People v. Taylor

742 N.E.2d 357, 252 Ill. Dec. 107, 318 Ill. App. 3d 464, 2000 Ill. App. LEXIS 984
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided December 22, 2000·No. 1-99-1253·Published·Cited by 19 cases

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE QUINN

delivered the opinion of the court:

At a jury trial, defendant Tyrez Taylor was found guilty of home invasion, armed robbery, and residential burglary, but was found not guilty of first degree murder. Thereafter, the trial court sentenced defendant to concurrent terms of 24 years of imprisonment on the charges of armed robbery and home invasion, and four years on the charge of residential burglary.

On appeal, defendant claims that (1) his conviction on the home invasion charge must be vacated because the crime was not committed in the “dwelling place of another” or, in the alternative, because the victim gave a codefendant permission to enter the apartment; (2) his conviction on the residential burglary charge must be vacated because his codefendant was a resident of the apartment involved and because the apartment was no longer a “dwelling place” after the victim was dead; (3) the jury’s verdicts were legally inconsistent where the jury acquitted him of first degree murder but found him guilty of armed robbery; and (4) his sentence is disproportionate, in violation of fundamental fairness, where an equally culpable codefendant pled guilty to a more serious offense and received a lesser sentence. We affirm the judgment of the trial court as to the residential burglary and armed robbery counts and reverse the judgment of the trial court as to the home invasion count.

The only account of the events occurring in the early morning hours of August 15, 1995, was presented to the jury from a statement given by defendant while he was in custody at the Area Two police station and published through Assistant State’s Attorney Sharon Opryszek at trial. According to defendant’s statement, early in the morning on Tuesday, August 15, 1995, defendant was sitting on the front porch of his girlfriend Jackie’s apartment at 10749 South Prairie with Jackie, Edward Capíes, and Shanika, the mother of Capíes’ child. At approximately 4:30 a.m., Brian Heath joined defendant and the others on the porch and began complaining that Raymond Winters had accused Heath of stealing from him. In his statement, defendant indicated that he knew that Heath had been “staying with” Winters at 10810 South Calumet “for a while.” Heath showed defendant and Capíes a .38-caliber revolver, which was loaded with five rounds, and defendant watched Heath put the revolver in the waistband of his pants. Heath, Capíes, and defendant then went to Winters’ apartment building at 10810 South Calumet.

When the men arrived at Winters’ apartment building, defendant and Capíes stood outside an apartment located behind Winters’ apartment. Heath, however, walked to Winters’ bedroom window and called out Winters’ name. Moments later, Winters, who was nude, opened the door and let Heath into the apartment. According to defendant’s statement, after a minute or two, defendant and Capíes heard the sound of a gunshot coming from inside Winters’ apartment and both men ran to a second-floor apartment at 10748 South Prairie.

Three to five minutes after defendant and Capíes arrived at 10748 South Prairie, Heath also arrived there and rang the bell to gain entrance into the building. Defendant and Capíes went down the stairs to open the door for Heath, who entered the stairwell and stated, “I told you niggers I ain’t no ho. I’m wild hundreds.” Defendant’s statement indicated that “wild hundreds” was understood by defendant to mean “crazy.” According to the statement, Heath was laughing and smiling. Once the men entered the apartment, Heath took a watch, a gold neck chain with an “S” medallion, a ring, and some cash out of his pockets. Heath gave the neck chain to defendant and the ring to Capíes, then gave the two men some of the cash. Heath then began bragging that Winters was naked when he answered the door and that Heath pointed the gun at Winters’ head and pulled the trigger. Heath further boasted that he took Winters’ money and jewelry from a table and used a shirt to cover the doorknob so he would not leave fingerprints when he left. After Heath made these statements, the three men slept on the floor of the apartment for “a couple of hours.”

According to defendant’s statement, when the men awoke they went back across the street to Jackie’s front porch, where defendant told Jackie that the three men were going to Evergreen Plaza on 95th and Western. The statement reads that Heath bought new clothes for everyone at Evergreen Plaza, then Heath bought some alcoholic beverages, and all three men returned to the apartment at 10748 South Prairie. At the apartment, defendant, Heath, and Capíes drank, showered and changed their clothes. Then, they walked around outside for a while before returning to 10748 South Prairie.

In the statement, defendant indicated that early Wednesday morning, August 16, 1995, Heath left to get Winters’ car, a beige Chevy Impala. Defendant, Capíes, and two other individuals were standing in front of Jackie’s apartment when Heath drove past them in Winters’ car. When Heath returned, he left the car and went to a party with an individual referred to as “Chubby.” According to the statement, defendant later found out that Heath and “Chubby” took the gun used to shoot Winters and threw it into a sewer.

After Heath left, the statement indicates that defendant, accompanied by Capíes, drove the car to two different houses, then drove to 27th and Prairie to visit his cousins. Defendant, Capíes, and defendant’s cousins got drunk together, then defendant drove one of his cousins and Capíes back to Jackie’s apartment. There, defendant and Jackie argued and Jackie took Winters’ chain from defendant and threw it in the bushes. Defendant, Capíes, and “Chubby” left Jackie’s apartment to put more gas in Winters’ car, then defendant drove alone to a friend’s house on Yates where he spent the night. According to defendant’s statement, on Thursday, August 17,1995, at approximately 11:30 a.m., defendant left Winters’ car in the alley behind the apartment at 10748 South Prairie.

Ishna Davis, who was dating Heath in August of 1995, testified that she saw Heath and defendant exiting Winters’ apartment complex carrying bags of clothes at approximately 4 p.m. on either Tuesday, August 15, or Wednesday, August 16. Davis testified that Heath and defendant got into a four-door “yellowish Chevy” and put the bags in the car. When Davis approached Heath and defendant, she saw a beeper and a gold chain with an “S” on top of one of the bags. Approximately one-half hour later, Davis saw Heath and defendant in the same four-door Chevy at the intersection of Calumet and Forest Streets. Davis testified that Heath was driving the car and defendant was in the front passenger seat. Davis stated that she leaned into the car to talk to Heath and saw the brown handle of what might have been a gun sticking out from underneath the driver’s seat. Davis also testified that she saw defendant putting on the gold chain with an “S” that she had seen on top of the bag earlier.

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People v. Taylor, 742 N.E.2d 357, 252 Ill. Dec. 107, 318 Ill. App. 3d 464, 2000 Ill. App. LEXIS 984 (Ill. Ct. App. 2000).

742 N.E.2d 357 (People v. Taylor) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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