People v. Ramsey

• Decision Date: 07 October 2010
• Docket Number: No. 105942.,105942.
• Citation: 239 Ill.2d 342,347 Ill.Dec. 588,942 N.E.2d 1168
• Parties: The PEOPLE of The State of Illinois, Appellee,v.Daniel RAMSEY, Appellant.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

239 Ill.2d 342

942 N.E.2d 1168

347 Ill.Dec. 588

The PEOPLE of The State of Illinois, Appellee,

v.Daniel RAMSEY, Appellant.

No. 105942.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 7, 2010.

Michael J. Pelletier, State Appellate Def., charles M. Schiedel, Deputy Def., and Charles W. Hoffman, Asst. Appellate Def., of the Office of State Appellate Def., of Chicago, for appellant.Lisa Madigan, Atty. Gen., of Springfield, and Jim Drozdz, State's Atty., of Carthage (Michael A. Scodro, Solicitor Gen., and Michael M. Glick, and Leah Myers Bendick, Asst. Attorneys Gen., of Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

[347 Ill.Dec. 592 , 239 Ill.2d 349] OPINION

Justice GARMAN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

After a jury trial in the circuit court of Hancock County, defendant, Daniel Ramsey, was convicted of two counts of first degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9–1(a) (West 1996)), three counts of attempted murder (720 ILCS 5/8–4(a), 9–1(a) (West 1996)), and one count each of aggravated criminal sexual assault (720 ILCS 5/12–14(a) (West 1996)), home invasion (720 ILCS 5/12–11(a) (West 1996)), and residential burglary (720 ILCS 5/19–3(a) (West 1996)), and sentenced to death and several terms of imprisonment. His convictions were reversed by this court.

[347 Ill.Dec. 593 , 942 N.E.2d 1173]

People v. Ramsey, 192 Ill.2d 154, 248 Ill.Dec. 882, 735 N.E.2d 533 (2000). He subsequently pleaded guilty to the intentional and felony murders of two victims, the attempted murders of three victims, aggravated criminal sexual assault, and home invasion. A jury found him eligible for the death penalty and determined that he should be sentenced to death. The trial court sentenced him to death and imposed prison sentences totaling 60 years on the other convictions. His appeal lies directly to this court under Supreme Court Rule 603 (134 Ill.2d R. 603). For the reasons set forth below, we affirm his conviction and sentence.

BACKGROUND

On July 9, 1996, Daniel Ramsey, then 18 years old, was taken into custody at the Sloop residence in rural Hancock County. He gave the police an account of the events of the previous evening, in which he admitted killing two young women and shooting two children and his former girlfriend, intending to kill them.

Defendant's Statement

According to defendant, 17–year–old Rachel Sloop had recently broken up with him. They had agreed to remain friends and he was still welcome at the Sloop home. He had called Rachel almost every day since the breakup. On the afternoon of July 8, defendant was visiting the Sloop home. Rachel's mother told Rachel that it was time for defendant to leave because she did not have enough food to invite him to stay for dinner. He remained for a while longer and then went home.

Later that evening, another girl, Michelle Haist, told defendant that Rachel never truly liked him and that she had been using him because he gave her presents. Upset by her comments, defendant took a .22–caliber pistol from the trunk of his car and placed it underneath the front seat. He drove from his home in Keokuk, Iowa, to the home of another friend, L.M., in Basco, Illinois.

At about 11 p.m., defendant and L.M. went for a drive. L.M. told her mother that she would be home in about half an hour. They talked about Rachel and the breakup and began to argue. He called her a “bitch” and she slapped him. He struck her with his fist and then stopped the car near a grain bin. She slapped him again and he pulled the car closer to the grain bin. She got out of the car and came around to the driver's side. Then he got out of the car and they continued to fight, shoving each other, until L.M. got back into the car on the passenger side. Defendant then pinned L.M. down on the front seat of the car and ripped at her clothing. She told him several times to “stop” and to “quit it,” but he sexually penetrated her anyway and ejaculated.

When he finished, L.M. told him that he was no longer her friend and that she would tell what he had done. He took a roll of duct tape from the trunk of his car and wrapped tape around her head, including her eyes, and around her arms, her wrists, and her hands. After she tried to run away, he also taped her lower legs. He lifted her over his shoulder and walked to a nearby empty grain bin and placed her inside, where he told her to stay.

Defendant went back to his car, retrieved the pistol, and returned to the grain bin. He shot her twice. Then he got into his car and left. He later told police that he shot L.M. because she said she would get him into trouble. She died as a result of her wounds.

