People v. Wheeler

• Decision Date: 21 June 2007
• Docket Number: No. 102550.,102550.
• Citation: 871 N.E.2d 728,226 Ill.2d 92
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Jacoby WHEELER, Appellant.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

871 N.E.2d 728

226 Ill.2d 92

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Jacoby WHEELER, Appellant.

No. 102550.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 21, 2007.

Daniel D. Yuhas, Deputy Defender, Martin J. Ryan, Assistant Defender, Office of the State Appellate Defender, Springfield, for appellant.

Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Springfield, Jack Ahola, State's Attorney, Decatur (Gary Feinerman, Solicitor General, Michael M. Glick, Karl R. Triebel, Assistant Attorneys General, Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

OPINION

Justice GARMAN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion:

On March 12, 1999, Demetrian Forrest was found dead, slumped over in the driver's side of his car, in Decatur, Illinois. The State alleged that defendant, Jacoby Wheeler, and his codefendant, Shannon Hunter, murdered Forrest to prevent him from testifying against Wheeler in a separate criminal case. Both men were charged with first degree murder. 720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(1) (West 1998).

On September 19, 2001, a jury in the circuit court of Macon County found defendant and Hunter guilty. Subsequently, the jury found them both eligible for the death penalty because they (1) murdered Forrest to prevent him from testifying (720 ILCS 5/9-1(b)(8) (West 1998)), and (2) committed the murder in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner pursuant to a preconceived plan (720 ILCS 5/9-1(b)(11) (West 1998)). Defendant waived a jury for sentencing.

On January 2, 2002, the trial court sentenced defendant to 55 years' imprisonment, finding sufficient mitigating factors to preclude a sentence of death. Defendant appealed his conviction and sentence. The appellate court initially affirmed unanimously. After defendant petitioned for rehearing, one justice dissented. No. 4-02-0131 (unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23).

Defendant appealed to this court pursuant to Rule 315 (210 Ill.2d R. 315). Defendant contends that: (1) the State failed to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; (2) the prosecutor's comments in closing arguments denied him a fair trial; (3) the trial court erred in refusing to allow evidence that William Ellzey killed Forrest; (4) defense counsel was ineffective for eliciting details of other-crimes evidence; and (5) the trial court erred in not excusing juror Brian Thomas.

BACKGROUND

On the evening of March 12, 1999, Decatur police officer Shane Brandel and Detective Daniel Street were investigating a burglary, unrelated to this case. As Brandel and Street were speaking with the occupants of a house at 1329 East Main Street in Decatur, they heard gunshots. Stepping outside onto the front porch and heading toward the street, Brandel and Street saw two men running toward them through a vacant lot.

Brandel testified that the faces of the two men were dark and thus he inferred they were black. One suspect wore a black coat while the other wore a dark coat and seemed to be three or four inches taller than the other. Street testified that both men wore dark clothing and, at the time, he believed them to be roughly the same height and build.

Brandel stated that the man in the black coat lifted his coat and reached under his waistband. Though he did not see the black-coated man pull anything out, Brandel reached for his pistol. At that point both suspects turned around and began running north. Street testified that after Brandel said something along the lines of "Stop, police[!]" the two suspects turned and ran north. Brandel pursued the suspects on foot while Street returned to his vehicle and drove west on Main Street, listening to Brandel's reports on the radio.

While Brandel was pursuing the suspects on foot he lost sight of them twice. The first time, he lost sight of them for four to five seconds as he rounded a corner into an alleyway between East Main and East Prairie Street. The second time, he lost sight of the suspects for about 20 seconds when they darted between some houses on East Main. Brandel testified that, when the suspects again came into view, he was certain, based on their clothing and build, they were the same suspects he had been chasing. Eventually, the suspects parted, each running on an opposite side of a motor home parked in a lot between 1212 and 1228 East Main Street. Brandel followed the closest suspect, the one in the blue coat, and arrested him on the front porch of the house at 1212 East Main. That suspect was Shannon Hunter. Brandel testified that he did not see any other persons during his pursuit.

