People v. Lindsey

• Court: Appellate Court of Illinois
• Writing for the Court: HARTMAN; STAMOS, P. J., and DOWNING
• Citation: People v. Lindsey, 392 N.E.2d 278, 73 Ill.App.3d 436, 29 Ill.Dec. 721 (Ill. App. 1979)
• Decision Date: 26 June 1979
• Docket Number: No. 77-757,77-757
• Parties: , 29 Ill.Dec. 721 PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lloyd LINDSEY, Defendant-Appellant.

Page 278

392 N.E.2d 278

73 Ill.App.3d 436, 29 Ill.Dec. 721

PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lloyd LINDSEY, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 77-757.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Second Division.

June 26, 1979.

James J. Doherty, Public Defender of Cook County by John Thomas Moran, Chief Appeals Division, Asst. Public Defender, Chicago (Timothy P. O'Neill, Gail A. Moreland, John M. Kalnins, Asst. Public Defenders, Chicago, of counsel), for defendant-appellant.

Bernard Carey, State's Atty., County of Cook, Chicago (Lee T. Hettinger, Joan S. Cherry, Bryan B. Lavine, Asst. State's Attys., Chicago, of counsel), for plaintiff-appellee.

HARTMAN, Justice:

Defendant Lloyd Lindsey (hereinafter "Lindsey") was found guilty of four counts of murder, one count of rape, one count of arson and one count of aggravated battery before one of two juries sitting simultaneously in the same courtroom. Co-defendants Willie Robinson (hereinafter "Robinson") and Eugene Ford (hereinafter "Ford"), whose trials were severed from Lindsey's, were acquitted of similar charges by the second jury. The charges arose from the investigation of a tragic fire which swept through a residence in which four children died, three sisters and a brother, Caroline, age 17, Beatrice, age 14, Cathy, age 11 and Maurice Horace, age 7. Lindsey was found guilty and sentenced to forty to eighty years in the penitentiary. This appeal is taken from that conviction.

The issues presented for review are whether: (i) defendant was proved guilty of the aforegoing offenses beyond a reasonable doubt; (ii) the trial court erred in refusing to allow a defense motion to impeach one of the eyewitnesses with his mental history and juvenile delinquency; (iii) defendant was denied a fair trial where the prosecution did not inform defendant that one of the eyewitnesses was implicated in the crimes; (iv) defendant was denied a fair trial by the prosecution's use of a prior inconsistent statement as substantive evidence; (v) defendant should have been granted an entirely separate trial based on his intention of calling his co-defendants as alibi witnesses; and (vi) defendant was denied a fair trial where he was convicted by a jury that sat in the same courtroom and simultaneously heard evidence with his co-defendants' jury. The bizarre circumstances revealed by this case require a somewhat extended review of testimony and other evidence.

On October 21, 1974, Mrs. Catherine Horace resided with her six children and a boarder, Lavelle Watkins (hereinafter "Watkins"), at 1408 W. 61st Street in Chicago. The two-story house consisted of four bedrooms and a bath on the second floor, and on the first floor a kitchen at the north end, a living room at the south end, and a bath. A basement door was adjacent to a stairway leading to the second story. Entrances to the house were located in the living room and the kitchen. Watkins, age 19, initially stayed in the basement of the Horace home, but eventually moved upstairs into the northwest bedroom with Charles Horace (hereinafter "Charles") age 13, although he continued to maintain a bed and dresser in the basement. He had been living with the family for four to six months before the fire.

On the evening of Sunday, October 20, Watkins, Mrs. Horace and her family attended services at the Christ Miracle and Healing Center (hereinafter "Church"). Charles was not a member of the Church, although he regularly attended services. Through Mrs. Horace, Watkins was introduced to the Church, where he was "saved and sanctified." The Horace family knew defendants Lindsey, Ford and Robinson through the Church. The wives of Ford and Robinson were members, as was Mrs. Rosie Lindsey, Lloyd's mother, although defendants themselves were not.

Watkins left Church early that Sunday night and returned to the Horace home alone at about 9:30 p. m. Church services concluded at about 1 a. m. and one of the "saints," as members of the Church are called, drove Charles, Beatrice, Caroline, Cathy and Maurice home. Mrs. Horace stayed the night with a friend on the north side of Chicago and Marilyn Horace, her eldest daughter, also spent the night away from the home with a friend. At 2 a. m., Chicago Police Officer Peter Kemmer and his partner followed a fire engine to the Horace home where they saw the first floor in flames. As they arrived, they saw a fireman carry Maurice, still alive, out of the house. He was taken to Englewood Hospital by Officer Kemmer, who then returned to the fire and saw the bodies of Caroline, Beatrice and Cathy being removed from the house. Maurice was transferred to Evanston Hospital where he died of cerebral anoxia due to pulmonary burns on November 2.