Defendant told police that he decided at this point that he wanted to commit suicide and that he wanted Rachel to see him do it. He drove for a while, thinking of a way to get Rachel's mother, Barbara Sloop, and a houseguest, Kim Haist, out of the house. At about 11:30 p.m., he called the Sloop

[347 Ill.Dec. 594 , 942 N.E.2d 1174]

residence from a pay telephone at a gas station in Carthage, Illinois, and told Barbara that she and Kim were needed at Kim's apartment in Carthage, because Kim's ex-fiancé, Terry Hamelton, had ransacked her apartment there.

He then sped to the Sloop home. He turned the lights off in his car and waited until he saw the adults leave. Once he was sure that Barbara and Kim were gone, he parked his car on the side of the road beyond the Sloop home and walked through a cornfield to the home, carrying wire cutters, a flashlight, and his pistol. He looked in the windows and saw that Rachel and her 12–year–old sister, Lonna, were in the living room watching television. To ensure that Barbara could not telephone the girls from her cell phone once she discovered the ruse, he cut the telephone line to the house. He entered the house through the unlocked back door.

He approached Rachel quietly, startling her by touching her. They went into the dining room and talked for a while as she sat at the table with her back to him. According to defendant, he had not planned to shoot her, but she said something that set him off and he pulled out the gun and shot her in the back of the neck. He could not recall what she said to upset him.

Lonna, who was in the living room lying on the sofa, began screaming, so he shot her twice. Kim's two children, Cody Hamelton, age 3, and Courtnie Hamelton, age 2, were sleeping upstairs. When defendant heard them crying, he went upstairs and shot both children. (An autopsy revealed a nonfatal wound to Lonna's neck and a fatal wound to the top of her head. The children survived, with serious permanent injuries.)

Defendant told police that he then tried to shoot himself in the head with his pistol, but that it misfired. He knew that there was a shotgun in the house, which he retrieved and again tried to kill himself. The shotgun slipped as he fired, causing a superficial wound to the back of his head, but he believed that he was dying.

When he came back downstairs, he found Rachel on the floor, slipping in and out of consciousness. He lay down on the floor next to her and fell asleep. He awoke when she got up to go to the bathroom. She walked out of the house and he followed. The police, who by this time had been called to the house by Barbara Sloop, were outside and took him into custody. He led them to L.M.'s body and later waived his Miranda rights and made the statement summarized above, which was videotaped.

Procedural History

Following a jury trial in which he raised the defense of insanity, defendant was convicted of the murders of L.M. and Lonna Sloop and other felonies. The jury found him eligible for the death penalty based on the cold, calculated, and premeditated manner in which the crimes were committed. 720 ILCS 5/9–1(b)(11) (West 1996). After a hearing, the jury found no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude imposition of the death penalty. The trial court sentenced defendant to death for the murders and to terms of imprisonment for the other crimes. This court reversed defendant's convictions and remanded for a new trial. Ramsey, 192 Ill.2d at 158–59, 248 Ill.Dec. 882, 735 N.E.2d 533.

Pretrial proceedings concluded in April 2007 with the selection of a jury. Shortly thereafter, the parties advised the court that a plea agreement had been reached under which defendant would plead guilty to the murders of L.M. and Lonna Sloop, the attempted murders of Rachel Sloop, Cody Hamelton, and Courtnie Hamelton, the aggravated criminal sexual assault of

[347 Ill.Dec. 595 , 942 N.E.2d 1175]

L.M., and home invasion. The State agreed to dismiss four other counts. The trial court admonished defendant regarding the effect of a guilty plea and of the rights he was relinquishing. The court also determined that the plea was voluntary and was not the result of threats or promises.

The matter proceeded to a capital sentencing hearing before the jury.

Capital Sentencing Hearing–Eligibility Phase

At the eligibility phase, the State introduced a copy of defendant's birth certificate, showing his date of birth as March 30, 1978. The State also offered a certified copy of five judgments of guilt based on defendant's guilty pleas.

L.M.'s mother testified that her daughter and defendant had been “platonic” friends who talked daily on the phone. He often visited the Marson home to watch movies with L.M. She allowed L.M. to go for a drive with defendant at approximately 11 p.m. on the evening of July 8, 1996, and expected her daughter to be home in half an hour. When she was not home by 3 a.m., she called the police.

Crime scene investigator Steve Zuber of the Illinois State Police described the grain bin where L.M.'s body was found as being in a field of fairly mature corn, “about a hundred feet” off the road and “surrounded with fairly dense vegetation.” There was a path leading from the road to the empty bin, but it was also covered with vegetation. Some of the vegetation was “crushed-down” as if a vehicle had recently driven on it. There were tire tracks and...