People v. Leonard

526 N.E.2d 397, 171 Ill. App. 3d 380, 122 Ill. Dec. 138, 1988 Ill. App. LEXIS 874
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 20, 1988
Docket2-86-1159
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 526 N.E.2d 397 (People v. Leonard) 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. Leonard, 526 N.E.2d 397, 171 Ill. App. 3d 380, 122 Ill. Dec. 138, 1988 Ill. App. LEXIS 874 (Ill. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

JUSTICE REINHARD

delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a jury trial in the circuit court of Kane County, defendant, William L. Leonard, was found guilty of two counts of an indictment charging him with aggravated criminal sexual assault (111. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 12 — 14) wherein it was alleged that he knowingly committed acts of sexual penetration against the victim by sexual intercourse and fellatio and caused great bodily harm. He was sentenced to concurrent 10-year terms of imprisonment.

Defendant raises the following issues on appeal: (1) that his conviction must be reversed because the jury instructions omitted an essential element of the crime, knowledge, which had been charged in the indictment; (2) that the prosecutor’s final argument was improper; and (3) that the trial court erred by refusing defendant’s tendered jury instruction on battery.

At trial, the victim, 17-year-old Denise McKinnes, testified that at about 5:25 a.m., on May 26, 1986, she was at a bus stop in Elgin awaiting a bus to St. Charles where she worked. The bus was late, and she accepted a ride from a stranger, later determined to be defendant. They drove first to an apartment complex where defendant said his girlfriend lived. McKinnes then went with defendant into a nearby house.

After they talked for a half hour, defendant began looking through her purse and wrote down her name and address. When she asked for the purse back and told him she wanted to leave, defendant struck her in the mouth. He then told her that they would play a game and she should disrobe. He threatened to hit her again and forced her to remove her clothes. She was afraid, and consented to several acts of sexual intercourse and was forced to perform fellatio on defendant. Eventually, defendant let her leave the house and he drove off. She wrote down the license plate number and called the police and her parents.

Other witnesses corroborated her prompt complaint of being raped and that she had a swollen lip. Children of defendant’s girlfriend testified that on the morning in question, while their mother was working, defendant brought a girl to their house. They were in bed in a different room, but heard crying and mumbling. While he presented several nonoccurrence witnesses, defendant did not testify.

Defendant’s first appellate contention is that the mental state for the offense of aggravated criminal sexual assault, not being expressly included in the statute defining the offense, includes any mental state defined in sections 4 — 4, 4 — 5, or 4 — 6 of the Criminal Code of 1961 (111. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, pars. 4 — 4, 4 — 5, 4 — 6). As the indictment here alleges a mental state of knowledge (111. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 4 — 5), defendant contends that this mental state is an element of the offense and that the trial court erred in not setting forth this mental state in the issues instruction given to the jury.

Defendant failed to object to the instructions tendered by the State, to raise the issue in his post-trial motion, or to offer an alternative instruction. A defendant who fails either to object at trial or raise an issue in a written post-trial motion has waived the issue. (People v. Enoch (1988), 122 Ill. 2d 176, 186.) Furthermore, a party may not raise the failure to give an instruction unless he tendered it at trial. (People v. Berry (1984), 99 Ill. 2d 499, 460 N.E.2d 742.) The issue is waived in this case.

The interests of justice, however, demand that the waiver rule be modified in criminal cases where necessary to ensure the fundamental fairness of the trial. (People v. Ogunsola (1981), 87 Ill. 2d 216, 222, 429 N.E.2d 861.) This is true in the case of jury instructions where the failure of the court to properly instruct will result in grave error or the denial of fundamental fairness in a factually close case. (People v. Huckstead (1982), 91 Ill. 2d 536, 544, 440 N.E.2d 1248; see 107 Ill. 2d R. 451(c).) Furthermore, fundamental fairness requires that the trial court give certain basic instructions, including instructions on the elements of the offense. (Ogunsola, 87 Ill. 2d at 222, 429 N.E.2d at 864.) The failure to correctly inform the jury of the elements of the crime charged is error so grave and fundamental that the waiver rule should not apply. (Ogunsola, 87 Ill. 2d at 222, 429 N.E.2d at 864.) This, however, is not the case here.

The crime of aggravated criminal sexual assault, formerly constituting the crime of rape, is a general intent crime and does not require the allegation of a specific mental state. (People v. Gold (1967), 38 Ill. 2d 510, 516, 232 N.E.2d 702.) An indictment charging an accused is not defective for failure to allege the defendant’s mental state where the statute defining the offense charged did not include a specific mental state. People v. Thompson (1984), 125 Ill. App. 3d 665, 670-74, 466 N.E.2d 380.

Defendant argues, however, that in People v. Valley Steel Products Co. (1978), 71 Ill. 2d 408, 375 N.E.2d 1297, our supreme court held that an indictment is defective where it fails to incorporate a mental state as prescribed by section 4 — 3(a) of the Criminal Code of 1961 (111. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 4 — 3(a)). Examination of the cases cited in Valley Steel Products indicates only that where the statutory definition of an offense includes a mental state with which the act is committed as an element of the offense, that mental state must be alleged in the charging instruction to meet the requirements of section 111 — 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (111. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 111 — 3). We do not believe the court intended to expand that well-established rule.

In any event, the problem is not that the indictment here failed to allege a mental state set forth in the statute. Rather, the aggravated criminal sexual assault statute does not contain a mental state and, nevertheless, the indictment alleged the mental state of knowledge. Thus, defendant contends that the issues instruction should have set forth that knowledge must be proved.

This court has recently held in People v. Ortiz (1987), 155 Ill. App. 3d 786, 508 N.E.2d 490, that it is not error to fad to instruct á jury on a specific mental state, where aggravated criminal sexual assault is charged even though the indictment alleged that defendant “intentionally committed an act of sexual penetration.” (155 Ill. App. 3d at 792, 508 N.E.2d at 494.) An offense involving sexual penetration is a general intent crime, and a mental state of intent, knowledge, or recklessness would be implied to satisfy the general intent requirement. (155 Ill. App. 3d at 792, 508 N.E.2d at 494.) Moreover, the approved jury instructions relating to sex offenses demonstrate that instructions defining general intent offenses need not set forth a specific mental state. 155 Ill. App. 3d at 792, 508 N.E.2d at 494; see Illinois Páttern Jury Instructions, Criminal, Nos. 11.31, 11.32, 11.33, 11.34 (2d ed. Supp. 1987).

In the present case, the indictment charged that defendant knowingly committed an act of sexual penetration.

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Bluebook (online)
526 N.E.2d 397, 171 Ill. App. 3d 380, 122 Ill. Dec. 138, 1988 Ill. App. LEXIS 874, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-leonard-illappct-1988.