People v. Mertz

• Decision Date: 17 November 2005
• Docket Number: No. 96288.,96288.
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Anthony B. MERTZ, Appellant.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 618

842 N.E.2d 618

218 Ill.2d 1

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Anthony B. MERTZ, Appellant.

No. 96288.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

November 17, 2005.

Rehearing Denied January 23, 2006.

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Charles M. Schiedel, Deputy Defender, Springfield, Steven Clark, Assistant Defender, Chicago, both of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, for appellant.

Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Springfield, C. Steve Ferguson, State's Attorney, Charleston (Gary Feinerman, Solicitor General, Linda D. Woloshin and Jay Paul Hoffmann, Assistant Attorneys General, Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

Justice KARMEIER delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a jury trial in the circuit court of Coles County, defendant, Anthony B. Mertz, was convicted of first degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9-1(a) (West 2000)), home invasion (720 ILCS 5/12-11(a) (West 2000)), and aggravated criminal sexual assault (720 ILCS 5/12-14(a) (West 2000)). At a subsequent death penalty hearing, the same jury found defendant eligible for the death penalty, and thereafter concluded there were no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude the imposition of a death sentence. Accordingly, the circuit court sentenced defendant to death on the first degree murder conviction. The court also sentenced defendant to 60 years' imprisonment on the home invasion conviction. No sentence was imposed for aggravated criminal sexual assault. Because defendant was sentenced to death, his appeal was brought directly to this court. Ill. Const.1970, art. VI, § 4(b); 134 Ill.2d R. 603.

At the outset, we note that defendant's guilt is not in question. He does not contest the sufficiency of the evidence in that regard. He raises no issue pertaining to the guilt/innocence phase of his trial. All issues defendant advances in this appeal relate to the propriety of his death sentence.

Specifically, defendant contends (1) evidence of his "political statements, books, guns, tattoos, photos of girlfriends, internet articles, and sexually explicit sites" was either irrelevant or unreliable aggravation and was admitted in violation of the United States and Illinois constitutions; (2) aggravation testimony by a criminal "profiler" was improper as it was irrelevant and unreliable; (3) the use of "unreliable jailhouse informants and unreliable, uncharged crimes" in aggravation denied defendant a fair sentencing hearing; (4) "the death penalty is `fundamentally unjust' under section 9-1(i) of the Criminal Code of 1961 (720 ILCS 5/9-1(i) (West 2000)), when recently adopted legislative reforms in death penalty proceedings were unavailable; the aggravation relied on uncharged, unproven crimes; and the death sentence is disproportionate to lesser sentences for similar crimes"; (5) the imposition of a death sentence is excessive "in light of the influence of prescription drugs on defendant, defendant's inherited alcoholism, military service, employment, attending college, minor criminal conviction, church attendance, low risk of future dangerousness, and dysfunctional family"; (6) Illinois' death penalty statute is unconstitutional under Apprendi v. New Jersey, because the State is not required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there are no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude a death sentence; and (7) Illinois' death penalty is arbitrarily applied, "based on race, geography, procedural evolution, discretion, and mistakes of fact, in violation of the federal and Illinois constitutions' due process and sentencing rights."

We have thoroughly reviewed the record in this case. As the basis for our decision is dependent to a significant extent upon specific facts adduced at trial, the relationship of proper evidence to challenged evidence, and the weight of evidence in aggravation and mitigation, we set forth, hereafter, a comprehensive summary of pertinent evidence from defendant's lengthy trial.

BACKGROUND

On June 12, 2001, Shannon McNamara was found murdered in her apartment near the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. The primary cause of McNamara's death was subsequently determined to have been "asphyxia due to choking, due to a wash rag virtually stuffed into her mouth." The washcloth had been so tightly packed into McNamara's mouth that it had to be removed "forcibly" during the autopsy. The pathologist who performed the autopsy on McNamara described contributing causes of her death as follows: "manual strangulation, smothering by placing of the hand or hands over the mouth; hemoperitoneum, that is the presence of a large quantity of blood in the peritoneum cavity due to lacerations of the liver; and * * * stab cutting wound to the abdomen."

