People v. Morgan
| Decision Date | 18 April 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 58729,58729 |
| Citation | 112 Ill.2d 111,492 N.E.2d 1303,97 Ill.Dec. 430 |
| Parties | , 97 Ill.Dec. 430 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Samuel MORGAN, Appellant. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Charles M. Schiedel, Deputy Defender, Office of the State Appellate Defender, Supreme Court Unit, Springfield, Gary S. Rapaport, Asst. Defender, for appellant.
Neil F. Hartigan, Atty. Gen., Mark L. Rotert, Asst. Atty. Gen., Chicago, for appellee; Richard M. Daley, State's Atty., Chicago, Joan S. Cherry, Thomas V. Gainer, Jr., Beth Herndobler, Asst. State's Attys., of counsel.
The defendant, Samuel Morgan, was charged by indictment in the circuit court of Cook County with the murders of William Motley and Kenneth Merkson (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981 ch. 38, pars. 9 -1(a)(1), (a)(2)) and the rape (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 38, par. 11-1) and aggravated kidnaping (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 38, pars. 10-2(a)(3), (a)(5)) of Phyllis Gregson. A jury found the defendant guilty of all charges. The prosecutor requested a hearing to consider whether the death penalty should be imposed. The defendant waived a jury, and the trial judge, after hearing evidence in aggravation and mitigation, sentenced Samuel Morgan to death on the murder charges (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 38, pars. 9-1(d), (h)) and to concurrent extended prison terms of 60 and 30 years for rape and aggravated kidnaping (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 38, par. 1005-8-2(a)). The death sentence was stayed (87 Ill.2d R. 609(a)), pending direct appeal to this court (Ill. Const. 1970, art. VI, sec. 4(b); 87 Ill.2d R. 603). For the reasons set forth below, we affirm defendant's conviction and the sentence of death. We vacate the extended terms of imprisonment imposed for the charges of rape and aggravated kidnaping. Pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 615 (87 Ill.2d R. 615), we reduce the sentence for rape to 30 years and the sentence for aggravated kidnaping to 15 years.
The evidence shows that at 2 p.m. on January 27, 1982, the defendant, Samuel Morgan, along with William Motley and Kenneth Merkson, arrived at Eliga Prater's third-floor apartment at 1627 West Lawrence in Chicago. The four men talked and used cocaine and marijuana for approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Then Merkson indicated he needed to return to his home to change clothes. Prater exchanged car keys with the defendant, and he, Merkson and Motley left the apartment, leaving the defendant behind.
Phyllis Gregson, who knew both Prater and the defendant, arrived at Prater's apartment at approximately 8:30 that evening. She found the defendant there alone. He invited Gregson to come in, and the two shared two "joints" of marijuana and watched television.
At 9 p.m., two men, whom Gregson did not know, came to the apartment. The two talked with the defendant until around midnight on January 28, 1982. When they left, the defendant and Gregson were again alone in Prater's apartment. At this point, the defendant made sexual advances toward Gregson, which she refused.
Prater, Merkson, and Motley returned to the apartment at approximately 1 a.m. They, along with Gregson and the defendant, proceeded to use more cocaine and marijuana.
At approximately 3 a.m., Prater and Gregson were on the couch in the front room of the apartment, Motley was also in the front room, and the defendant and Merkson were in the bedroom. Prater and Gregson were talking quietly when the defendant called them into the bedroom and demanded to know what was being said. After Prater answered him, the defendant directed Merkson to hand him a shotgun that was in the bedroom closet. Defendant aimed the shotgun at Prater and Gregson and demanded to know the truth about what they were talking about.
At this point, Gregson told the defendant she wanted to go home. The defendant grabbed Gregson and punched her in the face with his fist and hit her in the chest with the butt of the shotgun, knocking her to the floor. Merkson helped Gregson up and took her into the kitchen. After a few minutes, Gregson went into the front room of the apartment, where she eventually fell asleep on the couch.
In the meantime, Prater and Motley stayed in the bedroom and talked to the defendant. After Merkson returned from the kitchen, the four men used more cocaine until about 5 a.m.
Evidence also revealed that later, at approximately 11 to 11:30 a.m, Motley was sitting on a love seat in the front room of the apartment, talking on the telephone. He was holding a small black book and had a .357 magnum revolver tucked under his leg. Gregson was sitting in the rocking chair in the front room of the apartment. The defendant, with the shotgun in his possession, was sitting in the front room, some six to seven feet from Motley. Prater and Merkson were both in the kitchen.
