there was a fatal variance between his indictment and the proof submitted at trial; (3) that his trial counsel was ineffective; (4) that he was denied a fair trial by comments made by the State in its closing argument; and (5) that section 33B-1 of the Criminal Code of 1961 (720 ILCS 5/33B-1 (West 2002)), pursuant to which defendant's sentence was extended, deprived him of his constitutional right to a jury and due process rights.

At trial, Ana Diaz testified that on December 16, 2000, at 1:15 p.m., she drove her red Ford 150 pickup truck into the Sears' parking lot at 6153 South Western Avenue in Chicago. As she was looking for a parking space, Diaz noticed defendant standing near a pile of snow. Diaz parked and was getting out of her truck when she was approached from behind by defendant, who blocked her into her truck and told her to leave the keys in the ignition and to get out. Defendant was very close to Diaz, looking at her in the eye. Diaz felt defendant pushing something into her ribs. When she heard a click, Diaz looked down and saw a gun in defendant's hand. Diaz screamed, handed defendant her keys and moved away from the truck. As defendant drove away in Diaz's truck, he hit another car. Diaz borrowed a cellular phone to call the police. Humberto Perez came to Diaz's assistance, following defendant for several blocks before losing him. On January 3, 2001, Diaz went to the police station to view a lineup. She identified defendant out of a lineup as the man who had stolen her truck. Diaz recovered her truck. At trial, Diaz made an in-court identification of defendant, identified defendant out of a picture of the lineup and identified a BB gun as the gun defendant had pushed into her ribs. The picture and the gun were admitted into evidence.

Humberto Perez testified that on December 16, 2000, at 1:15 p.m., he was walking through the Sears' parking lot toward his car. He noticed a man talking very closely to a woman getting out of a red truck. When Perez got into his car, he heard a scream coming from the direction of the red truck. Perez drove over to Diaz, who told him that her truck had been stolen. Perez followed the red truck for several blocks but lost the truck when it ran a red light.

Georgio Dawson, a 13-year-old boy, testified that he knew defendant through his mother. On January 2, 2001, at 8 p.m., defendant was babysitting Dawson while his mother worked. Defendant and Dawson went for a ride in defendant's red Ford truck. Dawson had also ridden in the truck a few weeks earlier when defendant had taken Dawson and his mother grocery shopping. Defendant and Dawson picked up a man Dawson described as "dark" and "bald" and then stopped while defendant talked to a woman named Tenita. Defendant told Tenita that he would pick her up later in the evening. Thereafter, defendant and Dawson dropped off the dark, bald man and picked up defendant's son, Dennis Compton. Dawson testified that Compton looked like his father but was smaller in height and stature. After dropping Compton off, defendant and Dawson picked up Tenita. Defendant then dropped Dawson off at defendant's girlfriend's house. Defendant told Dawson that he would be back in 40 minutes to pick him up and would honk the horn when he got there. Several hours later, Dawson heard a horn honking and looked out of the window to see the red truck. Dawson went and got into the truck. Tenita was in the truck but defendant was not. Shortly thereafter, a police car approached the truck. The police officer told Dawson and Tenita to get out of the truck. The officer searched the truck and found a BB gun. Dawson identified the BB gun at trial. Dawson told the officer that the driver of the truck was named Dennis and went with the police to look for defendant. Defendant was found near an elevated train station. Dawson testified that, at all times, defendant was driving the truck and that he never witnessed Compton driving the truck.

Tenita Barber testified that, though she had seen defendant driving in a red truck several times at the end of December 2000, she first spoke with defendant on December 31, 2000. Barber next saw defendant driving the red truck on January 2, 2001, at 9 p.m. On that occasion, defendant was with Dawson and a man Barber also described as "dark" and "bald." Defendant told Barber that he would come back to pick her up at 10:45 p.m. and to come to the truck when she heard him honk. At about 11 p.m., Tenita heard defendant honking and got into the truck. Tenita testified that only defendant and Dawson, who defendant introduced as his stepson, were in the truck. Defendant and Tenita dropped Dawson off and proceeded to drive around, drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. Defendant told Tenita that he had just bought the truck. Eventually, defendant and Tenita drove back to where they had left Dawson. Defendant honked the horn but got out of the truck when Dawson did not come out of the apartment. After defendant had walked away from the truck, Dawson came out of the apartment and got into the truck. Shortly thereafter, the police arrived and asked Dawson and Barber to get out of the truck. As they were searching the truck, Barber heard the police officers say that they had found a BB gun. Barber was arrested and charged with criminal trespass to a vehicle.

Timako Cobb, Dawson's mother, testified that she met defendant in December 2000 and that, when he took her and her son to the grocery store in late December, defendant was driving a red Ford truck. On January 2, 2001, defendant offered to watch Dawson while Cobb was at work. On that day, defendant was still driving the red truck.

Officer Eric Helson testified that on January 3, 2001, at 5:10 a.m., he and his partner were on duty when they noticed another patrol car stopped near a red Ford truck. After talking to the officer who had arrived on the scene earlier and Dawson and Barber, Officer Helson and his partner took Dawson to look for defendant. Defendant was found standing near the entrance to an elevated train station about a block and a half from the red truck. A BB gun was recovered from the driver's side floor of the truck. Officer Helson identified the BB gun at trial.

Forensic scientist Debra McGarry, a specialist in latent fingerprints, was sent the BB gun, which she identified at trial, for latent print analysis. McGarry took steps to determine whether any prints on the gun were suitable for comparison and determined that there were no suitable latent prints. Because the grip of the BB gun was textured, McGarry testified that she did not expect to retrieve suitable prints.

The parties stipulated that Diaz was the owner of the red Ford truck in which Barber and Dawson were riding.

The jury found defendant guilty of aggravated vehicular hijacking.

Following his trial, defendant filed a pro se motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. In his motion, defendant requested a hearing on the issues of whether he was charged with an unconstitutionally vague statute, whether the police had destroyed exculpatory evidence, whether he had been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and whether defense counsel was ineffective for failing to move to dismiss defendant's indictment, to move to quash defendant's arrest, to move to suppress suggestive identification evidence, to challenge the destruction of exculpatory evidence, to call witnesses to testify to the misidentification of defendant, and to consult with defendant prior to admitting defendant's guilt in the defense's opening statement.

The public defender also filed a motion for new trial on defendant's behalf, alleging that a new trial was warranted because of the State's prejudicial comments during closing, because defendant was not proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and because no evidence was presented at trial that the BB gun was used as a bludgeon, as was averred in defendant's indictment. Thereafter, the public defender was allowed to withdraw and attorney Steven Decker was appointed to represent defendant.

Decker filed a supplemental motion for new trial which incorporated defendant's pro se motion and the public defender's motion. Decker additionally alleged that trial counsel was ineffective in failing to call Compton, as he indicated to the jury that he would during defendant's opening statement, and because the proof provided at trial regarding the BB gun differed from the indictment.

At the hearing on the motion for new trial, public defender Anthony Thomas, who, along with Camille Calabrese, had represented defendant at trial, testified that prior to defendant's trial, he had reviewed the police reports and had developed a trial strategy of misidentification because the witnesses' descriptions of the perpetrator of the vehicular hijacking more closely resembled Compton than defendant. Thomas testified that he interviewed Compton twice, once on the first or second day of trial, and once on the next day. During the interviews, Compton's account of how he came into possession of the pickup was erratic, contradictory and inconsistent. At one point during the interviews,...