People v. McTiller

2020 IL App (1st) 162663-U
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided June 11, 2020·No. 1-16-2663·Unpublished

Opinion

2020 IL App (1st) 162663-U No. 1-16-2663

Order filed June 11, 2020 Fourth Division

NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and may not be cited as precedent by any party except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

IN THE

APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of

Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Cook County.

)

v. ) No. 14 CR 8756 )

ANDY McTILLER, ) Honorable ) Thomas J. Byrne,

Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, presiding.

JUSTICE LAMPKIN delivered the judgment of the court.

Presiding Justice Gordon and Justice Burke concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

¶1 Held: (1) The prosecution did not improperly shift the burden of proof to defendant when it discussed his subpoena power in rebuttal closing argument. (2) Defendant’s 16-

year sentence for being an armed habitual criminal is not excessive. (3) The trial court erred in imposing an extended-term sentence on defendant’s conviction for reckless discharge of a firearm; remand for resentencing is required. (4) We also remand for defendant to file a motion challenging his fines and fees under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 472(e).

¶2 Defendant Andy McTiller was convicted of being an armed habitual criminal (720 ILCS 5/24-1.7 (West 2018)) and recklessly discharging a firearm (720 ILCS 5/24-1.5 (West 2018)). The

trial court sentenced him to 16 years in prison on the armed habitual criminal conviction and imposed a concurrent, extended-term sentence of four years on the reckless discharge conviction. The court also ordered defendant to pay various fines and fees.

¶3 On appeal, defendant contends that the State improperly shifted the burden of proof by discussing his power to subpoena witnesses in its rebuttal closing argument. He also argues that his 16-year sentence for being an armed habitual criminal is excessive and that the trial court erred in imposing an extended-term sentence on the reckless discharge conviction. Finally, defendant asserts that the trial court miscalculated his fines and fees and failed to award him the proper amount of presentence custody credit.

¶4 For the following reasons, we reject defendant’s contention that the State improperly shifted the burden of proof during rebuttal closing argument and thus affirm defendant’s convictions. We also affirm defendant’s 16-year sentence on the armed habitual criminal conviction, finding no abuse of discretion by the trial court. But we vacate defendant’s extended- term sentence for reckless discharge of a firearm and remand to the trial court for resentencing to a non-extended term. Finally, under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 472(e) (eff. May 17, 2019), we also remand so that defendant may file a motion challenging his fines and fees in the trial court. 1

¶5 I. BACKGROUND

¶6 In May 2014, three police officers saw defendant repeatedly firing a gun on a residential street. The State charged defendant with being an armed habitual criminal and recklessly discharging a firearm. “A person commits the offense of being an armed habitual criminal if he

1 In adherence with the requirements of Illinois Supreme Court Rule 352(a) (eff. July 1, 2018), this appeal has been resolved without oral argument upon the entry of a separate written order.

*** possesses *** any firearm after having been convicted *** of 2 or more” qualifying felony offenses. 720 ILCS 5/24-1.7(a) (West 2018). “A person commits reckless discharge of a firearm by discharging a firearm in a reckless manner which endangers the bodily safety of an individual.” 720 ILCS 5/24-1.5(a) (West 2018).

¶7 At trial, Officers Robert Waterstraat, Kelly Bongiovanni, and Terence Huels testified that they were patrolling the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago in plain clothes and an unmarked police car on an evening in May 2014. At 9:00 p.m., as the officers were traveling west on 69th Street toward Paulina Street, Officer Waterstraat saw three juveniles run across the road and into a convenience store on the northeast corner of the intersection. Officer Waterstraat described the area as a mix of storefront businesses and residential housing, with Paulina Street being primarily residential. Shortly thereafter, the officers heard three or four gunshots, which appeared to come from an area southwest of the officers. As the officers proceeded through the intersection, they saw a man standing on the sidewalk on the east side of Paulina Street, straddling a bicycle and firing a handgun with an extended magazine. Each of the officers identified defendant as the gunman.

