People v. McMillan

• Decision Date: 14 January 1993
• Docket Number: No. 4-91-0969,4-91-0969
• Parties: , 180 Ill.Dec. 516 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Thomas McMILLAN, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 585

607 N.E.2d 585

239 Ill.App.3d 467, 180 Ill.Dec. 516

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Thomas McMILLAN, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 4-91-0969.

Appellate Court of Illinois Fourth District.

Argued Oct. 20, 1992.

Decided Jan. 14, 1993.

Michael J. Costello (argued), Costello Law Office, Springfield, for defendant-appellant.

Donald M. Cadagin, State's Atty., Norbert J. Goetten, Director, State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, Springfield, Robert J. Biderman, Deputy Director, Denise M. Ambrose, Staff Atty. (argued), for plaintiff-appellee.

Justice McCULLOUGH delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant Thomas McMillan was convicted of first degree murder (Ill.Rev.Stat.1989, ch. 38, par. 9-1(a)), armed robbery (Ill.Rev.Stat.1989, ch. 38, par. 18-2(a)) and attempt (aggravated kidnapping) (Ill.Rev.Stat.1989, ch. 38, pars. 8-4(a), 10-2(a)(3)) of Melissa Koontz following a jury trial in July 1991. The jury found defendant eligible for the death penalty but found mitigating circumstances sufficient to preclude a sentence of death. Accordingly, the trial court sentenced defendant to a term of natural life on the murder conviction only. He now appeals, raising four issues regarding errors occurring at trial, the sufficiency of the evidence and the jury instructions. We affirm.

Melissa's mother testified that on June 24, 1989, 18-year-old Melissa left their home in Waverly at approximately 9:45 a.m. to go to work at Cub Foods in Springfield. Melissa was to work two shifts that day and was expected to be home at approximately 11 p.m. She had her own car, a 1988 Ford Escort, which she used to drive back and forth to work. It is approximately 27 miles from their house to Cub Foods. In order to get to work, Melissa took Route 104 to County Road 15 West, which is between Waverly and New Berlin, over to Interstate 36. Melissa never came home that evening although she had no plans to go out after work. She was last seen alive at Cub Foods by a co-employee at 10:06 p.m.

When she did not come home, Mrs. Koontz woke up her husband and they called Cub Foods to see if Melissa was there. When they were told she was not there, they began to look for her. They followed the route that Melissa would have taken to and from work and they discovered her car on County Road 15 West. Inside the car was Melissa's purse, which contained her identification but no money, her work jacket and a tennis racket. Melissa's car would not start because the battery had run down. At approximately 5 or 6 a.m., Mr. Koontz returned to Melissa's car with his son, and they jump started the car and drove it home. Mrs. Koontz testified Melissa had a 24-inch silver chain hanging over the rearview mirror in her car which she had seen on the Tuesday or Thursday prior to Melissa's disappearance. She identified a chain, plaintiff's exhibit No. 9, as the chain she had seen in Melissa's car. She testified that after Melissa's death, she went through her personal belongings and never found the chain.

Al Sample, a Sangamon County deputy, was working on June 24, 1989, when at approximately 11 p.m., he received a call regarding an abandoned vehicle on County Road 15 West, three miles south of New Berlin. At the time he was in Williamsville, approximately 35 miles away from where the abandoned vehicle was located. He traveled south on I-55, then westbound on Interstate 36 to the New Berlin exit and then on County Road 15 West until he reached the vehicle. At this time, he was driving a brown and white squad car. He traveled approximately three miles on County Road 15 West before reaching the vehicle.

County Road 15 West is a two-lane asphalt road with a relatively narrow shoulder. When he arrived, he found a black Ford Escort stopped in the center of the southbound lane with its headlights on and the doors closed. When he examined the vehicle, he noticed the keys were in the ignition but the engine was off. There was a purse and an item of clothing in the front seat of the car and a tennis racket in the back seat. When he reached the car, he radioed the license plate information to the Sangamon County sheriff's department and requested that they contact the registered owner to find out why the car was on the road at that time of night. He determined that the co-owner of the car was Robert Koontz, Melissa's father. He went through the purse to locate some identification and found Melissa's driver's license.

