People v. Redd
| Decision Date | 22 March 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 62053,62053 |
| Citation | 135 Ill.2d 252,553 N.E.2d 316,142 Ill.Dec. 802 |
| Parties | , 142 Ill.Dec. 802 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Frank REDD, Appellant. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
David F. Graham, David B. Johnson, Kathleen L. Roach and Shari S. Diamond, Chicago (Sidley & Austin, of counsel), for appellant, and Frank Redd, Menard, appellant pro se.
Neil F. Hartigan, Atty. Gen., Springfield, and Richard M. Daley, State's Atty., Chicago (Terence M. Madsen, Asst. State's Atty., Chicago, and Thomas V. Gainer, Jr., Kenneth T. McCurry, Bonnie Meyer Sloan, Inge Fryklund and Renee G. Goldfarb, Asst. State's Attys., of counsel), for people.
Following a jury trial in the circuit court of Cook County, defendant, Frank Redd, was convicted of the rapes and murders of Aretha and Leola Bea. The same jury which convicted defendant determined defendant was eligible for the death penalty. The jury found no mitigating circumstances sufficient to preclude imposition of the death penalty and returned a verdict directing that defendant be sentenced to death. The circuit court entered judgment on the verdict and also sentenced defendant to an extended term of imprisonment of 60 years on the two rape convictions. Defendant's post-trial motions were denied, and he brings a direct appeal to this court (Ill. Const.1970, art. VI, § 4(b); 107 Ill.2d R. 603). For the reasons expressed in this opinion, we reverse the convictions, vacate the imposed sentences and remand for a new trial.
Two sisters, Leola Bea, three years old, and Aretha Bea, five years old, were raped and murdered in the early morning hours of March 4, 1984. Leola and Aretha lived with their mother, Ruby Bea, and their sister, Robert Terese, at 6712 South Halsted in Chicago.
Ruby Bea and her three children lived on the third floor of the three-floor building. On the first floor was a lounge, which was closed. On the second floor were two apartments: Percy Hamilton lived in the second-floor rear apartment, and Gloria Stewart, her son, Tyrone, and her fiance, Leslie Bea, lived in the second-floor front apartment. Ruby Bea and her three children lived in the third-floor rear apartment; Betty Gray lived in the third-floor front apartment.
Gloria Stewart is defendant's sister. Leslie Bea is Ruby Bea's brother-in-law. Ruby Bea had been paying rent for her third-floor apartment since January 1984. Ruby Bea and her children did not move into the apartment until March 3, 1984. Before that, Ruby and her children lived with Gloria Stewart in her second-floor apartment.
On March 3, Ruby Bea left her children with Mrs. Earceaner Washington at 6950 South Peoria. Mrs. Washington had baby-sat for the children before. Mrs. Washington is the mother of defendant and Gloria Stewart. Defendant was living with his mother at 6950 South Peoria on March 3. It is approximately 2 1/2 blocks from 6950 South Peoria [135 Ill.2d 262] to 6712 South Halsted. It is a 5- to 10-minute walk between the two apartment buildings.
At approximately 9 or 10 p.m., defendant, Ruby Bea and her children left Mrs. Washington's house. Ruby Bea had asked defendant to walk her and her children home. According to Ruby Bea, defendant walked her and her children all the way to her home. According to defendant, he walked Ruby and her children partway home, then left them to try to find Leslie Bea. Defendant was unable to find Leslie Bea and went to his sister's apartment, located one floor below Ruby Bea's apartment. Defendant knocked on the door and no one answered. Ruby Bea heard defendant downstairs and invited him up to her apartment.
Ruby Bea and defendant stayed in Ruby's apartment until the children went to bed in Ruby's bedroom. The children went to bed fully clothed, as there was no heat in the apartment. Sometime later that evening, Ruby Bea and defendant went downstairs to Gloria Stewart's apartment. The children were left alone. The front door to Ruby Bea's apartment was left unlocked. The back door, which led from the kitchen to a porch, was nailed shut and had a refrigerator pushed against it.
When defendant and Ruby Bea arrived at Gloria Stewart's apartment, Gloria Stewart and Leslie Bea were there. At some point, defendant left the apartment. Testimony differed as to whether and when defendant returned.
Sometime after defendant left, Leola and Aretha were discovered to be dead. The back door in Ruby Bea's apartment, which had been nailed shut, had been forced open. Leola was found in the bed. Aretha was found in the backyard of the next building. Both children had been raped.
