People v. Morris
| Decision Date | 18 March 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 87645.,87645. |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Richard MORRIS, Appellant. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Charles M. Schiedel, Deputy Defender, Allen H. Andrews, Assistant Defender, Office of the State Appellate Defender, Springfield, for appellant.
James E. Ryan, Attorney General, Springfield, Richard A. Devine, State's Attorney, Chicago (William L. Browers, Assistant Attorney General, Chicago, Renee Goldfarb, William L. Toffenetti and Alan J. Spellberg, Assistant State's Attorneys, of counsel), for the People.
Following a jury trial, the defendant, Richard Morris, was convicted of first degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(1) (West 1994)), aggravated vehicular hijacking (720 ILCS 5/18-4(a)(3) (West 1994)), and aggravated kidnapping (720 ILCS 5/10-2(a)(3) (West 1994)). At a subsequent death penalty hearing, the same jury found defendant eligible for the death penalty and further found that there were no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude the imposition of a death sentence. Accordingly, the trial court sentenced defendant to death on the first degree murder conviction. The trial court also sentenced defendant to 30 years' imprisonment for aggravated vehicular hijacking and to a consecutive term of 15 years' imprisonment for aggravated kidnapping. 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. 603.1
Testimony at trial established the following facts. Around 7:40 a.m. on Saturday, December 2, 1995, Judith Dean was driving westbound on Roscoe Street in Chicago. When Dean stopped at a stoplight at the intersection of Roscoe and Ashland Avenue, she noticed a light-green, clean, shiny car in the left lane slightly in front of her car. The occupants of the car were two young African-American men. As she was waiting for the light to turn green, Dean saw four fingers wiggling and moving back and forth between the closed car trunk and the body of the car. The fingers appeared to belong to a black male.
The fingers disappeared only to be replaced by a ratchet handle. Like the fingers, the ratchet handle was moving back and forth. The traffic light then changed to green, and the shiny green car proceeded west on Roscoe. Dean turned right onto Ashland and pulled into a gas station, where she called 911. Later that night, Dean heard on the 10 p.m. news that there had been a carjacking and a body found in Roscoe Village. Dean again called 911 and told the dispatcher what she had seen that morning.
At 7:45 a.m. that same day, Chicago police officers Stephen Lotts and Michael Lopresti were driving westbound on School Street in Chicago. At the intersection of School Street and Paulina Avenue, Lopresti observed a silvery, bluish-green car traveling southbound on Paulina. The car, a 1995 Chevrolet Impala, traveled through the intersection and continued southbound on Paulina. Lopresti made a left turn onto Paulina. The driver of the Impala, later identified as defendant, parked the car at 3250 N. Paulina. Lopresti stopped his squad car slightly behind the Impala. Two men, defendant and his codefendant, Tywon Knight, got out of the Impala and walked across the street in front of the squad Car. As they were walking past the squad car, defendant and Knight made eye contact with the officers and gave the officers a look that Lotts characterized as "one of surprise and shock, and fear when they saw us." Defendant and Knight continued walking until they reached the curb that was in front of an alley. Defendant and Knight then began to run eastbound into the alley.
Officers Lotts and Lopresti exited their squad car and gave chase. Knight was apprehended at 7:48 a.m. Lotts stayed with Knight until a squad car arrived to transport him to the police station. Lotts then returned to the car parked at 3250 N. Paulina and called in the license plate— ETM 734. Meanwhile, Lopresti continued to chase defendant. Several other officers joined Lopresti in the chase. At 7:50 a.m., Lopresti pulled defendant from a pile of construction debris in a garage. Lopresti handcuffed defendant and had another officer transport him to the police station.
Also on Saturday, December 2, 1995, Officer Robert Hanrahan was working a 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. shift. Around 7:50 a.m., Hanrahan received a dispatch to go to an alley at 1830 West Newport to respond to a call of a man shot. When Hanrahan arrived on the scene at 7:53 a.m., he discovered a man lying on the ground bleeding profusely from the head. Hanrahan took the victim's wallet out of his pocket and learned that his name was Ervin Shorter. Hanrahan broadcast Shorter's name over the radio to the other district officers.
