People v. Williams

• Decision Date: 15 July 2010
• Docket Number: No. 107550.,107550.
• Citation: 939 N.E.2d 268,345 Ill.Dec. 425,238 Ill.2d 125
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee and Cross–Appellant,v.Sandy WILLIAMS, Appellant and Cross–Appellee.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

238 Ill.2d 125
939 N.E.2d 268
345 Ill.Dec. 425

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee and Cross–Appellant,
v.
Sandy WILLIAMS, Appellant and Cross–Appellee.

No. 107550.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

July 15, 2010.

[939 N.E.2d 269]

Michael J. Pelletier, State Appellate Def., Patricia Unsinn, Alan D. Goldberg, Deputy Defenders, Brian Carroll, Asst. Appellate Def., of Office of State Appellate Def., of Chicago, for appellant and Cross–appellee.Lisa Madigan, Atty. Gen., of Springfield, Anita Alvarez, State's Atty., of Chicago (James E. Fitzgerald, Ashley Romito, Alan J. Spellberg, Amy Watroba Kern, Asst. State's Attorneys, of counsel), for the People.

[345 Ill.Dec. 426 , 238 Ill.2d 128] OPINION Chief Justice FITZGERALD delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

After a bench trial in the circuit court of Cook County, the defendant, Sandy Williams, was convicted of two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and one count each of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery of L.J. The appellate court affirmed the defendant's conviction, but reversed the trial court's imposition of a consecutive sentence. 385 Ill.App.3d 359, 371, 324 Ill.Dec. 246, 895 N.E.2d 961. On appeal to this court, the

[345 Ill.Dec. 427 , 939 N.E.2d 270]

defendant argues that the testimony of an Illinois State Police forensic analyst, who relied upon a DNA report prepared by a nontestifying third-party analyst, lacked a sufficient evidentiary foundation. Alternatively, the defendant argues that this testimony concerning the report was hearsay presented for the truth of the matter asserted and violated the defendant's sixth amendment confrontation clause right. The State cross-appeals, maintaining the appellate court improperly reversed the trial court's imposition of a consecutive sentence. For the following reasons, we affirm in part and reverse in part.

BACKGROUND

The State charged the defendant in a 17–count indictment with aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated [238 Ill.2d 129] kidnapping, and aggravated robbery. The cause proceeded to a bench trial. The counts that the State ultimately submitted to the judge were counts IV and VI (aggravated criminal sexual assault under 720 ILCS 5/12–14(a)(3) (West 2000)), count XV (aggravated kidnapping under 720 ILCS 5/10–2(a)(3) (West 2000)) and count XVII (aggravated robbery under 720 ILCS 5/18–5 (West 2000)). The State entered a nolle prosequi on the remaining counts. The following facts were adduced at trial.

On February 10, 2000, 22–year–old L.J. worked until 8 p.m. as a cashier at a clothing store in Chicago. On her way home to the south side of the city, she purchased items at the store for her mother and went toward her home. As she passed an alley, the defendant came up behind her and forced her to sit in the backseat of a beige station wagon, where he told her to take her clothes off. The defendant then vaginally penetrated L.J. The defendant also contacted L.J.'s anus with his penis, but did not penetrate. He then pushed L.J. out of the car while keeping L.J.'s coat, money, and other items. After L.J. ran home, her mother opened the door and saw her in tears, partially clothed with only one pant leg on. After L.J. went into the bathroom, her mother called the police.

Shortly after 9 p.m., Chicago police officers arrived at the home and found L.J. in the bathtub. She had not yet washed her vaginal area. After L.J. told the officers what had transpired, the officers issued a “flash” message for a black male, 5 foot, 8 inches tall, wearing a black skull cap, a black jacket and driving a beige station wagon. An ambulance transported L.J. and her mother to the emergency room. Dr. Nancy Schubert conducted a vaginal exam of L.J. and took vaginal swabs, which were then sealed and placed into a criminal sexual assault evidence collection kit along with L.J.'s blood sample. The kit was sent to the Illinois State Police (ISP) Crime Lab for testing and analysis.

[238 Ill.2d 130] On February 15, 2000, forensic biologist Brian Hapack with the ISP Crime Lab received L.J.'s sexual assault evidence collection kit and performed tests that confirmed the presence of semen. Hapack placed the swabs in a coin envelope, sealed the envelope, and placed the evidence in a secure freezer. Hapack guaranteed the accuracy of his results by working in a clean environment free from contamination and by ensuring that the tests functioned properly.