Approximately one hour later, he was advised that the registered owner could not be contacted, so for safety reasons, he pushed the vehicle off to the side of the road. He checked the immediate area for anybody that might have been the driver of the vehicle. Officer Sample also checked the area north and south of that location using a spotlight he had on his car. He traveled approximately 10 miles up Route 104 to Interstate 36 several times looking for the driver of the car. He did not notice anything unusual about the vehicle other than it was in the roadway. He did not find any blood nor did he find anything to be disturbed in the car. On cross-examination, Sample testified that based on his examination of the scene where the car was found, he saw no signs of a struggle or physical violence.

Paul Schuh, a crime scene technician for the Illinois State Police, went to the Koontz house on June 25, 1989, to process and examine Melissa's car. He found stains on the front of her car but determined that they were not bloodstains. He found a Cub Foods receipt on the floor in front of the passenger seat. He found fingerprints on the outside of the driver's door, on the back exterior of the car, on the inside rearview mirror and the interior surface of the passenger door. None of these fingerprints matched defendant's. Schuh also examined the area where the car was abandoned but found no blood in that area.

Susan Matteson testified that on July 1, 1989, she was taking a drive with her husband on County Road 2 South at approximately 1 p.m. During this drive, she stopped along the road to urinate in a cornfield. She walked toward the cornfield, smelled something and as she looked at the cornfield, she could see the head of a person. She ran back to the truck and told her husband that they should go call the police. She did not actually go into the cornfield but remained at the edge and saw what appeared to be a path into the cornfield. They drove to the nearest farmhouse and phoned the police.

Dr. Grant C. Johnson performed an autopsy on the body of Melissa Koontz on July 2, 1989. He was called to the scene where Melissa's body was found which was approximately 15 feet into the cornfield in Sangamon County. The body was severely decomposed, lying on its back with the head turned so that the right side of the face was in contact with the ground.

Dr. Johnson testified that there were 18 wounds on the chest, back, arms and hands of the body. He explained that this did not count the areas where there was severe decomposition; however, he found 18 clearly demonstrable wounds. Four of those wounds represented exit wounds due to perforation of the body. He estimated that the wounds were caused by a knife which had a blade approximately three inches long and one inch wide. He characterized this knife as what the common person would think of as a butcher knife.

Dr. Johnson found the heart fairly well preserved but found two defects in the heart which were compatible with stab or cutting wounds. He testified that based on a reasonable degree of medical certainty, the cause of death was hemorrhage, largely due to the penetrating wounds to the heart.

Dr. Johnson also examined Melissa's clothing. Her blouse had four defects which were compatible with the passage of a knife. These were directly over the area of large decomposition on the back of the body. Melissa's bra had a small slit in the upper portion of the left cup and the plastic clasp which holds the bra together was broken. The slit in the cup of the bra was consistent with the passage of a knife; however, Dr. Johnson did not believe the broken clasp was consistent with the passage of a knife. He also examined Melissa's panties and found them in the normal position covering the body. There was a four-inch defect on the right front of the panties which looked like a rip or tear. Melissa had on a skirt and there was a shoe on one foot. The other shoe was found near the body.

At this point of the examination of Dr. Johnson, the prosecutor asked him if he had determined whether Melissa had been raped. Dr. Johnson testified that based on a reasonable degree of medical certainty he found no evidence of sexual assault. Defense counsel objected to this line of questioning stating defendant had not been charged with rape. The trial court sustained this objection.

Dr. Johnson testified that he would not have expected much blood to come out of the chest wounds because once wounds are made in the heart, they tend to quickly close up. With respect to the wounds on the arms, he would expect some blood to be present at the scene, but the length of time the body was in the area would diminish the amount of blood that might be present. He also testified that an instrument penetrating the heart would immediately plummet the blood pressure down to zero, thereby causing very little blood to come from the arms. He stated that the genitals were severely decomposed and because of this decomposition, he encountered considerable and substantial difficulty in analyzing the external genitalia. However, within those constraints, he did not see any clear-cut evidence of injury. Dr. Johnson was unable to determine the time of death; however, he did testify that the condition of the body was compatible with the time between when she was last seen on June 24 and when she was found on July 1.

Despite his objection during direct examination to the line of questioning regarding the possible sexual assault...