People v. Mathews
| Decision Date | 17 July 2020 |
| Docket Number | Appeal No. 3-17-0301 |
| Citation | 2020 IL App (3d) 170301 -U |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ORLANDO MATHEWS, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and may not be cited as precedent by any party except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).
Appeal from the Circuit Court of the 10th Judicial Circuit, Peoria County, Illinois
Circuit No. 14-CF-81
Honorable Kevin W. Lyons Albert L. Purham Jr. Judges, Presiding
¶ 1 Held: The trial court erred in not suppressing weapons recovered during a warrant search. Conviction for unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon reversed outright because State cannot sustain a conviction without the weapons.
¶ 2 Defendant Orlando Mathews was convicted by a jury of first degree murder and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and sentenced to concurrent 40- and 3-year terms of imprisonment. He appeals his conviction. We vacate defendant's conviction in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.
¶ 4 Defendant Orlando Mathews was charged with three counts of first degree murder and one count of unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon. 720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(1), (2), (3) (West 2014); 720 ILCS 5/24-1.1(a) (West 2014). The charges arose from a murder and alleged armed robbery in Peoria outside a multi-building apartment complex. Mathews was found in the apartment of his girlfriend, Aries Morris, and arrested. Two other men, Duane Simmons and Denzel Gayton, who were in the apartment were also arrested.
¶ 5 Prior to trial, Mathews filed a motion to quash his arrest and suppress evidence which he asserted was obtained as the result of an illegal and warrantless entry into Morris's apartment. He also sought suppression of the weapons that were seized after the police later searched the apartment pursuant to a warrant. At the suppression hearing, the parties agreed to include transcripts from the suppression hearing of Simmons. In that hearing, the following evidence was presented.
¶ 6 Justin Sinks, a Peoria police officer, testified that on February 5, 2014, he received a report of a shooting and arrived at the apartment complex at approximately 11:37 a.m. He was told by eyewitnesses that the two offenders were black males with dreadlocks and wearing dark coats who fled the scene on foot into one of the apartment buildings. Around noon, he conversed with Morris, who was present outside her apartment building waiting for a grocery delivery. He explained there had been a shooting and law enforcement was canvassing the apartment buildings searching for witnesses and suspects. She stated she had no information about the shooting and told him the apartment number where she lived. Morris returned to her apartment after their conversation ended.
¶ 7 The police canvassed door-to-door in Morris's building asking residents if they had seen or heard anything related to the shooting and if anyone was in their apartments. Sinks entered the building at 729 N. Hightower and saw officers knocking on Morris's door but no one was answering. When he yelled her name, Morris cracked the door 6-to-12 inches and spoke with the police. There were five to seven officers outside her door. Morris inquired what was happening and he told her they were searching for the shooting suspects. In response to his inquiry whether anyone was in her apartment, she said no. He then asked if the officers could enter the apartment to look for themselves. In his opinion, Morris was very nervous and her demeanor was different than when they talked earlier. He became suspicious although he did not observe anything illegal. He did not seek a warrant at that time. Morris did not ask about a warrant. When Sinks asked Morris if the officers could come into her apartment, she "flung the door open, walked away" and gestured with her palms up and arms extended. He interpreted her gesture as an invitation to enter the apartment. Morris did not verbally consent to the search. When asked whether Morris fully opened the door, Sinks said, "I held the door open, yes." He was then able to see a black male with short hair sitting on the couch. He did not smell burnt cannabis and would have put it in his report if he had.
¶ 8 Sinks and three other armed officers then entered the living room and asked Morris repeatedly if anyone else was in the apartment. She said the person on the couch was her friend. He was later identified as Mathews. She also said her children were present. Another officer, Corey Miller, heard noises and saw shadows in the back of the apartment. Sinks again inquired if anyone else was there and whether they could look around the apartment. Morris said she would have her children come out and a child came out from the bedroom. The other officer went to the back ofthe apartment and saw a black male with dreadlocks lying on the bed in one of the bedrooms. The man in the bedroom was identified as Gayton.