Chief Joseph Murray, the ranking fire department officer at the fire, testified that he had to kick in the front door of the house because the door handle was "red hot"; he was unable to get to the interior of the house this way because of the heat. Going around to the back, he entered through the kitchen where the heat and flames were not so intense. As he neared the stairs leading to the second floor, he bumped into the nude body of Caroline positioned in front of the stairs going to the basement, her head lying on the top step leading into the basement and her feet up against the closet wall opposite. Murray's opinion, taking into account the position of the body and the open basement door, was that Caroline had been coming out of the basement at the time she was overcome by smoke. The heat at that location was estimated at "upwards of 170 degrees." He found Maurice upstairs in Charles' bedroom, and discovered the bodies of Beatrice and Cathy in the southwest bedroom, one lying on her side on top of the other.

After the fire was under control, Murray saw Watkins and Charles together at the scene and called to them: "I want to speak to you * * * ;" whereupon they looked at him and "kept going." Charles and Watkins were first questioned together by a fireman at a neighbor's home almost immediately after firemen arrived at the scene, when Charles stated that "the furnace blew up, or something." Watkins later testified, "then I agree with what (Charles) said." Officer Kemmer spoke with Watkins and Charles together later that morning at the hospital and asked them whether they knew how the fire started. Watkins then made no response and Charles simply said "no." Sergeant Daniel Fitzgerald, the police investigator in charge of the Horace fire, also interviewed Watkins and Charles together at the hospital that morning, and Charles told him that he and Watkins were asleep in their bedroom when they heard a scream and opened the door to the hallway. The hall was filled with smoke and flames and the pair could not reach the others in the other bedrooms. He and Watkins fled downstairs through the flames and out of the house. Watkins assented to this account. Neither Watkins nor Charles bore any signs of physical injury.

Fred Rice, a member of the Church, spoke to Charles and Watkins separately on the night of the fire. Watkins told Rice that he was in his bedroom when he was awakened by noise and smoke and, unable to get to the girls, fled the house and encountered Charles standing in the backyard. Three days later, he told his stepmother that he had been in the basement when the fire started. Charles' account to Rice was that he had been sleeping in the same bed with Maurice when he saw smoke and fire and then ran from the house. Charles made no mention of Watkins. Mrs. Horace testified that Charles told he did not know how the fire started. On October 21 Charles and his mother moved in with Reverend Frances Thomas, pastor of the Church. When Rev. Thomas and her son Luther questioned Charles at the Church about how the fire started, he again said he did not know. While they were staying with Pastor Thomas, Mrs. Horace told Charles that she did not understand how he had escaped the fire without any burns. Rev. Thomas also told him that she and many of the Church members did not believe his story.

On the date of the fire, the bodies of all three girls were examined by Dr. Pasqual Culala at the Cook County Morgue who determined that the cause of death of each was smoke inhalation. This was before any charge of rape, arson or murder had been suggested by anyone. No internal examination was performed on any of the three girls at that time.

On the night of the girls' funeral, Luther Thomas and some of the other Church members cornered Charles in the men's washroom at the Church and told him they did not believe his story. Thomas struck him. Defendant Lindsey was also present at this confrontation and was also struck by a Church member.

The inquest into the deaths of the Horace children began on November 25, 1974. Sergeant Fitzgerald, the homicide investigator who had earlier determined that there was no foul play involved in the deaths of the children, spoke again with Charles immediately before the hearing began. Charles reiterated his earlier story; minutes later, however, before the Coroner's Jury, he accused Lindsey, Robinson and Ford of starting the fire. Fitzgerald asked for a recess and the inquest was adjourned. Charles was taken to a police station, where he was later joined by Watkins. Charles and Watkins were interrogated by different officers, but in the same room. Investigator Craig Cegielski testified that he had four conversations with Charles that night, one of which was in the presence of Watkins; and that he had three conversations with Watkins, during one of which Charles was present. Members of the Church were gathered at the police station, but were not in the interrogation room. By their statements Watkins and Charles now accused Ford, Robinson and Lindsey of breaking into the Horace home, strangling two of the girls with a rope, raping all three girls, stabbing Caroline in the neck, bludgeoning Maurice, and setting fire to the...