People v. Phillips

• Decision Date: 29 March 1989
• Docket Number: No. 64506,64506
• Citation: 131 Ill.Dec. 125,127 Ill.2d 499,538 N.E.2d 500
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Parties: , 131 Ill.Dec. 125 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. John Paul PHILLIPS, Appellant.

Page 500

538 N.E.2d 500

127 Ill.2d 499, 131 Ill.Dec. 125

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. John Paul PHILLIPS, Appellant.

No. 64506.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

March 29, 1989.

Rehearing Denied May 26, 1989.

Charles M. Schiedel, Deputy Defender and James E. Chadd, Asst. Defender, Office of the State App. Defender, Springfield, for appellant.

Neil F. Hartigan, Atty. Gen., Springfield (Robert J. Ruiz, Solicitor Gen., Terence M. Madsen and Richard S. London, Asst. Attys. Gen., Chicago, of counsel, and Jean Cocozza, law student), for People.

Justice CLARK delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant, John Paul Phillips, was indicted on April 8, 1986, by a Jackson County grand jury on five counts for the November 11, 1981, murder of Joan Weatherall. Count I charged that the defendant committed murder with the intent to kill the victim (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 38, par. 9--1(a)(1)); count II charged that the defendant committed murder knowing that his actions created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 38, par. 9--1(a)(2)); counts III, IV, and V charged that the defendant committed murder while committing the forcible felonies of aggravated kidnapping in violation of section 10--2(a)(3) (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 38, par. 10--2(a)(3)), rape in violation of section 11--1 (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 38, par. 11--1), and deviate sexual assault in violation of section 11-3(a) (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 38, par. 11--3(a)). (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 38, par. 9--1(a)(3).) On defendant's motion, the place of trial was moved from Jackson County; the trial was subsequently held in Massac County. A jury found the defendant guilty of murder and felony murder in the course of aggravated kidnapping (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 38, pars. 9--1(a)(1), (a)(2), (a)(3)), counts I, II, and III of the indictment. He was found not guilty on counts IV and V, felony murder in the commission of a rape and felony murder in the commission of a deviate sexual act.

The defendant waived a jury for sentencing. In the two-stage sentencing proceeding, the court found defendant eligible for the death penalty and found that, in the presence of aggravating factors, there were no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude the imposition of the death penalty. The death sentence was stayed (107 Ill.2d R. 609(a)) pending direct appeal to this court, pursuant to article VI, section 4(b), of the 1970 Illinois Constitution (Ill. Const.1970, art. VI, § 4(b)) and Supreme Court Rule 603 (107 Ill.2d R. 603). For the reasons stated herein, we affirm the convictions and sentence.

A brief review of the facts presented here prior to a discussion of the issues raised by defendant will be supplemented and expanded upon throughout this opinion as necessary for a resolution of a particular issue.

The nude body of a white female was discovered floating face down in the water of an abandoned strip pit west of Elkville, Illinois, on November 11, 1981. The woman was identified as Joan Weatherall of Carbondale, Illinois. An autopsy indicated that the primary cause of death was strangulation; a secondary cause of death was attributed to exsanguination, that is, a loss of blood, suffered as a result of blows to the head. Additionally, the autopsy indicated that one of the blows to the head had chipped her skull, that there were abrasions and contusions to her face and knees as well as indications that her hands had been tied behind her back.

During May 1984, while serving a term of years in prison, the defendant told his cellmate that he had committed a number of crimes; the defendant confessed to the rape and murder of Joan Weatherall as well as two other murders and a rape not here under consideration. The defendant's cellmate, Thomas Mocaby, informed prison officials of his knowledge of these crimes. The prison officials then contacted outside police authorities, who conducted a preliminary investigation to verify the information. The results of the investigation and the information were subsequently presented to the Jackson County grand jury which returned indictments on April 8, 1986, charging John Paul Phillips with five counts of murder.

Prior to trial on these charges and at the request of defense counsel, defendant underwent a fitness examination. The court-appointed expert, Dr. Horecker, filed his report, dated June 27, 1986, which indicated that the defendant did not have a major mental disorder, that he showed no evidence of psychosis and that he was fit to stand trial. The court reviewed Dr. Horecker's report as well as the report of another expert, Dr. Peterson, who had previously been appointed to examine the defendant in a separate pending rape case. The court found that the defendant was fit to stand trial.

