People v. Tye

• Decision Date: 30 November 1990
• Docket Number: No. 63728,63728
• Citation: People v. Tye, 141 Ill.2d 1, 565 N.E.2d 931, 152 Ill.Dec. 249 (Ill. 1990)
• Parties: , 152 Ill.Dec. 249 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Jimmie TYE, Appellant.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 931

565 N.E.2d 931

141 Ill.2d 1, 152 Ill.Dec. 249

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Jimmie TYE, Appellant.

No. 63728.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 30, 1990.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 4, 1991.

Randolph N. Stone, Public Defender, Chicago (Aaron L. Meyers, Asst. Public Defender, of counsel), and Janet Reed and Cary Berman, law students, for appellant.

Neil F. Hartigan, Atty. Gen., of Springfield, and Cecil A. Partee, State's Atty., Chicago (Terence M. Madsen, Asst. Atty. Gen., Chicago, and Inge Fryklund and Kevin Sweeney, Asst. State's Attys., and Kathleen Howlett, Sp. Asst. State's Atty., of counsel), for the People.

Justice MILLER delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a bench trial in the circuit court of Cook County, the defendant, Jimmie Tye, was convicted of the murder of his three-year-old daughter, Jasmin James. The State requested a hearing to determine whether the defendant should be sentenced to death for the offense. The defendant waived a jury for purposes of the sentencing hearing. The trial judge determined that the defendant was eligible for the death penalty and that there were no mitigating circumstances sufficient to preclude imposition of that sentence. The judge accordingly sentenced the defendant to death. The defendant's execution was stayed pending direct appeal to this court. (Ill. Const.1970, art. VI, § 4(b); 107 Ill.2d Rules 603, 609(a).) In the present appeal, the defendant raises a number of challenges to the proceedings below. We affirm the defendant's conviction and sentence.

The evidence presented at trial was, in the main, undisputed; the principal disagreement concerned the defendant's mental state at the time of the occurrence. The State introduced into evidence the defendant's confession, in which he acknowledged whipping his daughter with a belt and electrical cord on the night of her death. The State also presented autoptic evidence, which detailed the severity of the beating the child suffered. The defendant maintained that he acted only recklessly in beating Jasmin, and that involuntary manslaughter was the most serious offense for which he could be convicted.

At the time of the occurrence, the defendant and Pamela James lived in Chicago with their two children, Jasmin, who was three years old, and Alicia, who was five months old. On October 24, 1984, Pamela left the apartment around 6 p.m. for an appointment with her hairdresser. The defendant was to look after the two children in Pamela's absence. The defendant fed the children their dinner. Later, that evening, around 10 o'clock, the defendant told Jasmin to go to bed. When Jasmin refused to do so, the defendant struck her several times with his belt. Jasmin still refused to go to bed, and the defendant struck her again with the belt.

The defendant then got a 14-foot extension cord from another room. The defendant ordered Jasmin to lower her pants, folded the cord, and beat her with it. The defendant then ordered Jasmin to put her pajamas on. When Jasmin started to put them on the wrong way, the defendant beat her again with the extension cord. At one point, the defendant held Jasmin by her arm as he continued to beat her with the cord. In his confession, the defendant said that he beat the child on her arms, legs, back, stomach, chest, shoulders, and face. According to the defendant, the beatings occurred over the course of about an hour. Afterwards, the defendant helped Jasmin with her pajamas and put her to bed.

According to the defendant, Jasmin later complained that her head hurt, so the defendant placed a damp face towel on the child's forehead. Sometime after that, Jasmin went to the bathroom and vomited several times. The defendant said that the child's eyes were rolled upward in their sockets. Jasmin then returned to bed. She later needed to vomit again, and the defendant carried her into the bathroom. The defendant said that at one point he gave the child mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in an attempt to clear her nose and throat.