¶8 Officer Huels made a U-turn on 69th Street, cut through a vacant lot, and headed toward defendant. When defendant saw the officers’ vehicle approaching, he lowered his weapon and began pedaling his bicycle south on the sidewalk. Officer Huels attempted to cut defendant off at an alley that intersected with the sidewalk, but defendant made it past the alley in front of the officers’ vehicle. Officer Huels then made a right turn, drove onto the sidewalk, and continued to follow defendant. When defendant looked over his shoulder, his bicycle wobbled and the front bumper of the officers’ vehicle clipped the bicycle’s rear tire, causing defendant to fall off the

bicycle. Officer Huels hit the brakes, swerved to the left, and crashed into several metal poles that lined a vacant lot to the south of the alley.

¶9 Officer Waterstraat exited the vehicle and chased defendant on foot as he continued to flee south on Paulina. Officer Waterstraat eventually caught defendant and tackled him to the ground. Defendant struggled to escape, but Officer Waterstraat subdued him with an open-handed strike to the head before handcuffing him. As Officer Waterstraat waited for back-up to arrive, between 40 and 50 people began to emerge from their homes and approach the scene. Fearful that the onlookers might try to help defendant escape, Officer Waterstraat instructed them to stay back. When other officers arrived soon thereafter, Officer Waterstraat stood defendant up, did a protective pat-down search for weapons, and placed defendant in the back of a marked police vehicle. Officer Waterstraat testified that he and his partners did not talk to any witnesses at the scene because no one was cooperative, but he conceded that none of the police reports documented that fact.

¶ 10 Officer Bongiovanni testified that, as defendant initially fled from the officers on his bicycle, she observed him appear to throw something into a small, fenced-in yard. After the crash, while Officer Waterstraat pursued defendant, Officer Bongiovanni went to the yard and saw a handgun with an extended magazine lying in the grass. Officer Bongiovanni noticed several people on a porch behind the apartment building next to the yard and asked them if they were okay. She then entered the yard and found a loaded, semiautomatic handgun. She later recovered seven spent cartridge casings in the area where the officers had observed defendant firing the gun.

¶ 11 Officer Richard McCallum, a uniformed officer who arrived on the scene after defendant had been placed in custody, testified that he removed defendant from the marked police vehicle

and performed a custodial search, during which he found a spent cartridge casing in the front pocket of defendant’s sweatshirt. A forensic scientist specializing in firearm identification testified that she examined and tested the handgun that Officer Bongiovanni recovered in the yard and the cartridge casings recovered at the scene and in defendant’s pocket and concluded that all of the recovered casings had been fired from the recovered handgun. No fingerprints suitable for comparison were found on the gun or the casings, but an expert in fingerprint recovery testified that finding fingerprints on such items is uncommon.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

People v. McTiller, 2020 IL App (1st) 162663-U (Ill. Ct. App. 2020).

2020 IL App (1st) 162663-U (People v. McTiller) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

United States v. Susan M. Miller
276 F.3d 370 (Seventh Circuit, 2002)
People v. Kliner
705 N.E.2d 850 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1998)
People v. Williams
730 N.E.2d 561 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2000)
People v. Glasper
917 N.E.2d 401 (Illinois Supreme Court, 2009)
People v. Baugh
832 N.E.2d 903 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2005)
People v. Phillips
538 N.E.2d 500 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1989)
People v. Blue
724 N.E.2d 920 (Illinois Supreme Court, 2000)
People v. Jordan
469 N.E.2d 569 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1984)
People v. Fern
723 N.E.2d 207 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1999)
People v. Wheeler
871 N.E.2d 728 (Illinois Supreme Court, 2007)
People v. Bell
751 N.E.2d 1143 (Illinois Supreme Court, 2001)
People v. Beasley
893 N.E.2d 1032 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2008)
People v. Alexander
940 N.E.2d 1062 (Illinois Supreme Court, 2010)
People v. Ware
2014 IL App (1st) 120485 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2014)
People v. Kelley
2015 IL App (1st) 132782 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2015)
People v. Sauseda
2016 IL App (1st) 140134 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2016)
People v. Cook
2018 IL App (1st) 142134 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2018)
People v. Taylor
2019 IL App (1st) 160173 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2020)
People v. Williams
2020 IL App (1st) 163417 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2020)