People v. Reyes

• Decision Date: 11 December 2006
• Docket Number: No. 1-04-1047.,No. 1-04-1150.,1-04-1047.,1-04-1150.
• Citation: 307 Ill.Dec. 834,860 N.E.2d 488
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Arturo REYES, Defendant-Appellant. The People of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gabriel Solache, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

860 N.E.2d 488

307 Ill.Dec. 834

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Arturo REYES, Defendant-Appellant.

The People of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gabriel Solache, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1-04-1047.

No. 1-04-1150.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, First Division.

December 11, 2006.

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Bluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern University School of Law (Jane E. Raley, of counsel) and McGuire Woods LLP (Erin K. Smith, of counsel), Chicago, for Gabriel Solache.

Office of the State Appellate Defender, Chicago (Tiffany Green and Laura A. Weiler, of counsel), for Arturo Reyes.

State's Attorney, County of Cook, Chicago (James E. Fitzgerald, Samuel Shim and Sari London, of counsel), for Appellee.

Justice ROBERT E. GORDON delivered the opinion of the court:

The central issue in these consolidated appeals is whether the confessions of defendants Arturo Reyes and Gabriel Solache were coerced. In June 2000, following simultaneous trials before separate juries, defendants were each found guilty of two counts of first degree murder, two counts of aggravated kidnaping, and home invasion. There was no physical evidence linking either defendant to the crimes. Solache received a sentence of death for the murder convictions, and Reyes was sentenced to natural life in prison without possibility of parole. On January 10, 2003, while Solache's direct appeal was pending before the Illinois Supreme Court, then-Governor George Ryan commuted Solache's death sentence to natural life imprisonment. The supreme court then transferred Solache's direct appeal to this court. On August 19, 2003, the appellate court affirmed Solache's convictions and sentences. People v. Solache, No. 1-03-1149, 341 Ill.App.3d 1112, 304 Ill.Dec. 662, 853 N.E.2d 451 (2003) (unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23). A few weeks later, on September 30, the appellate court came to the same conclusion regarding Reyes' convictions and sentences. People v. Reyes, No. 1-01-2875, 343 Ill.App.3d 1292, 305 Ill.Dec. 886, 856 N.E.2d 691 (2003) (unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23).¹ In December 2003, each defendant filed a petition for postconviction relief pursuant to section 122-1 of the Post-Conviction Hearing Act (725 ILCS 5/122-1 (West 2002)). In their petitions, defendants claimed, inter alia, that their confessions were the result of physical coercion by Detective Reynaldo Guevara of the Chicago police department. In March 2004, within the requisite 90 days, the trial court summarily dismissed each petition as frivolous and patently without merit. Defendants appealed the summary dismissal of their petitions, and their appeals (Reyes, No. 1-04-1047, and Solache, No. 1-04-1150) were consolidated. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse the judgments of the circuit court dismissing defendants' postconviction petitions.

BACKGROUND

Defendants were convicted of the murders of Mariano and Jacinta Soto, who were found stabbed to death in their apartment in Chicago on April 1, 1998. A third defendant, Adriana Mejia, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to natural life imprisonment.

According to testimony at trial, including defendants' inculpatory statements, which were read to the jury by the assistant State's Attorneys who took the statements, the murders took place as follows. In March 1998, defendants were living in an apartment with Adriana Mejia and her husband, Rosauro. Adriana had been feigning pregnancy, and she needed a baby to claim as her own. On Thursday, March 26, Adriana told Reyes she had found a friend with "a very pretty baby." Early in the morning of Saturday, March 28, Solache drove Reyes to the University of Illinois Hospital and picked up Adriana, who apparently had gone there under the pretext that she was about to give birth. Solache, Reyes and Adriana then drove to the Sotos' residence. While they were en route, Adriana told them that Reyes' assignment was to pick up the baby from the crib, and Solache's assignment was "to take care of Mr. Soto." Adriana said she would "take care of Mrs. Soto." When they arrived at the Sotos' apartment, Adriana knocked and, when Jacinta came to the door, Adriana asked Jacinta to let her in because she had no place else to go. Adriana, Reyes and Solache then entered the apartment. Reyes stabbed Jacinta and then ran to the bedroom and picked up the Sotos' two-month-old daughter, Maria. Reyes also took Santiago, the couple's three-year-old son, who was lying next to his father in the bed. Meanwhile, Solache picked up a knife from the kitchen table and ran to the bedroom, where he saw a man (Mariano Soto) lying face up, asleep on the bed. Solache stabbed the man in the stomach, then ran out of the bedroom and threw the knife down just outside the bedroom door. While Reyes was running out of the apartment with the children, he looked back and saw Adriana "on top of" Jacinta "stabbing her in the back like an animal." Reyes took the children to the car. Adriana and Solache then emerged from the apartment, and the three of them drove away. They dropped Adriana and the two children off at the hospital, and Solache and Reyes went back to their apartment and went to bed.

