The People Of The State Of Ill. v. Ingram, 1-07-2229.

• Decision Date: 17 May 2010
• Docket Number: No. 1-07-2229.,1-07-2229.
• Citation: 340 Ill.Dec. 608,928 N.E.2d 1205,401 Ill.App.3d 382
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.Brenetta INGRAM, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

401 Ill.App.3d 382

928 N.E.2d 1205

340 Ill.Dec. 608

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.Brenetta INGRAM, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1-07-2229.

Appellate Court of Illinois First District, First Division.

May 17, 2010.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Michael J. Pelletier, State Appellate Defender, Chicago, IL, Patricia Unsinn, Deputy Defender, Christopher Kopacz, of counsel, for Appellant.

Anita Alvarez, Cook County State's Attorney, Chicago, IL, James E. Fitzgerald and Peter Fischer, of counsel, for Appellee.

Justice LAMPKIN delivered the opinion of the court:

A jury convicted defendant, Brenetta Ingram, of first degree murder. Defendant contends she is entitled to a new trial because the trial court failed to comply with Supreme Court Rule 431(b) (Official Reports Advance Sheet No. 8 (April 11, 2007), R. 431, eff. May 1, 2007). Defendant also contends the trial court interfered with her right to a fair and impartial jury during jury selection. Defendant finally contends the trial court erred by refusing to issue a jury instruction for second degree murder based on a sudden and intense passion resulting from serious provocation. We affirm.

FACTS

In June 2004, defendant had been staying at the apartment of the victim, Raymond Greene, with her daughter, Latasha, and her daughter's boyfriend, Shaun Patterson, for several months. In the early morning hours of June 17, 2004, defendant learned that the victim planned to evict her from his apartment. Defendant became upset and participated in the stabbing and beating death of the victim in his apartment.

At trial, Detective Patrick Golden testified that he interviewed defendant on June 17, 2004. Defendant said that, early on that date, she was standing on the corner of Chicago Avenue and Hamlin Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, with Latasha, Patterson, and defendant's boyfriend, Walter Willis. Willis told the group that the victim owed him $50 to $60. Willis then left to retrieve the money from the victim. Willis later returned to the corner where the rest of the group remained. Willis reported that he went to the victim's nearby apartment located at 3804 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, but the victim refused to repay the debt. Willis further reported that the victim was angry and planned to no longer allow defendant, Latasha, and Patterson to stay at the victim's apartment. Defendant said she became upset when she heard the news. Jimmie Booker then approached the group. Defendant informed Booker that the victim intended to evict defendant, Latasha, and Patterson.

Defendant said she, Booker, Latasha, and Patterson left the corner and went to the victim's apartment. Latasha knocked on the rear door of the victim's second-floor apartment. When the victim opened the door, Latasha stepped to the side and Booker pushed the door open. The group entered the apartment and the victim demanded they leave. When they refused, the victim grabbed a baseball bat and swung it at defendant and Booker, but missed them. Defendant responded, “oh no, you are not going to hit me with that bat.”

Booker and the victim then began struggling with the bat. Booker eventually gained control of the bat and told defendant he needed help fighting the victim. Defendant retrieved a knife from the kitchen sink and repeatedly stabbed the victim in the shoulders and back while the victim shouted, “I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Stop. Stop.” The knife was approximately 8 to 10 inches long. Meanwhile, Booker repeatedly struck the victim with the bat. At some point, Booker dropped the bat and picked up a steel shovel. Booker then repeatedly hit the victim in the head and body with the shovel. The victim fell into a chair, begging defendant and Booker to stop hitting him. The victim then crawled on his hands and knees out his back door to an attached porch. Defendant followed, repeatedly hitting him with a wooden stick that she found. The victim eventually collapsed, motionless, on the rear porch.

When they were finished, defendant and Booker changed out of their bloodstained clothes and defendant changed out of her bloodstained shoes. They left the bloodstained items at the apartment. Defendant, Booker, Latasha, and Patterson took some of the victim's belongings, including a television, a microwave oven, and a radio, and stashed the items several blocks from the apartment in a cinder-block structure with the intention to retrieve them later. The group then split up. Later that morning, defendant learned the victim had died.