Brandel was unable to recall whether Hunter was short of breath or perspiring when he was arrested. Brandel stated that he did not see either suspect discard anything during the chase. He did not believe the suspects were wearing masks or eyewear and did not notice any stripes or different colors on their coats, describing them only as solid blue or black. Defendant's counsel showed Brandel a black coat with white stripes that other police officers found in a driveway between the houses at 1229 and 1237 East Main Street, a few blocks away from the scene of the shooting. Brandel could not identify it as a coat worn by either suspect.

During the chase, Brandel noticed a car parked 150 feet northeast of the point where he first spotted the suspects. The police later discovered Forrest's dead body in that car. He had been shot in the head, left arm, left thigh, and right thigh. Though the car was in neutral and the stereo was blaring, it was not running. The driver's side window was shattered and shards of glass were strewn on the street in front of 120 North Stone Street and at the point where the car had come to rest slightly northwest of that location. Two bullet holes were found in the driver's door, one bullet was found on the front passenger floorboard, and one was found in the panel of the front passenger door.

Street testified that as he drove west on Main Street he noticed police cars with lights on at Jasper Street. He turned left (south) onto Jasper Street and continued to the intersection of Wood and Jasper. At the intersection, Street saw a black man in dark clothing run onto Wood Street from the north.

The man crossed Wood Street and ran toward the east side of Walgreens at 1201 East Wood. At that point, Street lost sight of him behind a fence. Street continued south on Jasper Street and, turning east onto Clay Street, stopped mid-block with his car headlights off. Street saw the man emerge from between some houses, stop on the sidewalk, and then walk on Clay Street at a normal pace. Eventually, the man crouched and hid under a bush at 1304 East Clay Street. Street testified that, at that point, he had not seen any other foot traffic on Clay Street.

After he saw the man hide under the bush, Street radioed police dispatch. Not a minute later, another Decatur police officer, Shawn Guenther, pulled the man out from under the bush. That man was defendant, Jacoby Wheeler. Street testified that this was the same man he saw running toward him after hearing gunshots while he and Brandel were at 1329 East Main Street.

However, Street was not able to identify Hunter as the other suspect he saw running toward him. Additionally, he did not notice either suspect make any drastic change of clothing, nor did he notice stripes or hoods on the suspects' coats. Street further admitted that the black coat shown to him at trial had white stripes down each sleeve which, had he noticed, he would have described in his report.

Jason Derbort, another Decatur police officer, also testified. Derbort responded to a report of shots fired, parked his car at the intersection of Main and Jasper Streets, and turned off his headlights. Seeing a black man in dark clothing and a dark coat run out of the lot where the motor home was parked, Derbort turned on his headlights and emergency lights, got out of his squad car, and yelled at the man to stop. Derbort testified that the man then headed southeast. Soon after the event, however, Derbort wrote in his police report that the man ran south. Regardless, Derbort testified that he followed the man and could see that the dark coat he was wearing had white stripes down the sleeves.

As the man continued to run, Derbort lost sight of him for around two seconds as he ran through the driveway between 1229 and 1237 East Main Street. When he saw the man again, he was no longer wearing the dark coat but was now clad in a green and yellow jacket. The man continued running, crossed Wood Street, fled between 1295 and 1305 Wood Street, and jumped a chain-link fence. Derbort, unable to jump the fence due to the weight of his full winter gear, went around the fence in pursuit. He testified that he saw no other foot traffic as he pursued the man. When Derbort again saw the man, Officer Guenther was ordering him out from under the bush at 1304 East Clay. As noted, that man was Jacoby Wheeler and he was wearing the green and yellow jacket Derbort had seen while in pursuit.

Retracing the route the suspects had taken, police found various items. Where the suspects initially turned and ran from Brandel and Street, police found a .22-caliber revolver containing five live rounds and one spent round. Along the suspects' route of flight, police found a ski mask lined with a pair of nylon stockings, a black neoprene mask, a stocking cap, and a .357 Magnum chrome revolver containing two live rounds and four spent rounds. The neoprene mask, stocking cap, and .357 Magnum revolver were not found in the initial police search. Instead, those items were found in a search just after midnight on March 13, 1999, when police discovered that more than one gun might have been involved in the shooting. Brandel noted that those items were found at a time when the area was no longer secured. Brandel explained that to be secured means that an area is controlled in such a way that the integrity of the crime scene is maintained and no unauthorized persons are allowed into or out of the area.

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