People v. Krasawski

2021 IL App (3d) 180741-U
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided December 6, 2021·No. 3-18-0741·Unpublished·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

2021 IL App (3d) 180741-U

Order filed December 6, 2021

IN THE

APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS THIRD DISTRICT

2021

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ) Appeal from the Circuit Court ILLINOIS, ) of the 12th Judicial Circuit, ) Will County, Illinois.

Plaintiff-Appellee, )

) Appeal No. 3-18-0741 v. ) Circuit No. 16-CF-602 )

WILLIAM N. KRASAWSKI, )

) Honorable David M. Carlson, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, Presiding.

JUSTICE SCHMIDT delivered the judgment of the court.

Justices Lytton and O’Brien concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

¶1 Held: The evidence is sufficient to sustain defendant’s conviction.

¶2 The State charged defendant, William N. Krasawski, with two counts of first degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(2) (West 2016)), stemming from the deaths of Michael Oram and Jamie Wills. A jury found him guilty, and the court sentenced him to life imprisonment. Defendant appeals, contesting the sufficiency of the evidence. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

¶3 I. BACKGROUND

¶4 The bodies of Michael and Jamie were discovered in an autobody shop in Joliet, Illinois, on the morning of March 9, 2016. Michael worked in the shop that was owned by his father. Jamie was Michael’s paramour. Michael was found seated in a collapsible lawn chair while Jamie was found suspended by her clothing on a jack handle. The jack was holding up a blue Mazda. Reports indicated that Michael and Jamie were bludgeoned to death.

¶5 The State filed a two-count indictment charging defendant with first degree murder. Count I alleged that defendant, without lawful justification, struck Jamie in the head with a blunt object, thereby causing her death. Count II alleged that defendant, without lawful justification, struck Michael in the head with a blunt object, thereby causing his death. A jury trial ensued.

¶6 Douglas Oram Sr., Michael’s father, testified that he owned the autobody shop where the murders took place. Michael worked in the shop but did not have keys to the building. Doug Sr. underwent an eye procedure on March 8, 2016. He gave the autobody shop keys to Michael prior. The day after the eye procedure, Doug Sr. called Michael at the shop, but no one answered.

¶7 Doug Sr. went to the shop to check in. Upon arrival, he noticed that the front door was locked, which was unusual for that time of the day. He then walked around and along the side of the building toward the back where there was a large overhead door and a smaller service door. The overhead door did not have a handle on the outside. The small service door dragged on the ground making it difficult to open. The service door was held shut with a bar in between two concrete blocks secured with a padlock and a wedge at the bottom. Doug Sr. tried the service door and found it locked. He did not know whether the overhead door was locked since the door did not have a handle on the outside and he was physically unable to lift the door. Doug Sr. pounded on the doors looking for Michael. No one came to the door but there was loud music coming from inside the shop.

¶8 Douglas Oram Jr. arrived with his own set of keys to the shop and opened the front door. With the aid of a three-dimensional computer rendering of the shop, Doug Jr. walked the jury through the layout of the shop and the route he and his father took through the building as they made their way toward the back of the shop where the victims’ bodies were located. Father and son walked through the building, eventually locating Michael’s body in a chair with his head down and a large pool of blood underneath the chair. Doug Jr. directed his father to go back to the front of the shop to call the police. After directing his father back to the front of the shop, Doug Jr. ventured further into the shop area. He observed Jamie suspended in front of a blue Mazda with her clothing caught on the handle of a car jack that was underneath the vehicle. When paramedics arrived, both victims were cool to the touch and had no pulse.

¶9 Multiple members of the Joliet police force testified to the scene inside of the shop. Police found no signs of forced entry on any of the doors or windows. A locked bar secured the rear service door. To the west of the blue Mazda and Jamie’s body was a workbench area extending along the west wall of the shop. There was blood on the west wall near the workbench area. Police recovered a pipe wrench with blood and hair on it from the workbench along the west wall by the Mazda.

¶ 10 Police also recovered the following: blood spatter on the Mazda and on the outside trunk of a late model Plymouth parked parallel and within 15 feet of the Mazda; a bloodstained sledgehammer in the trunk of the Plymouth; a bag of cocaine in the drop ceiling of the shop’s front office; and a crack pipe on the floor of the shop. The rear overhead garage door off the alley was unlocked and had a handle on the interior for lifting.

¶ 11 Forensic pathologist, Dr. Michel Humilier, conducted autopsies of both victims. With respect to Michael, Humilier observed multiple external injuries to his head, including several

lacerations to the scalp exposing the skull. Michael’s skull had extensive fractures on all sides. The toxicology report showed the presence of cocaine and its metabolite. Humilier concluded that Michael’s cause of death was “cranial cerebral injuries due to blunt head trauma due to assault” and that he had been struck multiple times about the head.

¶ 12 Humilier’s examination of Jamie revealed similar injuries. Multiple lacerations to Jamie’s head exposing the underlying skull that was fractured in multiple places. Humilier also noted a laceration to Jamie’s lower back. Her toxicology report revealed the presence of cocaine and its metabolite, and the metabolite of marijuana. Like Michael, her cause of death was “cranial cerebral injuries due to blunt head trauma due to assault.” Humilier found that Jamie had been struck multiple times.

¶ 13 Leah Spalliero, Joshua Martin, and Felicia Carnes all testified to their experiences at the shop the day of the murders. Spalliero testified that Martin was her boyfriend. Spalliero and Martin were at the shop around 8:30 p.m. to find a replacement bolt for her blue Mazda. Michael let Spalliero and Martin in through the rear overhead door; they visited with Michael and Jamie in the shop area. Michael and Jamie were smoking crack cocaine. Defendant arrived at the shop around 9 p.m. Spalliero and Martin left the shop around 9:15 p.m. to look for a part for the Mazda, returning around 10 p.m. Upon returning, Martin went into the shop while Spalliero stayed in the car. Once Martin came back to the car, he told Spalliero that defendant was inside the shop “hiding” in a corner. Defendant’s red mustang was still in the parking lot of the body shop.

¶ 14 Martin’s testimony was similar to Spalliero’s. Michael and Jamie were at the shop with defendant arriving later. Defendant knocked on the rear overhead door and Michael let defendant in. Martin and defendant introduced themselves. Michael and defendant were using narcotics in the shop. He and Spalliero left the shop to look for a part. They returned between 9:30 and 10 p.m.

and Michael let Martin in through the rear overhead door. Spalliero waited for Martin in the car. Defendant was still in the shop with Michael and Jamie. Carnes was also in the shop with her car. Martin and Spalliero left the shop for the night about 15 to 20 minutes later and did not return.

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People v. Krasawski, 2021 IL App (3d) 180741-U (Ill. Ct. App. 2021).

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