People v. Simms

• Decision Date: 18 April 1991
• Docket Number: No. 69078,69078
• Citation: 157 Ill.Dec. 483,572 N.E.2d 947,143 Ill.2d 154
• Parties: , 157 Ill.Dec. 483 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Darryl SIMMS, Appellant.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 947

572 N.E.2d 947

143 Ill.2d 154, 157 Ill.Dec. 483

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Darryl SIMMS, Appellant.

No. 69078.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

April 18, 1991.

Rehearing Denied June 3, 1991.

Charles M. Schiedel, Deputy Defender, and Allen H. Andrews, Asst. Defender, of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, Springfield, for appellant.

Roland W. Burris and Neil F. Hartigan, Attys. Gen., Springfield (Robert J. Ruiz, Sol. Gen., and Terence M. Madsen and Kathryn M. Frost, Asst. Attys. Gen., Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

Justice BILANDIC delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant, Darryl Simms, was convicted following a bench trial in the circuit court of Du Page County of murder (Ill.Rev.Stat.1985, ch. 38, par. 9-1(a)), aggravated criminal sexual assault (Ill.Rev.Stat.1985, ch. 38, par. 12-14(a)), criminal sexual assault (Ill.Rev.Stat.1985, ch. 38, par. 12-13(a)), armed robbery (Ill.Rev.Stat.1985, ch. 38, par. 18-2), home invasion (Ill.Rev.Stat.1985, ch. 38, par. 12-11(a)) and residential burglary (Ill.Rev.Stat.1985, ch. 38, par. 19-3(a)). The State moved for a death sentencing hearing and the defendant waived his right to be sentenced by a jury. The trial court found the defendant eligible for death under section 9-1(b)(6) of the Criminal Code of 1961 (Ill.Rev.Stat.1985, ch. 38, par. 9-1(b)(6)). The court further found that there were no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude a death sentence and sentenced the defendant to death. On direct appeal, this court affirmed the defendant's convictions, but vacated his death sentence, and remanded the cause to the trial court for a new sentencing hearing. (People v. Simms (1988), 121 Ill.2d 259, 276, 117 Ill.Dec. 147, 520 N.E.2d 308.) On remand, the defendant elected to be resentenced by a jury. At the second capital sentencing hearing, the jury determined that the defendant was eligible for the death penalty and further found that there were no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude a sentence of death. Accordingly, the trial court sentenced the defendant to death. This sentence was stayed (107 Ill.2d R. 609(a)) pending direct appeal to this court (Ill. Const.1970, art. VI, § 4(b); 107 Ill.2d R. 603).

The facts underlying the defendants convictions are discussed in detail in the defendant's first direct appeal and will be repeated here only insofar as they are relevant to the sentencing hearing. The victim, Lillian LaCrosse, was murdered on April 17, 1985. The victim's husband, Richard LaCrosse, testified at the sentencing hearing that he and his wife lived in an apartment in Addison, Illinois. On the evening of April 17, 1985, the electricity in the building failed and Commonwealth Edison personnel were working in the area outside of the victim's apartment. When Mr. LaCrosse left the apartment for work at 10 p.m., the apartment building was dark except for dim emergency lights in the hallways. When Mr. LaCrosse returned home at 7:30 a.m. the next morning, he found his wife dead on the dining-room floor, wearing only her shirt. Mr. LaCrosse also testified that the dresser drawer in the bedroom had been disturbed and that the victim's purse and a movie camera were missing.

The parties stipulated to the testimony of Mary Faille, a nurse who worked in the emergency room of St. Ann's Hospital on April 18, 1985. According to Faille, the defendant was treated in St. Ann's emergency room at 2:20 a.m. on April 18, 1985, for a lacerated right thigh. The defendant told Faille and the doctor who treated him that he had injured himself while cutting potatoes. Because of the nature of the defendant's wound, Ms. Faille notified the Bellwood police department.

Officer Barry Muniz, of the Addison police department, testified that he examined the victim's apartment for evidence following the murder and found no signs of forced entry. Muniz also testified that he found blood in the victim's kitchen, on a dresser in the victim's bedroom, on the rear door of the victim's apartment, in the hallway leading from the victim's apartment building, and on the landing inside the entrance to the apartment building next door, where the defendant resided. Evidence was introduced by way of stipulation that members of the Addison police department executed a search warrant upon the defendant's apartment and found blood on the refrigerator and the bathtub of that apartment.

