People v. Salinas

• Decision Date: 31 March 2004
• Docket Number: No. 1-00-0970.,1-00-0970.
• Citation: 347 Ill. App.3d 867,807 N.E.2d 1178,283 Ill.Dec. 337
• Parties: THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Roel SALINAS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

807 N.E.2d 1178

347 Ill. App.3d 867

283 Ill.Dec. 337

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Roel SALINAS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1-00-0970.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Fourth Division.

March 31, 2004.

Law Office of Edward A. Burmila, Jr., Mokena (Edward A. Burmila, Jr., of counsel), for Appellant.

Richard A. Devine, Cook County State's Attorney, Chicago (Assistant State's Attorneys Renee Goldfarb, William Toffenetti and James E. Fitzgerald, of counsel), for Appellee.

Presiding Justice QUINN delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Roel Salinas, and two codefendants, Ruben Alvarez and Miguel Martinez, were indicted on two counts of first-degree murder for the shooting death of Arnold Mireles. Defendant was indicted on two additional counts of solicitation of murder for hire and one count of solicitation of murder. Following a simultaneous jury trial consisting of three separate juries, defendant was convicted on two counts of solicitation of murder for hire and sentenced to concurrent 40-year prison terms. Alvarez was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to an extended prison term of 80 years and Martinez was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 50 years' imprisonment.

Defendant appeals his conviction and sentence, arguing (1) the State failed to prove him guilty of the offense of solicitation of murder for hire beyond a reasonable doubt; (2) the circuit court committed plain error by allowing the presentation of a portion of testimony in defendant's case before the wrong jury; (3) the circuit court erred by denying his motion to suppress his confession; (4) the admission of Alvarez's confession before defendant's jury was a violation of Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968); and (5) he was deprived of a fair trial due to prejudicial remarks by the State during closing argument. For the following reasons, we affirm. We will address defendant's reasonable doubt argument in this opinion. Defendant's other contentions will be addressed in a dispositional order under Supreme Court Rule 23 (166 2d. R. 23) issued contemporaneously with this opinion.

BACKGROUND

On the evening of December 29, 1997, Mireles was walking home from work when he was approached from behind and shot once in the back of his head. He died as a result of his wound.

Mireles was a community activist who worked at the Juan Diego Community Center (the Center), located at 8802 South Exchange Avenue in Chicago. As an employee of the Center, Mireles took photographs of dilapidated buildings and made reports to the housing court in order to have the buildings' owners make the necessary repairs to the properties. Mireles' reports often cited properties owned by defendant, which caused defendant to appear in housing court on many occasions, whereafter he was jailed and ordered to pay fines until his properties were brought into compliance with municipal building codes.

One of defendant's properties that was the focus of Mireles' efforts was located at 8822 South Exchange Avenue. Martinez resided at that address with his wife, Sema, and Alvarez, his close friend. At a December 19, 1997, housing court appearance, defendant presented the court with a handwritten warranty deed dated July 10, 1997, which showed that he conveyed the property to Martinez. Thereafter, Martinez received notices of municipal code violations containing complaints gathered by Mireles, which required him to appear in housing court.

At the hearing on defendant's motion to suppress his confession, Chicago police detectives Michael Baker and William Foster and Chicago police sergeant Michael Kennedy each testified that, on January 15, 1998, they were assigned to investigate the murder of Mireles. Baker, Foster and Kennedy each interviewed defendant at separate times after advising him of his Miranda rights, which defendant waived. Baker, Foster and Kennedy consistently testified that they neither hit defendant nor prevented him from sleeping. They did not threaten defendant or promise him that he would only be a witness and not a suspect. Defendant was not shown statements from the codefendants. At no time during the interview did defendant appear to be physically or mentally exhausted. Defendant never asked to speak to an attorney.

Chicago police officer Robert Tovar testified that, on January 15, 1998, at 4:50 p.m., he conducted a polygraph examination of defendant. Prior to the examination, defendant signed a form stating that he voluntarily agreed to take the examination. Following the examination, Tovar confronted defendant with respect to certain issues in which he felt defendant was untruthful. Defendant then provided Tovar with a statement regarding his involvement in the murder of Mireles.

Cook County Assistant State's Attorney (ASA) Robert Milan testified that he and ASA Tom Mahoney interviewed defendant after advising him of his Miranda rights. Following the interview, defendant agreed to provide a statement. Defendant signed each of the eight pages of the statement. Defendant was allowed to make changes to the statement, which he initialed. Defendant also identified and initialed two photographs of codefendants Alvarez and Martinez.

