People v. Gilyard

602 N.E.2d 1335, 237 Ill. App. 3d 8, 177 Ill. Dec. 163, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 1692
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedOctober 20, 1992
Docket2-90-1206
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 602 N.E.2d 1335 (People v. Gilyard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Gilyard, 602 N.E.2d 1335, 237 Ill. App. 3d 8, 177 Ill. Dec. 163, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 1692 (Ill. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

JUSTICE DOYLE

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Michael L. Gilyard, was indicted in the circuit court of Lake County on three counts of first degree murder (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 38, pars. 9—1(a)(1), (a)(2), (a)(3)), two counts of armed violence (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 38, par. 33A—2)), one count of home invasion (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 38, par. 12—11(a)(2)), and one count of unlawful use of weapons by a felon (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 38, par. 24—1.1). Following a jury trial, the State dismissed two first degree murder counts and the two armed violence counts, and defendant was found guilty of felony murder and home invasion. The State dismissed the unlawful use of weapons charge, and defendant was sentenced to 60 years’ imprisonment on the felony murder conviction.

Defendant raises the following issues on appeal: (1) whether he was proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of intending to cause harm to the victim; (2) whether he was denied the effective assistance of counsel because defense counsel failed to tender an instruction on criminal trespass to a residence as a lesser included offense of home invasion; (3) whether the jury’s determination that he was sane at the time of the offense was against the manifest weight of the evidence; (4) whether his conviction of home invasion must be vacated because it is a lesser included offense of felony murder; and (5) whether the trial court abused its discretion in sentencing him to 60 years in prison.

The following facts were adduced at defendant’s trial. Brenda Wakefield testified that she was at the apartment of the victim, Zeronda Gilyard, in the late afternoon of January 28, 1990. Also present was Michelle Gilyard, the five-year-old daughter of the victim and defendant. Defendant and the victim were married, but defendant had never lived at that apartment.

At about 7:20 p.m. on January 28, the telephone rang, and the victim and her daughter had a telephone conversation with defendant. Approximately 20 to 30 minutes after the victim hung up the telephone, Wakefield heard a loud banging on the outside of the apartment door. She, the victim and Michelle ran into the bedroom when the victim said the defendant was outside. Upon entering the bedroom, the victim gave the telephone to Wakefield and asked her to call the North Chicago police. Wakefield called and told the dispatcher what was going on at the apartment.

While on the telephone, Wakefield saw the victim leave the bedroom with a gun and about 30 seconds later heard two gunshots in the living room area. There was a “pause” between the shots, but Wakefield could not estimate its length. Michelle was, at the time, lying on the floor behind the bed. After the shots, while Wakefield was still on the telephone, the victim ran back into the bedroom, and defendant followed her in, grabbed both her arms and dragged her back into the kitchen and living room areas, which are connected. After that, it got quiet, and then the police arrived.

On cross-examination, Wakefield stated that when the victim and defendant entered the bedroom the gun had fallen to the bedroom floor during the struggle. She did not see what happened to the gun after defendant left the bedroom, nor did she see the gun, a knife or any weapon in defendant’s hands. She did not see who fired the shots.

Delsina Jones, a police dispatcher for the City of North Chicago, testified that on January 28, 1990, at about 7:34 p.m., she received a telephone call on the emergency line regarding a shooting at 1645 Hervey in North Chicago. Officer Donald Thivierge of the North Chicago police department testified that at about 7:34 p.m. on January 28, 1990, he was dispatched to 1645 Hervey because of a reported shooting. Upon entering the apartment, he observed defendant, the victim, Ms. Wakefield and Michelle. He ordered defendant to crawl to the door, and defendant did so.

Officer Thivierge is also a trained evidence technician. He identified the gun seized from the apartment floor as a seven-shot .22 caliber handgun. It held seven cartridges, two of which were unfired. He also identified two knives found on the floor of the apartment, one of which had a broken blade, and a broken tip of a knife blade found on the living room couch.

Detective Gerald Pedrin, chief of the North Chicago detective bureau, testified that on January 29, 1990, he took a statement from defendant while defendant was in the hospital intensive care unit. Defendant was medicated but not sedated at the time he gave the statement. Defendant was read and waived his Miranda rights prior to the statement.

According to Detective Pedrin, defendant stated that at about 1:30 p.m. on January 28 he called the victim’s home wanting to talk to his daughter. His daughter was not home at that time, but she called him later during halftime of the Super Bowl game. During that conversation, defendant’s daughter told him that the evening before she had observed a man “touching her mother and doing other things to her” on the couch. The victim got on the telephone and told defendant she did not have to talk to him and was not going to explain herself regarding the incident.

After hanging up the telephone, he thought about it and decided that it “was not going to happen again” and that he was “going to stop that.” He then drove to the victim’s apartment and waited outside for somebody to come out. After no one came out, he tried unsuccessfully to enter the front door and the side door but finally was able to kick in the front door.

Upon entering the living room, he observed the victim coming out of the bedroom with a gun in her hand. She fired a shot, striking him in the chest, and they struggled. He was able to get the gun from the victim, and she reached down and picked up a knife from the kitchen counter. She came at him and grabbed the gun, and it went off, striking him in the thigh.

According to defendant’s statement, he and the victim struggled and fell to the floor. He kept squeezing the trigger in an effort to empty the gun in case the victim would get it. While they were on the floor, and as he twisted her arm around, the gun went off. The victim stopped struggling and let go of the gun. She walked towards the front door and collapsed.

Defendant crawled to the victim, observed that she had been shot in the jaw and checked for a pulse. He did not find a pulse and attempted to crawl back to the gun to shoot himself. He apparently blacked out, as the next thing he remembered was a police officer telling him to open the door. Defendant never mentioned having a knife at any time during the incident.

On cross-examination, Detective Pedrin admitted that defendant did not state that he was squeezing the trigger to get rid of all the bullets. Rather, defendant said that the “gun kept clicking” during the struggle. On redirect, he clarified that defendant did state that he pulled the trigger to get rid of the bullets but that he did not put defendant’s exact words in his written report. Detective Pedrin also testified that defendant was crying and clenching his hands and teeth when he gave his statement but that such conduct is not unusual trader such circumstances. According to Detective Pedrin, defendant responded appropriately to questions and answered questions understandably.

Dr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
602 N.E.2d 1335, 237 Ill. App. 3d 8, 177 Ill. Dec. 163, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 1692, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-gilyard-illappct-1992.