People v. Peterson
| Citation | 2011 IL App (3d) 100513,952 N.E.2d 691,351 Ill.Dec. 899 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff–Appellant,v.Drew PETERSON, Defendant–Appellee. |
| Decision Date | 26 July 2011 |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
James Glasgow (argued), State‘s Attorney, of Joliet (Colleen M. Griffin (argued), Assistant State's Attorney, of counsel), for the People.Steven A. Greenberg (argued), of Steven A. Greenberg, Ltd., Joseph R. Lopez, Joel A. Brodsky, of Brodsky & Odeh, Ralph E. Meczyk, Darryl Goldberg, and Lisa M. Lopez, all of Chicago, for appellee.
¶ 1 The defendant, Drew Peterson, was charged with two counts of first degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9–1(a)(1), (a)(2) (West 2004)) in connection with the death of Kathleen Savio. During pretrial matters, the circuit court issued several rulings on the admissibility of evidence the State intended to present at trial. The State appealed from these rulings, arguing that the court erred when it: (1) denied the State's motion in limine to admit certain hearsay statements under the common law doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing; (2) denied the State's motion in limine to admit other-crimes evidence; and (3) excluded portions of the proposed testimony of attorney Diane Panos, whom the State had intended to call as an expert witness.
¶ 3 On March 1, 2004, Kathleen Savio, the defendant's third wife, was found dead in her bathtub. At the time of her death, the Illinois State Police conducted an investigation into Kathleen's death and a pathologist performed an autopsy. The pathologist concluded that Kathleen had drowned but did not opine on the manner of death. A coroner's jury subsequently determined that the cause of death was accidental drowning. No charges were filed in connection with her death.
¶ 4 Several months before Kathleen's death, the judge presiding over divorce proceedings between Kathleen and the defendant entered a bifurcated judgment for dissolution of their marriage. The court's judgment reserved issues related to matters such as property distribution, pension, and support. A hearing on those issues had been scheduled for April 2004.
¶ 5 The defendant's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared on October 27, 2007. Stacy and the defendant had been discussing a divorce. Following Stacy's disappearance, Kathleen's body was exhumed and two additional autopsies were conducted. The pathologists who conducted the autopsies concluded that Kathleen's death was a homicide.
¶ 6 On May 7, 2009, the State charged the defendant with the murder of Kathleen. During pretrial proceedings, the defendant contested the admissibility of some of the evidence the State intended to present at trial. Three rulings of the circuit court on these matters are the subject of this appeal. The State has appealed each of these rulings separately by filing three discrete interlocutory appeals which were consolidated for briefing. Each of the three appeals are discussed in turn below.
¶ 8 In appeal No. 3–10–0514, the State challenges the circuit court's refusal to admit certain hearsay statements allegedly made by Kathleen and Stacy. On January 4, 2010, the State filed a motion in limine arguing that 11 statements made bY kathleen and 3 1 statements made by Stacy were admissible under section 115–10.6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (Code) ( 725 ILCS 5/115–10.6 (West 2008) ()) and under the common law doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing. Section 115–10.6 of the Code provides that “[a] statement is not rendered inadmissible by the hearsay rule if it is offered against a party that has killed the declarant in violation of clauses (a)(1) and (a)(2) of Section 9–1 of the Criminal Code of 1961 intending to procure the unavailability of the declarant as a witness in a criminal or civil proceeding.” 725 ILCS 5/115–10.6(a) (West 2008). The statute requires the circuit court to conduct a pretrial hearing to determine the admissibility of any statements offered pursuant to the statute. 725 ILCS 5/115–10.6(e) (West 2008). During the hearing, the proponent of the statement bears the burden of establishing by a preponderance of the evidence: (1) that the adverse party murdered the declarant and that the murder was intended to cause the unavailability of the declarant as a witness; (2) that the time, content, and circumstances of the statements provide “sufficient safeguards of reliability”; and (3) that “the interests of justice will best be served by admission of the statement into evidence.” 725 ILCS 5/115–10.6(e) (West 2008). The circuit court must make “specific findings as to each of these criteria on the record” before ruling on the admissibility of the statements at issue. 725 ILCS 5/115–10.6(f) (West 2008). The statute provides that it “in no way precludes or changes the application of the existing common law doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing.” 725 ILCS 5/115–10.6(g) (West 2008). The common law doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing provides a hearsay exception for statements made by an unavailable witness where the defendant intentionally made the witness unavailable in order to prevent her from testifying. People v. Hanson, 238 Ill.2d 74, 345 Ill.Dec. 395, 939 N.E.2d 238 (2010); People v. Stechly, 225 Ill.2d 246, 272–73, 312 Ill.Dec. 268, 870 N.E.2d 333 (2007).