Officer Gorniak of the Addison police department testified that the defendant was arrested for LaCrosse's murder at 4:30 a.m. on April 19, 1985, and interrogated at the Streamwood police department. According to Gorniak, the defendant was advised of and signed a written waiver of his Miranda rights. Gorniak then asked the defendant how he had injured his right thigh and the defendant explained that he had cut himself while peeling potatoes. When Gorniak stated that this explanation was unlikely, the defendant stated that he had been stabbed during a fight in Chicago, but did not want to tell the police because he had been in the area to buy drugs. Gorniak then informed the defendant that his brother, Sherrod Simms, had told the police that Darryl admitted stabbing the victim. Gorniak also told the defendant that the police had found blood on the back hallway of his building and in his apartment. The defendant responded that he would tell the truth and gave a written statement to the police.

According to the defendant's statement, he left his Addison apartment at approximately 11:30 p.m. on the evening of April 17, after arguing with his girlfriend. Upon exiting the apartment, he saw the Commonwealth Edison crew working in front of the building. The defendant then went to the victim's apartment, allegedly because the victim asked him to come up. The defendant stated that, after the victim let him into her apartment, he fondled her and then went to the kitchen for a cigarette. The victim allegedly became angry when the defendant told her that he could not stay, and stabbed the defendant in the leg with a knife. The defendant then obtained possession of the knife and stabbed the victim in the neck. When the victim began screaming, he choked her until she became unconscious. The defendant claimed that he removed the victim's clothing and wiped her with a towel to remove his fingerprints from her body. The defendant stated that, when he realized that he would go to prison for a long time for attempted murder, he stabbed the victim in the neck and throat more than 10 times, knowing that these wounds would kill her. According to the defendant, the wounds on the victim's chest, back and arms resulted from her "struggling and flopping around on the floor." The defendant stated that he took the victim's purse and movie camera when he left the apartment because he feared he had left fingerprints on them the previous afternoon. The defendant claimed in the statement that he and the victim were having an affair for approximately one month prior to the murder, and that he had sexual intercourse with the victim in her apartment during the afternoon of April 17. The victim's father, George Spencer, testified that he and his wife were with the victim at her apartment during the afternoon and evening of April 17, 1985, and that the victim had no visitors.

Deputy Stanley Cole, of the Du Page County sheriff's office, testified that, as he was placing the defendant in a holding cell on April 19, 1985, he overheard a conversation between the defendant and another officer. The officer asked the defendant how he got the wound on his leg, and the defendant responded, "I missed her and I got myself."

The parties stipulated to the testimony of Dr. Lawrence Henley, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on the victim. According to Dr. Henley's testimony, the victim was stabbed at least 25 times in the ear, shoulder, throat, chest, arms and back. The victim had also been strangled and the cause of her death was exsanguination, or loss of blood. Photographs depicting the victim's body and bloodstains in her apartment were admitted into evidence.

Christine Sachs, a forensic chemist, testified that the bloodstains found in the victim's apartment were made by type O blood, and that both the victim and the defendant had type O blood. She also testified that a vaginal smear taken from the victim revealed the presence of spermatozoa, and that spermatozoa ordinarily remains detectable in a woman's body for 72 hours. The victim's husband testified that he had not had sexual intercourse with his wife for 1 1/2 or 2 weeks before her death.

The State introduced testimony that the defendant was convicted of intentional murder, knowing murder and several counts of felony murder as a result of Lillian LaCrosse's death. The defendant was also convicted of five counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, criminal sexual assault, home invasion, armed robbery and residential burglary. The parties stipulated that the defendant was born December 27, 1961. Following closing arguments, the jury returned a general verdict finding that the defendant was eligible for the death penalty, because he was 18 or more years old at the time of the murder and committed the murder in the course of another felony. Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 38, par. 9-1(b)(6).

At the second stage of the sentencing hearing, the State introduced testimony showing that the defendant had been adjudicated a delinquent minor in 1975, after he and several classmates started a fire in the elementary school they attended. The defendant was also adjudicated a delinquent minor in 1977, after he committed burglary.

The State also presented evidence of criminal misconduct which the defendant engaged in as an adult. Mary Matas testified that, on March 17, 1985, she entered her automobile, which was parked in a Jewel parking lot. The defendant emerged from the backseat, cut her with a knife or razor blade, beat, raped and robbed her. The...