People v. Hernandez

2017 IL App (1st) 150575
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided July 28, 2017·No. 1-15-0575·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinion

Digitally signed by Reporter of Decisions

Illinois Official Reports Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document

Appellate Court Date: 2017.07.24 12:55:44 -05'00'

People v. Hernandez, 2017 IL App (1st) 150575

Appellate Court THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Caption SERGIO HERNANDEZ, Defendant-Appellant.

District & No. First District, Fifth Division Docket No. 1-15-0575

Filed March 31, 2017 Rehearing denied May 30, 2017 Modified upon denial of rehearing June 9, 2017

Decision Under Appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County, No. 09-CR-364; the Review Hon. Thomas P. Fecarotta, Jr., Judge, presiding.

Judgment Reversed and remanded.

Counsel on Michael J. Pelletier, Patricia Mysza, and Bryon M. Reina, of State Appeal Appellate Defender’s Office, of Chicago, for appellant.

Kimberly M. Foxx, State’s Attorney, of Chicago (Alan J. Spellberg and Christine Cook, Assistant State’s Attorneys, of counsel), for the People.

Panel PRESIDING JUSTICE GORDON delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Justice Reyes concurred in the judgment and opinion. Justice Lampkin specially concurred, with opinion.

OPINION

¶1 After a jury trial, defendant Sergio Hernandez was found guilty of the first-degree murder of Rocio Munoz and of personally discharging the firearm that caused her death. 720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(1) (West 2008) (first-degree murder with intent to kill); 730 ILCS 5/5-8-1(a)(1)(d)(iii) (West 2006) (25-year sentencing enhancement for personally discharging a firearm causing death). Defendant was sentenced to 30 years for the murder and 25 years as a result of a firearm enhancement, for a total sentence of 55 years with the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC).

¶2 On a prior appeal, this court found that defendant’s arrest was illegal, and we vacated defendant’s conviction and remanded the case for an attenuation hearing. People v. Hernandez, 2013 IL App (1st) 103447-U, ¶¶ 42, 50 (unpublished order pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 23). Specifically, we remanded the matter to the trial court “with directions to conduct a hearing to determine whether defendant’s statements at the police station were sufficiently attenuated from his illegal arrest to render it admissible.” Hernandez, 2013 IL App (1st) 103447-U, ¶ 50. We also permitted the parties the opportunity on remand to develop a factual record bearing on defendant’s claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Hernandez, 2013 IL App (1st) 103447-U, ¶ 56.

¶3 After the trial court held the attenuation hearing, we instructed the trial court as follows: “Should the trial court find defendant’s confession was sufficiently attenuated from his illegal arrest, we direct the court to reinstate defendant’s conviction. In the alternative, if the trial court determines that no such attenuation exists to purge the confession from the taint of defendant’s illegal arrest, we direct the trial court to suppress the confession and conduct further proceedings consistent with this opinion.” Hernandez, 2013 IL App (1st) 103447-U,

¶ 50.

¶4 On remand, the trial court held an attenuation hearing and found that defendant’s statement to the police at the police station was sufficiently attenuated from his earlier arrest to be admissible at trial, and following our directions, the trial court reinstated defendant’s conviction.

¶5 Defendant now appeals the trial court’s decision, arguing (1) that the trial court erred in finding attenuation; (2) that his counsel at the attenuation hearing had a conflict of interest, since the appellate court permitted defendant on remand to address his claim that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to move to suppress his statement as involuntary and the same trial counsel continued to represent defendant on remand (Hernandez, 2013 IL App (1st) 103447-U, ¶ 56 (permitting the parties “ ‘an opportunity to develop a factual record’ ” (quoting People v. Bew, 228 Ill. 2d 122, 135 (2008)); and (3) that this counsel was ineffective for failing to move to suppress defendant’s statement as involuntary (Hernandez, 2013 IL

App (1st) 103447-U, ¶ 56 (“depending on what is entered into the record on remand, ineffectiveness *** could be addressed on direct appeal”).

¶6 For the following reasons, we reverse defendant’s conviction, suppress the statement he made at the police station, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

¶7 BACKGROUND

¶8 In the evening of November 25, 2008, the victim, Rocio Munoz, was found shot in the head while in her vehicle, which was parked on West Irving Park Road in Hanover Park, Illinois. On December 22, 2008, defendant, her former boyfriend, was indicted for her murder.

¶9 I. Pretrial Motion to Quash Arrest

¶ 10 Prior to trial, defendant filed a motion to quash his arrest and suppress evidence on the ground that he was illegally arrested at his home without probable cause or a warrant. After holding a suppression hearing, the trial court concluded that defendant was not arrested at his home. On appeal, this court reversed the decision of the trial court and found that an arrest had occurred. Hernandez, 2013 IL App (1st) 103447-U, ¶ 2. We described the testimony at the suppression hearing in detail in our prior decision, and we will not repeat it here. Hernandez, 2013 IL App (1st) 103447-U, ¶¶ 4-9. In sum, more than 20 police officers, some armed, arrived at defendant’s home, handcuffed him, patted him down, and then removed his handcuffs and seated him next to an armed officer in the back of a police vehicle. They transported him to another police vehicle, which then transported him to an interrogation room in a police station, where he was questioned from 9 p.m. until almost 3 a.m.. This court concluded that no reasonable person in defendant’s shoes would have thought that he or she was free to leave. Hernandez, 2013 IL App (1st) 103447-U, ¶¶ 42, 46.

¶ 11 II. Evidence at Trial

¶ 12 Except for a few statements, the testimony at trial was not described in our prior opinion, so we provide a description here.1

¶ 13 At trial, Jose Munoz2 testified that his sister Rocio, the victim, had dated defendant for three or four years, until 6 months before she died. Rocio, who had immigrated to the United States in 2005 from Mexico, had known defendant in Mexico. At the time of her death, Rocio was living with her brother Jose and their two brothers, and they had all lived together for three years. For four years, Rocio had worked cutting hair, and during the last six or eight months before her death, she had worked at a salon on Irving Park Road, in Hanover Park.

¶ 14 Rafael Delatore Guzman testified that, in November 2008, he was dating Rocio. On November 25, 2008, he met her at 8 p.m., as she was leaving the hair salon where she worked. The salon was in a shopping center on Irving Park Road. The two of them walked to

1

A review of the evidence at trial is also necessary for our determination that there is sufficient evidence to justify a remand for a new trial without running afoul of the double jeopardy clause. Infra

¶ 132.

2

Since both the witness and his sister share the last name of Munoz, we refer to them by their first names to avoid confusion.

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