On August 3, 2000, police arrested the defendant for an unrelated offense and, pursuant to a court order, drew a blood sample from the defendant. On August 24, 2000, forensic scientist Karen Kooi performed an analysis on the sample that consisted of four quarter-sized bloodstains on a filter card. Kooi extracted a deoxyribonucleic

[345 Ill.Dec. 428 , 939 N.E.2d 271]

acid (DNA) profile ¹ and entered it into the database at the ISP Crime Lab. Meanwhile, the samples from L.J.'s [238 Ill.2d 131] sexual assault kit were sent to Cellmark Diagnostic Laboratory in Germantown, Maryland, for DNA analysis on November 29, 2000. Cellmark returned L.J.'s vaginal swabs and blood standard to the ISP Crime Lab on April 3, 2001. Cellmark derived a DNA profile for the person whose semen was recovered from L.J. According to ISP forensic biologist Sandra Lambatos, whose testimony will be set forth more fully below, the DNA profile received from Cellmark matched the defendant's DNA profile from the blood sample in the ISP database. L.J. identified the defendant in a line up on April 17, 2001. The defendant was then arrested for the instant offenses.

At the bench trial, Lambatos was accepted as an expert in forensic biology and forensic DNA analysis by the trial court. Lambatos began her testimony with a brief explanation of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. PCR testing, according to Lambatos, is one of the most modern types of DNA analysis available and is generally accepted in the scientific community. Lambatos explained how PCR analysis can be used to identify a male profile from a semen sample. First, an analyst conducts a procedure that isolates and extracts DNA from a sample that may include a mixture from a particular defendant and the victim. The DNA is not large enough to test at this point, and requires amplification to form a more workable sample. After amplification, an analyst can measure the length of an individual specific strand through a process called electrophoresis. A computer translates this measurement onto a graph called an electropherogram. The electropherogram is a representation of the individual's specified DNA data into a line with peaks representing the lengths of the DNA strands of the 13 STR regions. Reports generally also provide a “table of alleles” showing the DNA profile of each sample. She also stated that the statistical probability of a match can also be determined by entering the [238 Ill.2d 132] alleles into a frequency database to learn how common they are in the general population.

Lambatos further testified that it is a commonly accepted practice in the scientific community for one DNA expert to rely on the records of another DNA analyst to complete her work. As mentioned, she used the DNA profile from Cellmark to match the DNA profile from the defendant's blood sample, which was contained in the ISP database. She stated that, because Cellmark was an accredited laboratory, it was required to meet “certain guidelines to perform DNA analysis for the Illinois State Police and so all those

[345 Ill.Dec. 429 , 939 N.E.2d 272]

calibrations and internal proficiencies and controls [of the equipment used] would have had to have been in place for them to perform the DNA analysis.” Cellmark's testing and analysis methods were generally accepted in the scientific community according to Lambatos. Lambatos, however, admitted that Cellmark had different procedures and standards for results than the ISP Crime Lab. Nevertheless, Lambatos testified that she personally developed proficiency tests for Cellmark technicians to perform. She further testified that she routinely relied on results from Cellmark and she did not observe any chain of custody or contamination problems.

The prosecutor then asked her expert opinion regarding the DNA match. Defense counsel objected and asserted that Lambatos could not rely upon the testing performed by another lab. The trial court replied, “We will see. If she says that she didn't do her own testing and she relied on a test of another lab and she's testifying to that. We'll see what she's going to say.”

Lambatos then testified that a match was generated of the male DNA profile found in the semen from L.J.'s vaginal swabs to the defendant's male DNA profile from the defendant's blood standard. In response to defense questioning, Lambatos restated her interpretation of the [238 Ill.2d 133] alleles at each of the 13 locations. She testified about several locations where she visually filtered out spurious alleles and “background noise” and distinguished the defendant's profile. Lambatos concluded that in her expert opinion, the semen from L.J.'s vaginal swab was a match to the defendant. Lambatos testified that the probability of this profile occurring in the general population was one in 8.7 quadrillion black, one in 390 quadrillion white, and one in 109 quadrillion Hispanic unrelated individuals. She did not observe any degradation or irregularities in the sample from L.J.'s vaginal swab.

She stated that, in general, if “there was a question of a match, then we would investigate that further by looking at the electropherograms from all the cases involved and do some more comparisons on that.” She explained that in looking at Cellmark's report, she interpreted it and “I did review their data, and I did make my own interpretations so I looked at what * * * they sent to me and did make my own determination, my own opinion.” While Lambatos testified to her conclusion informed by Cellmark's report, Cellmark's...