¶ 9 The State asked the circuit court to conduct a hearing to determine the admissibility of these hearsay statements under both the statute and the common law doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing and sought the admission of the statements under both the statute and the common law. In January and February 2010, the circuit court held an evidentiary hearing on the State's motion. The State argued, inter alia, that the defendant killed Kathleen with the intent of preventing her testimony at the hearing on the distribution of the marital property. The State also argued that the defendant killed Stacy with the intent of preventing her testimony not only at a future divorce and property distribution hearing, but also at a trial for Kathleen's murder. Seventy-two witnesses testified at the hearing, including three pathologists. Two pathologists testified for the State that Kathleen's death was a homicide. The defense's pathologist disagreed with the State's pathologist's conclusions and testified that Kathleen had drowned accidentally.
¶ 10 The circuit court took the matter under advisement and issued its written ruling on May 18, 2010. Applying the statutory criteria, the court found that the State had proved by a preponderance of the evidence that: (1) the defendant murdered Kathleen and Stacy; and (2) he did so with the intent to make them unavailable as witnesses. Further, the court found that, pursuant to the statute, 6 of the 14 proffered hearsay statements contained sufficient “safeguards of reliability” and that the interests of justice would be served by the admission of those statements into evidence. The court found the following six statements admissible under the statute: (1) portions of a letter that Kathleen wrote to the Will County State's Attorney's office which described a confrontation that Kathleen allegedly had with the defendant on July 5, 2002, while the divorce proceedings were pending; 2 (2) a redacted version of a handwritten statement that Kathleen gave to the Bolingbrook police describing the alleged July 5, 2002, incident; (3) a statement that Kathleen allegedly made to her sister, Anna Doman; (4) a statement that Kathleen allegedly made in late 2003 to Mary Sue Parks, who attended nursing classes with Kathleen at Joliet Junior College; (5) another statement that Kathleen allegedly made to Parks; and (6) a statement that Stacy allegedly made to her pastor, Neil Schori, regarding an encounter that she allegedly had with her husband on the night Kathleen died.
¶ 11 The circuit court ruled that the remaining eight hearsay statements proffered by the State did not meet the statutory standard of reliability and that the interests of justice would not be served by the admission of those statements. The court excluded the following statements under the statute: (1) statements that Kathleen allegedly made to her other sister, Susan Doman; (2) a statement that Kathleen allegedly made to her attorney, Harry Smith; (3) statements that Kathleen allegedly made to her friend, Kristen Anderson, regarding the alleged July 5, 2002, incident; (4) a statement that Kathleen allegedly made to Issam Karam, one of her former coworkers; (5) statements that Stacy allegedly made to Michael Miles, whom she had met at Joliet Junior College in 2002; (6) a statement that Stacy allegedly made to her friend, Scott Rossetto, in the fall of 2007 regarding her alleged encounter with the defendant on the night Kathleen died; (7) portions of an audiotaped statement made by Kathleen to an insurance agent; and (8) portions of statements that Kathleen made under oath during an examination conducted by a Country Insurance agent on August 6, 2003.3 As noted above, the court also redacted portions of Kathleen's letter to the Will County State's Attorney's office and her written statement to the Bolingbrook police regarding the alleged July 2002 incident.
¶ 12 The circuit court's May 18, 2010, order failed to address whether any of the proffered statements were admissible under the common law doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing, as the State had requested in its motion. On May 28, 2010, the defendant filed a motion to clarify the circuit court's ruling. The defendant's motion asked the court to clarify whether it ruled under the common law doctrine. During a hearing held the same day, the court stated, ...
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