At trial, Thomas Mocaby testified that while he and John Paul Phillips were cellmates at the Menard Correctional Facility during May 1984, defendant told him the details of the 1981 Weatherall murder. Mocaby's testimony recounted the following information which had been told to him by Phillips during the time which the two shared a cell.

On the evening of November 10, 1981, Phillips first saw Joan Weatherall at Stan Hoye's, a lounge located within the Holiday Inn in Carbondale where Weatherall worked as a waitress. Later that same evening Phillips saw Weatherall, whom he described to Mocaby as a tall, very attractive woman with long hair and inverted nipples, leave another lounge located on Illinois Avenue in Carbondale. When Weatherall neared an alley behind this establishment, Phillips grabbed her and choked her until she passed out. He laid her down and went to get his wife's car, a blue Monte Carlo. The defendant put Weatherall into the trunk and then drove to his father's warehouse located on Highway 51. At the warehouse he proceeded to repeatedly rape Weatherall. After raping her, the defendant told Weatherall that he had to tie her hands behind her back but that he was going to take her back to town. After he tied her hands, however, he also tied a noose around her neck, pulled it tight and then hit her on the head with a hammer. Phillips recounted to Mocaby that Weatherall fell to the ground and spun around. Blood was splashing around and Phillips indicated that he had to step back and wait for Weatherall to stop moving. Phillips also told Mocaby, according to the testimony, that he killed her because she was defiant and because she was a "sloppy drunk." Once he realized that Weatherall was dead, Phillips took a hose and flushed out her internal organs in order to get rid of any traces of semen. He then took the body to a loading dock at the warehouse where, he indicated, he anally assaulted the dead body before wrapping it in plastic and loading it into the trunk of his wife's Monte Carlo. Phillips then drove to the Elkville strip pit where he attempted to submerge Weatherall's body in the water.

In addition to the above description of the Weatherall murder, Mocaby told authorities that Phillips also told him about Phillips raises 11 individual issues to be resolved on appeal; four issues relate to alleged trial errors, three to alleged errors at the sentencing hearing, and four address constitutional concerns.

[131 Ill.Dec. 128] murdering two other women and about a rape of a South American or Brazilian woman. This and other trial testimony will be elaborated upon below as it becomes necessary to a discussion of points raised on appeal.

THE TRIAL

Defendant first contends that he was not proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt where, he asserts, the State's entire case was based on the testimony of a single, unreliable witness--that witness being Thomas Mocaby. In essence, the defendant is attacking the sufficiency of the evidence against him. This court has long held that it is the jury's function to determine the accused's guilt or innocence; "we will not reverse a conviction unless the evidence is so improbable as to justify a reasonable doubt of the accused's guilt. [Citations.]" (People v. McDonald (1975), 62 Ill.2d 448, 456, 343 N.E.2d 489.) When faced with a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence against the accused, it is not the function of this court to retry the defendant. (People v. Collins (1985), 106 Ill.2d 237, 261, 87 Ill.Dec. 910, 478 N.E.2d 267.) Rather, as the United States Supreme Court noted in Jackson v. Virginia (1979), 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, "the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." (Emphasis in original.) (443 U.S. at 319, 99 S.Ct. at 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d at 573.) The Court elaborated further by pointing out that "upon judicial review all of the evidence is to be considered in the light most favorable to the prosecution." (Emphasis in original.) 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S.Ct. at 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d at 573.

Upon review, we conclude that the evidence is sufficient to support the jury's verdict. Defendant's contentions that the testimony of Thomas Mocaby was the sole link connecting Phillips to the crime and, further, that Mocaby was a "thoroughly unbelievable" witness are not persuasive. As this court has often noted, it is the responsibility of the jury to weigh the credibility of the witnesses. (People v. Kubat (1983), 94 Ill.2d 437, 468, 69 Ill.Dec. 30, 447 N.E.2d 247, rev'd on other grounds, 867 F.2d 351 (7th Cir.1989); People v. Lewis (1981), 88 Ill.2d 129, 151-53, 58 Ill.Dec. 895, 430 N.E.2d 1346; People v. Carlson (1980), 79 Ill.2d 564, 583, 38 Ill.Dec. 809, 404 N.E.2d 233.) We have already noted above the gist of Mocaby's testimony. We note further that the jury was aware that Mocaby was a convicted felon. Moreover, Mocaby's testimony was not wholly unchallenged. The jury had to weigh Mocaby's testimony against that of defense witnesses Frank Manna, Robert...