Leola was naked from the waist down. There was a shirt wrapped tightly around Leola's neck. When it was removed, there was a ligature impression approximately eight-tenths of an inch wide which encircled her neck. She had abrasions on her chest and forehead. There was a laceration of the back wall of her vagina that extended through the muscle which separates the vagina and the rectum. It was the opinion of Dr. Edmund Donoghue, who performed the autopsy, that Leola died of strangulation.
A windbreaker was found wrapped around Aretha's neck. Aretha was naked from the waist down. Aretha had abrasions on the front and right side of her neck. There were numerous other abrasions around Aretha's left eye, on the left side of her face and mouth, below her lip, on her chin, and in front of and on her left earlobe. There were additional abrasions on her right thigh, and a superficial incised wound on her right knee. Aretha's hymen was torn, and a bloody fluid was present in her vagina. There was also bleeding beneath her scalp and a linear fracture of the right parietal bone of her skull. Additionally, there was bleeding beneath one of the membranes of the brain and there was cerebral edema. It was Dr. Donoghue's opinion that Aretha died after strangulation or cerebral injuries. Dr. Donoghue concluded Aretha was dead before she went over the third-floor railing into the backyard of the neighboring building.
After talking with defendant, Leslie Bea, Gloria Stewart, Ruby Bea, Percy Hamilton, Mrs. Washington and others, the police placed defendant under arrest on March 4, 1984, for the rapes and murders of Leola and Aretha Bea.
Defendant alleges numerous errors at all stages of the proceedings. Because we reverse the convictions and remand for a new trial, we need not address all the issues raised. Only the evidence necessary for a resolution of the issues addressed in this opinion will be discussed.
Defendant made a pretrial motion to quash his arrest. The circuit court denied the motion. The following evidence was adduced at the hearing on the motion to quash arrest.
Earceaner Seattle Washington, mother of defendant, testified that two detectives in civilian clothes knocked on her door at 6950 South Peoria at 5:45 a.m. on March 4, 1984. When she opened the door, the two detectives walked in and asked if defendant was there, and if she thought defendant would mind going down to the station to answer some questions.
After telling the detectives defendant was sleeping, Mrs. Washington testified, the detectives told her to wake defendant. Mrs. Washington shook defendant to wake him, and the detectives were standing over her shoulders. One of the detectives asked defendant if he would mind going down to the station to answer some questions, and defendant responded, "Well, I don't guess I have a choice."
The detectives asked Mrs. Washington if she wanted to go down to the station. Mrs. Washington asked if she had to go, and one of the detectives said, "Yes, we would like to ask you some questions, too." Mrs. Washington said the detectives would not let defendant change clothes. Although the detectives did not have their guns drawn, Mrs. Washington testified each detective had his coat brushed back and had his hand on his holster, exposing his gun. Mrs. Washington, defendant, and the two detectives went by car to the police station.
Except for the two times Mrs. Washington went with the police to search her house, she was at the police station from approximately 6 a.m. until midnight. Although she asked if she could leave to go to a store, she was told she could not.
Mrs. Washington only saw defendant one time after he was put in the interview room upon arrival at Area 3. Two or three hours after Mrs. Washington and defendant arrived at Area 3, defendant, accompanied by two police officers, came out of the interview room he was in, bent over with tears in his eyes, and went to the water fountain.
According to Mrs. Washington, Percy Hamilton and three or four more people were in the waiting room. Mrs. Washington said her daughter, Gloria Stewart, and her daughter's boyfriend, Leslie Bea, were not in the waiting room; they were in interview rooms. Mrs. Washington eventually was taken into an interview room and questioned.
Defendant testified he had been sleeping on the couch in his mother's living room when the police arrived at his mother's apartment. He had been asleep about an hour or so. He was wearing black pants and a tee shirt. Defendant's mother, Mrs. Washington, woke defendant. The police were standing by his mother. Defendant may have heard his mother tell him the police wanted him to go to the station with them. Defendant also thought one of the detectives asked him if he would go down to the station. Defendant told the detectives, "That it didn't seem like I had much of a choice."
Defendant asked if he could change his clothes and brush his teeth, and if he could put on his socks. Defendant testified the detectives told him he could not. Defendant stated at least one of the two detectives had his hand by his holster in such a way that he could see the detective's gun.
Defendant testified that when his mother went to get her coat, one of the detectives searched him. Neither detective told defendant he was...
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