Pamela James returned around midnight, and the defendant told her that he had whipped Jasmin. By that time, Jasmin was no longer moving. There was no telephone in the apartment, so the defendant and Pamela left to summon help. Pamela called her father, Willie Davis, who lived about five blocks away. Davis and his wife came over immediately. Davis could not detect a pulse and found that the child's body was cold. Davis and the defendant then left the apartment and flagged down a Chicago police officer. Jasmin was later transported by police vehicle to South Shore Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Detective Raymond Binkowski of the Chicago police department examined Jasmin at the hospital. Binkowski found bruises and abrasions on the child's face, back, legs, buttocks, arms, and chest, and he directed an evidence technician to photograph the injuries. Detective Binkowski questioned the defendant around 3:30 a.m. on October 25; another officer, Detective William Kuschner, questioned Pamela James. According to Detective Binkowski, both the defendant and Pamela said in their initial interviews that it was Pamela who had whipped the child on October 24. Shortly after the defendant gave his initial statement, he consented to a search of the apartment. There, Detective Binkowski and a second officer found a belt and an extension cord on the top bunk of a bed, as defendant had indicated. The officers did not find evidence of blood or vomit in the apartment, or towels similar to the one defendant said he had placed on the child's head. Later during the morning of October 25, the defendant made a formal, written statement, which was admitted into evidence at trial.

At trial the State also presented evidence of the autopsy performed on the victim on October 25, 1984, by Dr. Robert Stein, chief medical examiner of Cook County. The external examination of the victim revealed the presence of contusions on virtually every part of the child's body, and that there were "too many to count." Dr. Stein testified that the child's injuries were consistent with blows inflicted from a belt, belt buckle, or electrical cord. He believed that most of the injuries were recent and were inflicted perhaps within moments of death. Other injuries were older, and could have been inflicted 30 to 45 minutes before death.

In his examination, Dr. Stein found contused areas under the child's left eye and on the lower cheek. He also observed "punctated-like contused areas" on the left side of the nose. Dr. Stein testified that there were numerous "spiral markings" on the child's back, between the buttocks, just below the knee, and on both sides of the chest. Dr. Stein also found U-shaped contusions about 5 to 10 inches in length on the left side of the chest. Oval-shaped contusions were present on the upper portion of the left labia of the vagina and on the thigh of the left leg. Dr. Stein stated that he observed similar loop-like contusions on the child's upper abdomen, the nipple of the right breast, the upper thigh of the right leg, the area just below the left collarbone, and the last rib of the chest. Dr. Stein also observed patterned markings on the buttocks, the back of the legs, and the groin area. Dr. Stein testified that all these injuries were consistent with blows from a belt or an electrical cord. Dr. Stein also found a number of curvilinear contusions consistent with blows from a belt buckle. Contusions of that type were present on the lower part of the child's body, the legs, the right forearm, and the top of the left hand. Dr. Stein found older contusions, which had healed, on the lower leg, and a swollen left shoulder.

Dr. Stein stated that an X ray of the child's body revealed a recent fracture of the upper arm consistent with an upward pulling of the arm. He testified that an internal examination of the body revealed severe hemorrhage to the underlying fat and muscle. He noted that the amount and depth of the hemorrhage, particular in the area of the buttocks, indicated that the child's injuries were severe. Dr. Stein also testified that he found a quantity of partially digested food in the child's stomach, and that there was no evidence of vomit in the child's mouth or nostrils. Dr. Stein concluded that death was not instantaneous but rather was the result of abuse inflicted over a protracted period of time.

The defendant testified at trial. He admitted whipping Jasmin on October 24, 1984, and his testimony was consistent with the confession he had given to the authorities. The defendant denied, however, that at the time of the occurrence he had possessed any of the mental states necessary to sustain a charge of murder. The defendant specifically stated that he had not intended to kill the child or been aware that his actions created a strong probability of death. He explained that he whipped Jasmin because he was "mad with her because she had been disobedient."

Pamela James also testified in behalf of the defendant. She said that she and other members of her family had whipped Jasmin with a belt when the child misbehaved. Pamela explained that she lied in her initial statement to the police, when she said that she had whipped the child on October 24. She explained, "I was scared because I wasn't at home and something had happened to [Jasmin]. I didn't know what had happened to her. So I lied."

The trial judge found the defendant guilty of murder. The State then requested a capital sentencing hearing, and the defendant waived his right to a jury for purposes of the hearing. At the first phase of the hearing, certified copies of the defendant's and Jasmin's birth certificates were admitted into evidence. The parties stipulated that at the time of the offense the defendant was 27 years old and Jasmin was three years old. Following arguments by the parties, the trial judge determined that the defendant was eligible for the...