People v. McDaniel

• Decision Date: 20 August 1993
• Docket Number: No. 2-91-1308,2-91-1308
• Parties: , 188 Ill.Dec. 850 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Eugene McDANIEL, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 214

619 N.E.2d 214

249 Ill.App.3d 621, 188 Ill.Dec. 850

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Eugene McDANIEL, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 2-91-1308.

Appellate Court of Illinois,

Second District.

Aug. 20, 1993.

Donald Hubert (argued), Andre LaBerge, Donald Hubert & Associates, Chicago, for Eugene McDaniel.

James E. Ryan, Du Page County State's Atty., Wheaton, William L. Browers, Deputy Director, David A. Bernhard (argued), State's Atty. Appellate Prosecutor, Elgin, for the People.

Justice QUETSCH delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a jury trial in the circuit court of Du Page County, the defendant, Eugene McDaniel, was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to 60 years' imprisonment. The defendant appeals, contending that: (1) the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress statements he made to law enforcement officials prior to his arrest; (2) his public defenders denied him the effective assistance of counsel; (3) the prosecutor improperly focused the jury's attention on his failure to testify at trial; and (4) the State failed to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. We affirm.

The following evidence was adduced at trial. Officer Stacy Gangestad of the Winfield police department testified that on May 18, 1990, at 1:22 a.m., she was dispatched to the defendant's residence in order to investigate a prowler in progress. Upon arriving at the defendant's house at 1:23 a.m., she observed the defendant and two other males standing in the driveway. The defendant stated that his wife was hurt inside. Gangestad and the defendant entered the house through a door leading from the garage to the residence. They went directly to the master bedroom, where Gangestad observed the defendant's wife lying on the bed, unconscious and bleeding from the nostrils, mouth and ear. Various drawers and pieces of personal property were strewn about the room. Gangestad requested backup and she then stepped into the hallway and observed an infant in a crib in the room next to the master bedroom. Gangestad went into the baby's bedroom and saw that the baby was awake and in good condition.

Gangestad asked the defendant to exit the residence, and she and Officer Hunger, her backup, then went through each room in the house to ensure that it was safe. Gangestad observed that some of the rooms had various items strewn about, but they did not find anyone in the house. Gangestad noticed that the front door was closed and locked and that a rear sliding glass door leading to the backyard was ajar approximately six inches.

After looking through the house, Gangestad suggested to the defendant that he make some phone calls to have someone come and take care of the baby. After the defendant made three phone calls, Gangestad asked him what had happened that night. The defendant told her that after coming home from work and opening the garage door, he observed some wires hanging out of the vehicle in the garage. He also saw that the door from the garage into the residence was open and he then went across the street to awaken a neighbor to call 911.

After Gangestad and the defendant finished talking, a family friend came by to pick up the infant and an ambulance left with the defendant's wife. The defendant then left in his pickup truck to go to the hospital. Dr. Larry Blum testified that at 10 a.m. on May 18, 1990, he performed an autopsy on the defendant's wife. In his opinion, she died of a gunshot wound to the head.

Detective William Selby testified that he arrived at the defendant's house at 2:36 a.m. on May 18, 1990. Selby went into the garage, where he saw an unlocked car with its passenger doors open. Selby noticed that the keys were inserted in the ignition and that the following items were inside the vehicle: a cassette recorder, telephone answering machine, television, briefcase, and a bag with jewelry and coins. An AM-FM stereo receiver was on top of the hood.

Selby testified that the locks on the front door, rear sliding glass door, and interior garage door were functional and did not appear to have been jimmied, pried or manipulated. All windows in the house were closed. Some jewelry, money, a checkbook, and Wheaton police department shoulder badges were on the floor in the master bedroom. An infant's car seat, exercise bike, and pillows were in front of the sliding glass door leading to the backyard, which was open six to eight inches. Officer Jeffrey Hunger testified that he and other officers shined their flashlights across the grass in the defendant's backyard. The only footprints they saw were their own.