At this point, the defendant asked Gregson to remove her blouse and dance for him. Gregson refused. She testified that Motley said something and the defendant fired the shotgun at him, hitting him in the left side of his chest. Motley's body flew off the love seat and onto the floor. The defendant grabbed the revolver and put it in the waistband of his pants.
The defendant stepped into the kitchen and told Prater and Merkson to come into the front room and clean up Motley's body. Merkson removed some money, marijuana, and the small black book from the body. He gave the black book to the defendant. The defendant told Prater to try and fit Motley's body into the dresser drawers from the bedroom. Eventually, the body was bent, tied up in a laundry bag, and wrapped inside a mattress. The defendant told Gregson to clean the blood up off the floor, which she did.
At about 12:45 p.m., the defendant told Prater to go out and buy something to drink, put gas in Prater's car, and park the car at the back of the apartment. Prater left the apartment to run the errands.
When Prater reentered the apartment, Gregson was in the kitchen doing dishes, the defendant was sitting on an end table in the dining room with the shotgun on his lap and the revolver in the waistband of his pants. Merkson was standing around making jokes. Prater gave the defendant a bottle of liquor he had purchased and the men took a few drinks from it.
Merkson continued to make jokes, until the defendant told him to stop and to take Motley's body out of the apartment. Merkson made another remark, and the defendant chased him into the front room of the apartment. There, the defendant hit Merkson in the head several times with the butt end of the revolver. The defendant again told Merkson and Prater to remove Motley's body. Merkson made another remark to the defendant. The defendant then ordered Merkson to get down on his knees.
Eliga Prater testified that he then saw the defendant point the revolver at Merkson's head from a distance of four or five feet. Prater turned and faced the wall. He heard a shot and turned back to see Merkson's body lying on the floor and the defendant standing beside it. Gregson and Prater both testified that they saw the revolver in the defendant's hand as he stood near Merkson's body.
The defendant ordered Gregson to clean up the blood from the floor around Merkson's body and ordered Prater to get the body out of the apartment. Prater began to tie up Merkson's body and the defendant moved to a point behind him. Prater heard a gunshot and felt the bullet go past his head. He immediately broke and ran through the kitchen, out the back door, and out of the apartment.
At this point, the defendant ordered Gregson to go into the bathroom. She did as she was told, locking the door behind her. After 5 or 10 minutes, the defendant ordered Gregson to come out. When she did, the defendant still had possession of the revolver, but she did not see the shotgun. The defendant then took Gregson by the arm and the two left the apartment through the front door at approximately 1:30 p.m.
Prater's downstairs neighbor, Frank Blume, testified that between 11 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. on January 28, 1982, he heard several loud shattering sounds coming from Prater's apartment. After the last one, Blume noticed that a hole had appeared in the ceiling of his apartment. Blume next heard the sounds of one or more people running down the back stairs from the third-floor apartment. After a few minutes, Blume called the police.
The police arrived at approximately 1:30 p.m. Upon entering Prater's apartment they discovered the bodies of Motley and Merkson. The police recovered from the apartment a loaded shotgun, a fingerprint from a dresser drawer later identified as the defendant's, and a bullet from the floor directly below Merkson's body. The police also recovered a bullet from the apartment directly below Prater's.
Phyllis Gregson testified that after leaving the apartment, the defendant had driven to a motel. The defendant held Gregson by the arm and took her out of the car and into the lobby. The defendant still had the revolver under his coat. Other testimony revealed that the defendant registered in the name of Joseph Thurston, a name he had previously used. The defendant and Gregson proceeded to room 307.
Upon entering the room, Gregson went into the bathroom. When she came out, she did not see the revolver in the defendant's possession and testified that she did not know where it was. After spending approximately 20 minutes in the room, the defendant began to undress Gregson. She told the defendant that she did not want to have sex with him, but the defendant finished removing her clothes, pushed her onto the bed, and had sexual intercourse with her. Upon dressing, the defendant removed the revolver from under a chair cushion and again placed it in the waistband of his pants. The defendant and Gregson spent a total of approximately two hours in the motel room.
Upon leaving the room, the defendant and Gregson encountered an employee of the motel, Tommie Lee Cowans, who...
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