Defendant testified that when he was brought to the police station, he was aware of Mireles' death. Detective Baker slapped defendant in the head three or four times. The interrogating police officers asked defendant if he had paid Martinez to kill Mireles. Defendant asked to speak to his lawyer, but the officers did not allow him to make a telephone call. Defendant testified that he had not slept. ASAs Milan and Mahoney did not advise him of his Miranda rights. Milan told defendant that he was only going to be a witness. Milan promised defendant that if he signed some papers, he would be allowed to go home. Defendant read only one or two pages of the "report" that Milan gave him. Defendant then signed the papers because he thought he would be released. Defendant did not tell Milan that Baker hit him.

Following the presentation of evidence and argument, the circuit court denied defendant's motion to suppress his confession.

At trial, the following pertinent evidence was presented to defendant's jury.

Donald Rowans testified that on December 29, 1997, he was with his friend, Michael Quiroz, at Quiroz's residence, located at 8812 South Exchange Avenue. At approximately 11 p.m., Rowans heard one gunshot, whereafter he and Quiroz left Quiroz's apartment. While walking, Rowans saw a man lying face-down on the ground near the corner of 89th Street and Exchange Avenue. Rowans approached the man and observed that he was bleeding and not breathing. Quiroz flagged down a passing car and told the motorist to call the police. After Rowans and Quiroz spoke to the police, Rowans and his girlfriend, Patricia, went to a restaurant where they saw both Alvarez and Martinez. Rowans testified that Alvarez was a member of the Bishops gang. Rowans also testified that Martinez resided at 8822 South Exchange Avenue with Martinez's wife, Sema, and Alvarez.

At the restaurant, Rowans told Alvarez and Martinez that "somebody got killed on the corner." Alvarez and Martinez gave Rowans and Patricia a ride home in Martinez's car. Rowans learned afterward that the deceased was Mireles. Later that night, Rowans and Quiroz went to Martinez's house, where he saw Sema, five other girls and Alvarez's brother, Juan Santo. While there, the police arrived and, again, Rowans spoke to them.

On December 30, 1997, at approximately 6 p.m., Rowans returned to Martinez's house. Alvarez and Rowans then went outside. Alvarez told Rowans to look for a shell casing near Rowans' gangway. Later than night, Alvarez went to Rowans' apartment. There, Rowans told Alvarez the he heard a gunshot prior to finding Mireles' body and that it sounded like it came from a .38-caliber or .44-caliber weapon. Alvarez responded, "no, it was a 9 [millimeter weapon]." Rowans testified that Alvarez told him the 9-millimeter "was a sweet gun and that he hate[d] to lose it." Alvarez also told Rowans about how he shot Mireles. According to Rowans, Alvarez stated that he had "seen the guy walking down the street, and he ran in the house and grabbed his hoody, and he left out and ran back down the street. And he said he was going to shoot him from [Rowans'] gangway but he crept up on him from the back and got within a few feet and shot him." After Alvarez shot Mireles in the head, Mireles fell to his knees and Alvarez turned and ran toward Rowans' apartment. Alvarez's gun jammed, and when he unjammed it, a shell casing fell. Alvarez did not have time to look for the casing and continued running. Alvarez told Rowans that he used a Glock handgun to shoot Mireles and that Mireles "never knew what hit him."

On cross-examination, Rowans testified that he did not know defendant personally at the time of Mireles' murder. Rowans was not a close friend of Alvarez's, but nevertheless, Alvarez confessed to Rowans that he shot Mireles. Alvarez's description of the events conflicted. He had told Rowans that he shot Mireles from a gangway, but also stated that he shot Mireles from close range. Rowans did not challenge Alvarez's separate accounts of the shooting. Alvarez never told Rowans that someone was going to pay him for killing Mireles. Rowans did not know who Mireles was and had never spoken to him. Rowans told police about Alvarez's confession one month after the murder when officers found him and brought him to the police station.

Marvin Wilkins testified that on December 29, 1997, at approximately 11 p.m., he heard a gunshot while sitting in Rowans' living room at 8842 South Exchange Avenue. Wilkins then opened a window in the apartment and saw two men dressed in black, hooded sweaters running from Exchange Avenue toward an alley. Wilkins observed that one man was heavier than the other and that...