Detective Donald Mitchell testified that at about 4 a.m. on May 18, 1990, he and Sergeant Rizer interviewed the defendant at the hospital for about 20 minutes. The defendant told them that after arriving home and discovering the car with the doors open and wires hanging out, he ran inside and discovered his wife bleeding from the ear. He then went across the street to wake one of his neighbors so that he could call 911. The defendant later stated that he woke up his neighbors and called 911 before entering his house. The defendant also told them that his wife was happy with the marriage and the baby, and he denied having a girlfriend.

Detective Dennis Kurzawa testified that at 4:20 a.m. he met Detective Mitchell at the hospital and then began to question the defendant. The defendant told him that he used to be a Wheaton police officer, but that he had been employed as a ramp manager with United Airlines for the last four years. The defendant said that he used to own a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson chief special handgun, but did not know where it was because his wife had given it away to a friend. The defendant stated that his wife had once pulled a gun on him and that she was "militaristically clean" and hard to live with.

The defendant told Kurzawa that on May 17, 1990, he left work around 11:15 or 11:30 p.m. Before arriving home he stopped and purchased gasoline at the Standard gas station at Geneva and Main Street in Wheaton. He described the clerk at the Standard as a 200-pound white female. However, Brad Harnesk, an employee of the Standard gas station on the corner of Main and Geneva, testified that the station closed at 11:30 p.m. during May 1990, and that no females worked for them during that month.

The defendant also said that he stopped at a 7-Eleven store in a shopping mall at County Farm and Geneva and bought a cup of coffee, arriving home at 12:30 a.m. However, Virginia Thulis testified that she went to the 7-Eleven store near the corner of Geneva and County Farm Road at 1:09 a.m. on May 18, 1990. Thulis noticed a black man in dark clothing purchasing coffee. Thulis testified that she "believed" that the man she saw in the 7-Eleven store was in court. Detective Mitchell testified that on May 25, 1990, he showed Thulis a picture of the defendant, whom she identified as the man she had observed at the 7-Eleven store.

The defendant initially told Kurzawa that after arriving home and finding his wife bleeding, he ran to a neighbor's house and the neighbor called 911. However, the defendant later stated that he did not enter his house before calling 911. He could provide no explanation for why, if he arrived home at 12:30 a.m., he did not call the police until 1:21 a.m. However, the defendant denied killing his wife.

Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Birkett testified that he began to question the defendant in the hospital at 5:45 a.m. on May 18, 1990. The defendant initially denied killing his wife. However, he later told Birkett that the robbery looked staged and that he would "find the missing 45 minutes" after telling his family first. The defendant spoke with some family members, and at 11:40 a.m. he, Birkett, and Detectives Kurzawa and Mitchell drove to the defendant's house in order to get clothes for the baby. At the house, the defendant asked Birkett to come into the baby's room with him, and he closed the door. The defendant told Birkett that he would have "the whole case solved today." Birkett told the defendant that he should tell why he killed his wife. The defendant responded "I did it, I can't tell you why now, I will tell you later." Birkett then opened the door and asked Detective Panacchia to come into the room. The defendant told Birkett and Panacchia that they did not have to worry about the gun because he was going to solve the whole case today.

Detective Panacchia testified that he was working on the second floor of the defendant's house when he saw Birkett and the defendant arrive. He heard the defendant ask Birkett to come into the baby's room, and he saw the defendant close the door. A few moments later the two men exited the room, and Panacchia heard the defendant tell Birkett that he would get the gun today and "clear it up." Panacchia then asked the defendant for the location of the gun, and the defendant replied "[d]on't worry, I will get the gun today. I won't leave any stones unturned."

Detective Clyde Motter testified that at noon on May 18, 1990, he discovered a revolver under the passenger seat of the defendant's pickup truck. Detective Michael Quiroz testified that he removed the gun from underneath the passenger seat of the defendant's vehicle. The gun was a five-shot, .38 caliber Smith & Wesson. One of the shells had been discharged. Quiroz did not recover any fingerprints from the gun.

Richard Vaughn, a forensic sergeant, was certified as an expert in the field of firearms identification. Vaughn opined that the bullet recovered from the defendant's wife could have been the same type as the bullets recovered from the gun discovered in the defendant's truck, but he could not say for sure.

James McGinley, a Wheaton police officer, testified that he and the defendant once traded guns when the defendant worked with him at the Wheaton police department. McGinley stated that the gun recovered from the defendant...