The pathologist noted one incise wound to the left side of the victim's chin, five incise wounds to her neck, one long incise wound to her abdomen — running from the base of her sternum to the top of her pubis, exposing a portion of her bowel — one incise wound between the thumb and forefinger of her left hand, another to the base of her ear, an incise wound of the vagina, an incise wound extending from the sacral area of the victim's back to her anus, three parallel incise wounds across the breadth of the victim's back, and one incise wound running the length of her back.

In addition to incise wounds, the victim had multiple bruises and contusions over various parts of her body. Bruises were so numerous they were not assigned numbers during the autopsy. McNamara had multiple contusions to her neck which, in the pathologist's opinion, might have been self-inflicted, the result of her attempts to extricate hands or other objects from around her neck. The pathologist noted bruising on the left side of the victim's neck and jaw, as well as multiple bruises and abrasions of her right elbow. Bruising was evident on the right and left sides of her mouth, on her lips, and just below her chin. The frenulum of her upper lip was torn, and bleeding was observed inside her mouth. Multiple bruises about the neck were indicative of manual or ligature strangulation. A large bruise was noted in the left hip region, and there were scattered bruises in the lower chest and upper abdominal area. Broad surface, blunt force impact had caused multiple lacerations of the liver, and significant internal bleeding. The pathologist testified that "a severe or large amount of force" is required to lacerate the liver, and such a blow would have caused the victim "a great deal" of pain. The victim had also suffered blows to the head that had resulted in "subarachnoid and subdural hemorrhage overlying the brain."

Crime scene investigation revealed that entry into the victim's apartment had been accomplished by cutting a window screen and opening an unlocked window. The victim was apparently attacked as she slept. The condition of the victim's bedroom and bathroom suggested that a struggle had begun in the victim's bedroom and continued in the bathroom, where the victim was eventually overcome. The dead or dying victim was then moved to the living room of her apartment where, in the opinion of crime scene investigator Richard Caudell, she was posed or "put on display." The victim was laid out on her back, naked, except for a bra and a T-shirt, which had been pulled up to expose her breasts. Her arms had been extended over her head, and she had been mutilated with a butcher knife after she was beyond the point of resistance. That knife was later discovered in a dumpster behind the victim's apartment building. A torn latex glove was discovered near the victim's body. The handle of a box cutter, a pair of panties, and the defendant's bent credit card were found on the hallway floor adjacent to the bedrooms and bathroom.

Defendant was subsequently questioned and denied that he knew the victim or anyone living in her apartment. He admitted he knew two females lived in the apartment because he had seen them sunbathing. Defendant said he had never been in the victim's apartment. Defendant was arrested and charged with McNamara's murder and related offenses.

At the guilt phase of defendant's trial, the State adduced compelling evidence of defendant's guilt. As noted, his credit card was found on the floor of the victim's apartment in the area where the struggle had taken place. Moreover, scrapings from the victim's fingernails were analyzed and were found to be consistent with defendant's DNA profile. Testimony indicated that profile could be expected to occur in "one in 1.8 billion white unrelated individuals." Furthermore, shortly after the murder, investigating police officers observed marks on defendant's face, scratches on his neck, abrasions on his knees, and bruises on his arms and elsewhere on his body. In addition, a search of defendant's apartment revealed latex gloves secreted in a cloth bag. A box cutter was missing from defendant's place of employment.

Various witnesses testified that defendant frequently entered locked apartments — with and without authority — using credit cards to compromise the locks. One of defendant's friends testified that he had visited defendant a month before the murder and heard defendant mention the victim's name. The witness testified: "[H]e was on a website and he was looking at sports teams that I think that she was involved with and there were bios on all of the girls and he mentioned her name." Another witness testified that she overheard defendant tell someone, during the initial stage of the police investigation, that there had been a "brutal knife murder" across the street from his apartment building. One of the police officers supervising the investigation testified that no one had been told there was a knife involved in the murder. Finally, two witnesses who were incarcerated with defendant at the Coles County Safety and Detention Center pending trial testified that defendant made admissions and other incriminating...