Golden further testified that, after the interview concluded, he instructed other detectives to photograph the victim's apartment and collect the bloodstained clothing defendant and Booker had left behind. Defendant, Latasha, and Patterson consented to giving biological samples. Golden and his partner went to the cinder-block structure described by defendant. Nothing was found there. Golden and his partner returned to the police station and Golden called the State's Attorney's office. Around 10:45 p.m., Assistant State's Attorneys (ASAs) Robert Robertson and Christine Frenzel arrived at the police station. Golden was present when the ASAs interviewed defendant. Defendant agreed to have her statement videotaped.

ASA Robertson testified that, when he first arrived at the police station on June 17, 2004, he spoke with Detectives Golden and Kevin Bore and reviewed the relevant police reports. ASA Robertson then interviewed defendant. The interview lasted approximately 30 minutes. Defendant described the events that transpired consistently with what she reported to the police. ASA Robertson also interviewed Latasha, Patterson, and Willis. After interviewing them, he returned to the room where defendant was located and ASA Frenzel took her videotaped statement. In addition, Latasha agreed to memorialize her witness statement. ASA Robertson took Latasha's handwritten statement. Afterward, ASA Robertson reviewed the statement with Latasha, and Latasha signed the bottom of each page of the statement.

ASA Frenzel testified that ASA Robertson conducted the initial interview of defendant and ASA Frenzel took defendant's videotaped statement. The videotaped statement was published to the jury.

In the videotaped statement,¹ defendant said she, Latasha, Patterson, and Booker went to the victim's apartment after Willis said the victim refused to repay the debt and planned to evict defendant, Latasha, and Patterson from his apartment. The group climbed the back stairs to the victim's second-floor door and Latasha knocked. When the victim opened the door, Booker pushed his way inside and the rest of the group followed. The victim told Booker to leave, but Booker refused. The victim picked up a baseball bat and swung it. Defendant said the bat nearly hit her. Booker told the victim, “I'm not gonna let you hit [defendant].” Then, Booker attempted to gain control of the bat from the victim. Booker said, “don't let him get me, hit him,” so defendant retrieved a “butcher” knife from the kitchen. The blade of the knife was approximately one foot long. Defendant stabbed the victim “several times” in the back, neck, and shoulder area. Meanwhile, Booker gained control of the bat and hit the victim with it. The victim retreated to a chair and sat down. He pleaded, “please, I'm sorry, stop, yes.” At that time, Booker was hitting the victim with a shovel that he found behind the refrigerator. The victim then fell to the floor.

According to defendant's videotaped statement, Latasha gathered her “things” and Patterson grabbed his radio and “stuff.” Latasha and Patterson left the apartment. Defendant said “there was blood everywhere,” so she and Booker changed their clothes. Booker told defendant that he was “ gonna take the TV and stuff.” Booker took the bedroom television and handed Patterson, who had reappeared, the microwave to carry out of the apartment. Booker gave defendant a radio, which she kept. Booker told defendant he intended to sell the other items. He said he would give defendant some of the profit. At that point, the victim was on the floor in the kitchen and began crawling toward the back porch. When the victim was on the back porch, defendant hit him with a stick. She described the stick as four feet long, two inches thick, and two inches wide. Defendant said “it must have come out the paneling of the door when they were fighting or somewhere in the kitchen area.” Defendant was the last person to vacate the apartment and porch.

The group went to a nearby “vacant lot with a gray wooden little house with a [n] entrance window.” Booker placed the victim's items in the “house.” The group then split up. Defendant said she went out drinking. Later, defendant saw Booker with the victim's items in a shopping cart. She never saw the items after that. Defendant called Willis and told him what occurred at the victim's apartment. She reported that the victim was hurt. Defendant also told her godmother and Herman Johnson about the events that transpired at the victim's apartment. She admitted she stabbed the victim. Defendant knew the police were looking for her. Defendant said she planned to turn herself in. Defendant, however, wanted to wait to do so until she saw Willis. Willis arrived that afternoon and the police arrived shortly thereafter to arrest her.

Defendant admitted that, when she left the apartment, she knew the victim was hurt. Defendant said the victim was bleeding. Defendant, however, did not call the police or an ambulance.

On July 3, 2004, Booker was brought to the police station. Golden interviewed him. Booker consented to give a biological sample.

Latasha, who was in custody on a contempt charge for failing to comply with a subpoena, testified that around 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. on June 16, 2004, she was standing near a corner on Chicago Avenue with defendant, Patterson, and Willis. At the time, she, defendant, and Patterson were staying with the victim in his apartment located...