¶ 9 Loren Marion, a Peoria police captain, testified. He participated in the canvas and was behind Sinks as he talked to Morris at her apartment door. He could hear Sinks but not Morris. Sinks asked if anyone else was in the apartment and whether they could come in and look. When Morris opened the door wider, Marion was able to see a man on the couch. Sinks stated that Morris had said no one else was there and asked to check the apartment. Morris backed up and further opened the door. Sinks went in and Marion followed. Marion never heard Morris consent to the search.
¶ 10 Brian Grice, a Peoria police officer, testified that he also entered the apartment with the other officers. He found the bathroom door was locked and heard a male say, "just a minute." The door then opened and he saw a man on the toilet without a shirt, wearing his underpants with his jeans at his ankles. The man stood up and attempted to flush the toilet. Grice saw a shell casing in the toilet bowl, which he was able to retrieve. The man was removed from the bathroom and arrested. Grice identified the man as Simmons.
¶ 11 Shawn Curry, a Peoria detective, testified that Morris gave the officers verbal consent to search her apartment but the officers opted to also obtain a search warrant. Upon his entry into the apartment, Curry saw Simmons run for the bathroom.
¶ 12 Simmons testified that he was in the bathroom in Morris's apartment when he heard the police at the apartment door. In response to their inquiry, Morris identified all the people in the apartment. The police asked for her consent to search the premises and she refused. An officer then told her they did not need a warrant and Simmons heard the police enter the apartment. They came into the bathroom with their guns drawn, snatched him off the toilet and arrested him.
¶ 13 The trial court found the officers had consent to enter Morris's apartment and denied the motion to suppress the entry and Simmons's arrest. Simmons filed a motion for reconsideration and another hearing was held at which Morris testified. She stated as follows. Mathews was her boyfriend and he, Simmons, and Gayton spent the night at her apartment, where they all sat around and smoked cannabis, except Simmons, who did not smoke. The following morning, she heard a knock on her apartment door, looked through the peephole and saw approximately 10 officers, which made her nervous. The officers said there were two people in her apartment that matched the description of the shooting suspects in that they had long dreadlocks. She cracked the door six to eight inches. Officers then saw Mathews sitting on her couch, pushed the door open and entered her apartment. She did not consent or do anything that would suggest consent. The officers basically just came into her apartment. She motioned with her hands for her children to step out of the way of the police. The officers then made her remain in the hallway, where she was able to see them take Simmons and Gayton out of her apartment in handcuffs. She, too, was taken to the police station and remained there for approximately eight hours. On reconsideration, the trial court granted Simmons's motion to suppress, finding that it was not a reasonable inference that Morris invited the officers into her apartment. The court suppressed Simmons's cell phone, jacket and money. The court later added the shell casing from the toilet to the list of suppressed items.
¶ 14 The following additional evidence was submitted at Mathews's hearing. Morris testified. She lived in the apartment. Mathews, who was her boyfriend, had been staying with her. Mathews had short hair while Simmons and Gayton had dreadlocks. When the police were at her door, she did not invite them in. The police said she lied about who was in her apartment but she told them her children, Mathews and two friends were there. When she stepped to the side so the police couldlook in, Sinks moved the door and two officers walked in. Morris admitted she regularly smoked cannabis, had smoked some that morning and her apartment probably smelled of cannabis.
¶ 15 The court reviewed the transcripts from Simmons's hearing and incorporated them into its ruling. The trial court found that the State "basically concede[d]" that the officers' entry into Morris's apartment was unlawful; found Mathews had standing to challenge the search; and in accord with the prior rulings by the court in Simmons's case, found that there was no consent for the officers to enter the apartment. The court granted Mathews's motion to suppress regarding entry into the apartment, finding it was not lawful.
¶ 16 Mathews then moved to quash the search warrant and suppress the evidence seized pursuant to the warrant, arguing suppression was necessary because the warrant was obtained based on information the police discovered as a result of...
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