People v. Miller

2025 IL App (1st) 250438
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided June 4, 2025·No. 1-25-0438·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

2025 IL App (1st) 250438

SECOND DIVISION June 4, 2025

No. 1-25-0438B

_____________________________________________________________________________

IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT ______________________________________________________________________________

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Cook County. ) v. ) No. 24CR1597 ) JAMIE MILLER, ) Honorable ) Maria Kuriakos-Ciesil, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge Presiding. _____________________________________________________________________________

JUSTICE McBRIDE delivered the judgment of the court with opinion. Justices Howse and Ellis concurred in the judgment and opinion.

OPINION

¶1 Defendant, Jamie Miller, appeals the trial court’s order revoking his pretrial release.

¶2 The record shows that defendant was arrested on or about January 18, 2024, and charged

with first degree murder in relation to the November 2023 death of the victim, Andrew Hulburt. A

detention hearing was held on March 6, 2024. The facts proffered at the hearing established that

defendant encountered the victim outside of a concert venue, and they engaged in a verbal dispute

during which the victim, who was intoxicated, called defendant a “b***.” According to the

defense, the victim—a white man—also uttered a racial slur at defendant—a black man. Defendant

punched the victim once about the head, and the victim fell backwards and struck the back of his No. 1-25-0438B

head on the sidewalk. The victim was transported to the hospital and “declared deceased.” The

medical examiner determined the cause of death to be homicide from a “vertebral artery

dissection.” When questioned by the court, the ASA stated that he was not sure if the medical

examiner was able to determine whether the vertebral artery dissection was caused by defendant’s

strike or the victim’s fall.

¶3 In ordering defendant’s detention, the trial court found that the proof was evident or

presumption great that defendant committed the offense of first degree murder, commenting that

defendant knew “that [his] fist [wa]s going to connect with the victim” and that while “defendant’s

intention may not have been to kill” the victim, he intended to “do bodily harm which resulted [in]

great bodily harm.”

¶4 On appeal, this court reversed the trial court’s order to detain defendant, noting that the

court’s comments “reflect[ed] a misunderstanding of the requirements for intentional and knowing

murder in Illinois.” Specifically, for defendant to be found guilty of first degree murder, the State

would have to prove that he either intended to kill or do great bodily harm to the victim, that he

knew his acts would cause the victim’s death (see 720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(1) (West 2022)) or that, in

performing the acts which caused the victim’s death, he knew that his acts created a strong

probability of death or great bodily harm to the victim (see id. § 9-1(a)(2)).

¶5 We explained that there “is a long-standing general rule in Illinois that death is not

ordinarily contemplated as a natural consequence of a blow or blows from a bare fist.” See People

v. Crenshaw, 298 Ill. 412, 414-17 (1921) (reversing murder conviction where defendant struck the

victim in the face with a clenched fist, knocking the victim down. “[S]triking of a blow with the

fist on the side of the face or head is not likely to be attended with dangerous or fatal consequences,

and no inference of an intent to kill is warranted from the circumstances disclosed by the proof in

2 No. 1-25-0438B

this case.”); People v. Mighell, 254 Ill. 53, 59 (1912) (reversing a defendant’s murder conviction

where the defendant punched the victim in the neck with a bare fist, fracturing the base of the

victim’s skull and causing a hemorrhage in the victim’s carotid artery: “[T]he defendant was guilty

of no more than manslaughter, and he should not, therefore, have been convicted of murder. ***

There is not the slightest reason *** to suppose that he contemplated the [deceased’s] death or

even any serious injury to him.”); People v. Gresham, 78 Ill. App. 3d 1003, 1007 (1979) (“death

is not a reasonable or probable consequence of a blow with a bare fist”); People v. Nibbe, 2016 IL

App (4th) 140363, ¶ 34 (reversing a defendant’s second degree murder conviction where the

defendant punched the victim once or twice in the face with a bare fist); People v. Yeoman, 2016

IL App (3d) 140324, ¶ 22 (“[T]here is no dispute in this case that defendant struck [the victim]

only one time in the face with his bare fist. That conduct alone is not the type of conduct that would

generally create a strong probability of death or great bodily harm to the victim. [Citation.]

Defendant, therefore, could not have knowledge that such a result was practically certain to

occur.”). Because “the record suggest[ed] that the court was unaware of the legal principles set

forth above, and applied an incorrect legal standard in evaluating the proffered facts,” we remanded

the matter to the trial court to reconsider whether defendant should be entitled to pretrial release

in light of the law described above.

¶6 Upon remand, the trial court granted defendant pretrial release on May 31, 2024, subject

to electronic monitoring. Neither a transcript from the hearing, nor a written order appear in the

record on appeal.

¶7 At some point thereafter, defendant was charged with a new “theft” offense, and the State

filed a petition to revoke defendant’s pretrial release, asserting that he had been charged with a

“new Felony or Class A misdemeanor.” Although the record also does not include a transcript or

3 No. 1-25-0438B

written order, the State’s petition was apparently denied after the court determined that the new

charge was based on an offense that was alleged to have occurred prior to the November 2023

offense at issue in this case, and accordingly, revocation of defendant’s pretrial release was not

warranted.

¶8 On February 6, 2025, the State filed another petition to revoke defendant’s pretrial release.

On the form order, the State checked boxes indicating that the “nature of [defendant’s] violation”

was “Violation or Sherriff’s EM” and “Other violation of pretrial release conditions.” The State

handwrote that “[d]efendant is a named offender in a sexual assault allegations [sic] that occurred

in his residence.”

¶9 The parties appeared before the court that day. The Assistant State’s Attorney (ASA)

reminded the court of the prior procedural history of the matter, and stated that the State’s

Attorney’s Office had recently received a “report” of

“a violation of conditions of pretrial release from the Cook County Sheriff's Office

for their electronic monitoring unit. In this report, there are allegations that this

defendant has been named an offender of a criminal sexual assault that took place

at his residence, which is also his host site, and that there is a 14-year old victim

who was sexually assaulted in this residence.

At this point it appears that this is still a pending investigation. Once the

sheriffs were made aware of this investigation, the defendant was re-incarcerated

due to the nature of the allegations, and after having a conversation with DCFS,

who [sic] was notified about these allegations, due to the fact that there are three

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