People v. Maldonado

550 N.E.2d 1011, 193 Ill. App. 3d 1062, 140 Ill. Dec. 886, 1989 Ill. App. LEXIS 1943
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 21, 1989
Docket1-87-2428
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 550 N.E.2d 1011 (People v. Maldonado) 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. Maldonado, 550 N.E.2d 1011, 193 Ill. App. 3d 1062, 140 Ill. Dec. 886, 1989 Ill. App. LEXIS 1943 (Ill. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

JUSTICE LINN

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Roy Maldonado, was convicted of two counts of murder (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, eh. 38, pars. 9 — 1(a)(1), (a)(2)) following a jury trial in the circuit court of Cook County. The trial judge sentenced defendant to the penitentiary for two concurrent terms of natural life.

Defendant now appeals, contending he did not receive a fair trial because: (1) the trial judge refused to suppress involuntary statements he made to the police; (2) defense counsel, during discovery, was not informed where a State’s witness lived or worked; (3) the trial judge restricted the scope of the cross-examination of a State’s witness; (4) a portion of a tape-recorded telephone conversation was excluded from evidence; (5) the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt his guilt; (6) the prosecutor made several improper and prejudicial remarks throughout the trial; (7) the jury did not have the tape-recorded telephone conversation in the jury room during its deliberations; and (8) the trial judge refused defendant’s proffered jury instruction.

We affirm.

Background

The record contains the following pertinent facts. The victims, Theresa Musto and Vincent Pagano, lived together at 4520 North River Road in Schiller Park, Illinois. On April 7, 1982, their bodies were found in their home, on the living room floor with pillows and sofa cushions lying over them.

The victims were fatally shot. Sheriff’s police found live bullets and .38 caliber spent cartridge casings in the living room and kitchen. Additionally, several areas in the apartment were ransacked.

On March 3, 1983, Chicago police officer Phillip Handzel questioned defendant’s brother Fidel and a woman regarding another shooting. Handzel asked the woman for identification. When she opened her purse, the officer saw three guns. They were arrested; car keys were discovered in a pat-down search of Fidel. A search of their automobile uncovered a .38 caliber semiautomatic pistol. Subsequent testing of the pistol, and of the bullets recovered from the bodies of Musto and Pagano and from their apartment, determined that the pistol was the murder weapon in the Musto and Pagano shooting.

On March 6, 1983, Detective Thomas West arrested defendant as a suspect in another shooting (hereinafter the Rojas murder). After being advised of his Miranda rights, he was questioned first on the Rojas murder and then on the Musto and Pagano murders. Present for the interrogation were Detectives West, Robert O’Neill, and Joseph Carroñe. Defendant had previously been an informer for Detective O’Neill. Defendant refused to talk about the Rojas murder because his brother was involved and in custody.

Defendant, however, did make statements regarding the Musto and Pagano murders. He stated that he was at the scene when the shooting occurred. He and an acquaintance, “Crazy Ricky” Berrera, went to the couple’s apartment to sell them approximately $35,000 worth of narcotics and a machine gun. Defendant left the apartment and went to their automobile to retrieve the narcotics. While he was away, Berrera had shot and killed Musto and Pagano. He and Berrera ran to the car and drove away. Defendant was afraid to take the gun away from Berrera. He dropped Berrera off at a bus stop.

Michael Van Amburgh, a special agent of the United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, questioned defendant on March 22, 1983. Defendant told the agent that he and family members purchased pistols, using different names, from a gun dealer in Ottawa, Illinois. Defendant stated that after he bought the pistols, he had them converted to fully automatic weapons equipped with silencers. Van Amburgh went to the gun dealer. He learned that defendant and family members did buy six or seven weapons. The serial number of one of the pistols they bought matched that of the pistol recovered from Fidel Maldonado’s car — the weapon in the Musto and Pagano murders.

Duane McQuiston was an inmate at Cook County jail with defendant. In 1983 and a part of 1984, he and defendant were assigned to the same tier in the jail and spent approximately 12 hours together per day. They discussed crime. Defendant boasted to McQuiston about making money, shooting people, and enjoying guns equipped with silencers. Defendant explained to McQuiston that one could stage a narcotics deal, where one could pose as selling cocaine and then rob the buyer of his money, or pose as buying cocaine and rob the seller of the narcotic. Defendant further told McQuiston how he had done this to Musto and Pagano. He explained to McQuiston that he and Berrera learned that Pagano had money for a cocaine deal, so they shot him and Musto also.

Defendant was indicted for the murder of Musto and Pagano; the cause was tried to a jury. On April 23, 1987, the jury convicted defendant as charged. At the sentencing hearing on July 23, the trial judge denied defendant’s post-trial motions. Defendant having waived a jury for the penalty phase of the trial, the trial judge heard the evidence in aggravation and mitigation. At the close of the evidence and arguments, the judge determined that defendant qualified for the death penalty. However, the trial judge ruled that imposing the death penalty on defendant would be inappropriate. Pursuant to statute, he sentenced defendant to the penitentiary for a natural life term on each conviction, to be served concurrently. Defendant appeals.

Opinion

I

Defendant claims that he did not receive a fair trial because his statements to the police were involuntary. Noting that he was an informer for Detective O’Neill, defendant contends that whatever information he provided to the police would not be used against him. Further, the detectives acknowledged this relationship. Defendant argues that he made the statement to the detectives as an informer.

An individual who is subjected to custodial police interrogation concerning matters that might tend to incriminate him is entitled to the procedural safeguards that the United States Supreme Court outlined in Miranda v. Arizona (1966), 384 U.S. 436, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694, 86 S. Ct. 1602. The person interrogated may waive these rights, but a heavy burden rests on the State to show that he waived his constitutional rights knowingly and intelligently. (384 U.S. at 475, 16 L. Ed. 2d at 724, 86 S. Ct. at 1628.) The trial court must initially determine whether defendant knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waived these rights (People v. Martin (1984), 102 Ill. 2d 412, 426, 466 N.E.2d 228, 234), based on a preponderance of the evidence. People v. King (1986), 109 Ill. 2d 514, 525, 488 N.E.2d 949, 955.

While the relationship of an interrogator to the person being interrogated is a relevant consideration in assessing a statement’s voluntariness, it is only one factor out of the totality of the circumstances. (People v. Wipfler (1977), 68 Ill.

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Bluebook (online)
550 N.E.2d 1011, 193 Ill. App. 3d 1062, 140 Ill. Dec. 886, 1989 Ill. App. LEXIS 1943, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-maldonado-illappct-1989.