Later in the morning of March 28, Rosauro, believing that Adriana had given birth, came to the hospital to pick her up. When Rosauro arrived at the hospital, he saw that she had not only a baby but a three-year-old boy as well. Adriana explained the presence of the boy by stating that another woman, Norma Salazar, had asked Adriana to care for the boy while she, Salazar, was giving birth at the hospital. Rosauro and Adriana then returned to their apartment with the two children.

On April 1, 1998, police found the bodies of the Sotos in their apartment. Officer David Valentin testified that, when he and his partner entered the apartment, they saw a "male Hispanic" lying face up by the doorway with multiple stab wounds. In the bedroom, they saw a blanket in the middle of the room. Under the blanket was a "female Hispanic" with multiple stab wounds. The police also discovered that the Sotos' two children were missing. A police bulletin describing the children indicated that the baby had a wine-stain birthmark on her neck.

Late in the evening of the next day, April 2, Guadalupe Mejia, the sister-in-law of Adriana and Rosauro, saw a picture of the Sotos' three-year-old son on television, along with a news report about the murders. Guadalupe, who lived with her husband, Jorge, in the same apartment building as Adriana and Rosauro, recognized the boy as the same one that Adriana had brought home from the hospital on March 28. Fearing that the woman (Norma Salazar) who had given the boy to Adriana had murdered the child's parents, Guadalupe told Adriana what she had seen and urged her to call the police. Rosauro arrived home from work at 1:30 a.m. (April 3) and was told that the boy had been reported missing and his parents had been murdered. Rosauro then took the boy to the 8th district police station. Reyes and Solache went with him.

Officers at the 8th district station verified that the boy was Santiago Soto. Rosauro, Solache and Reyes were taken to the Area 5 station for further questioning. Detective William Kernan testified that he called the hospital and learned that neither Norma Salazar nor Adriana Mejia had ever been a patient there. Detectives were then sent to Adriana Mejia's apartment. When they saw the baby, they noticed that it was not a newborn (the child's umbilical cord had healed). They identified the baby as Maria Soto by the wine-stain birthmark on her neck. Adriana was then arrested. When authorities at Area 5 (where Rosauro, Solache and Reyes were being questioned) were notified of what occurred at the Mejia apartment, Rosauro, Solache and Reyes were also arrested.

Rosauro Mejia was held at Area 5 for two to three days and then released. He was never charged. In addition, Norma Salazar was never charged in this case. Adriana Mejia, Reyes and Solache were each charged with first degree murder, aggravated kidnaping and home invasion. As previously noted, Adriana subsequently pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Prior to trial, defendants moved to suppress their statements on the ground, among others, that the statements had been coerced. In his motion, Solache alleged that he was a Mexican national and did not speak English and that he had difficulty understanding the Puerto Rican detective (Guevara) who interviewed him. Solache also alleged that the detective slapped him and chipped his tooth. Similar to Solache, Reyes alleged in his motion that he was a Mexican citizen and could not read, write or speak English. According to Reyes, his statements were obtained "as a result of physical, psychological and mental coercion." Specifically, Reyes alleged that a police officer (Guevara) interviewed him repeatedly and, on several occasions, struck him. In one instance, the officer allegedly asked Reyes why he had committed the crimes, and when Reyes denied any participation in the offenses, the officer allegedly hit him and told him he was lying. In another instance, Reyes allegedly was told that if he persisted in his denials and failed to say anything against Adriana or Solache, he would be allowing them to put the blame entirely on him, and he would get the electric chair.

The trial court conducted a series of hearings on the motions to suppress. Numerous witnesses testified, including Reyes, Solache and Guevara. According to the testimony of Guevara and other witnesses, Adriana, Reyes and Solache were held at Area 5 for at least two days and were questioned separately. Initially, all three denied any involvement in the murders. However, late in the evening of April 3, the same day the three were arrested, Adriana implicated Reyes in the crimes. This occurred at about 10:30 p.m....