At 8:10 a.m., Officers Lotts and Lopresti learned that the Impala was registered to Ervin Shorter. Having heard the registration information over his radio broadcast, Hanrahan radioed Lotts and Lopresti and told them that the victim of the shooting was the owner of the automobile they were inquiring about. The following day, December 3, 1995, Dean identified the Impala as the car she had observed at the intersection of Roscoe Street and Ashland Avenue.
The victim, Ervin Shorter, was a 58-year-old employee of the City of Chicago. Shorter worked as a laborer with the Department of Streets and Sanitation. In December 1995, Shorter worked a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift.
Shorter was killed by two gunshot wounds to the head. One bullet had lodged in the rear of Shorter's skull. The other bullet had traveled through the brain, exited near the left ear, penetrated the left upper arm, and then fell out of that wound. Police officers recovered this bullet from the scene of Shorter's murder. In addition, when officers traced the route of the chase, they recovered a set of keys to Shorter's car, a .357 Magnum revolver with two fired shells, three live rounds and one empty chamber, a fully loaded .32caliber chrome-plated revolver, and a green glove. Officers also discovered a shoe impression next to the .357 Magnum.
Both the bullet recovered from the scene of Shorter's murder and the bullet recovered from Shorter's body were fired by the .357 Magnum. The green glove found along the chase route matched a glove recovered from defendant at the police station. The design pattern on the bottom of defendant's gym shoe was similar to the design pattern observed in the shoe impression next to the .357 Magnum, although no individual characteristics were present which would support an opinion as to a match.
Following his arrest, defendant signed a statement in which he admitted his role in the crime. Defendant's statement was introduced into evidence at trial. In his statement, defendant indicated that he was 22 years old and was married, to Lyda Antia. On December 2, 1995, defendant, Lyda, and defendant's friends, Tywon Knight and "Taz" (Brian Hoover), drove in Knight's Buick Park Avenue from Kenosha, Wisconsin, to University Park, Illinois. Knight told defendant that they could get a pistol in University Park. As they were driving, defendant, Hoover and Knight discussed robbing a bank. Defendant had some problems in Kenosha and needed money so that he could hide out with his uncle in Atlanta.
When they arrived at University Park, defendant, Hoover and Lyda waited in the car while Knight went into a home and got a pistol. They then drove to another home and fell asleep. Early the next morning, they left and headed toward Chicago. The plan was that Lyda would go into a bank and check out the security, cameras. Hoover would get the money, while defendant and Knight, who had guns, kept everyone at bay. As they were driving, they pulled off the Dan Ryan expressway at Garfield Boulevard. They saw a new Chevy Impala in a Kentucky Fried Chicken parking lot. Defendant said he thought the owner of the Impala was a drug dealer and suggested that they rob the owner of his money and his car. Knight pulled into the Kentucky Fried Chicken parking lot and pulled alongside the Impala. Defendant awakened Lyda and told her to drive Knight's car.
Hoover and Knight had guns and got into the Impala with the owner between them. Defendant got into the back seat of the Impala, and Hoover gave him a .357 to keep the owner under control. Defendant had Knight pull down a street into an alley, got the owner out of the car, and forced the owner into the trunk of the car. Defendant then got into the driver's seat of the Impala with Hoover in the passenger's seat. Knight got into the Buick with Lyda. They got back onto the expressway, eventually exiting at Ashland Avenue. Defendant and Lyda pulled their cars over, and defendant told everyone that he was looking for a place to kill the owner of the Impala and was looking for a bank to rob. Defendant then got into the driver's seat of the Buick with Lyda and had Knight and Hoover follow in the Impala.
Defendant saw some banks on Ashland Avenue, one of which had a banner indicating that it was open from 8 a.m. to noon. Defendant decided they had to find someplace to kill the Impala's owner because the bank he wanted to rob opened in around 20 minutes. Defendant pulled into an alley, stopped the car, got the car's owner out of the trunk and ordered him to his knees. The car's owner began begging for his life, at which point defendant shot him twice. Defendant and Knight got back into the Impala, pulled out of the alley and saw a police car. Shortly thereafter, defendant parked the Impala and the police again drove up. Defendant and Knight jumped out of the car and ran. Defendant left the 357 and the keys to the Impala in the alley as he ran.
Defendant testified at trial. Defendant's trial testimony began with an explanation of the "problems in Kenosha" that had been mentioned in his statement introduced at trial. Defendant stated that, in 1995, he was...
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