People v. Todd

607 N.E.2d 1189, 154 Ill. 2d 57, 180 Ill. Dec. 676, 1992 Ill. LEXIS 210
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 4, 1992
Docket70470
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 607 N.E.2d 1189 (People v. Todd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Todd, 607 N.E.2d 1189, 154 Ill. 2d 57, 180 Ill. Dec. 676, 1992 Ill. LEXIS 210 (Ill. 1992).

Opinion

JUSTICE HEIPLE

delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant, Robert Todd, was indicted on five counts of first degree murder. The defendant waived his right to a jury trial and Clinton County Circuit Judge Dennis Huber found the defendant guilty on all five counts. The defendant additionally waived his right to be sentenced by a jury, and the circuit court found that the defendant was eligible for the death penalty since the murder was committed while committing robbery and while attempting to commit aggravated criminal sexual assault. The circuit court found that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors and sentenced the defendant to death. Defendant took a direct appeal to this court. Ill. Const. 1970, art. VI, §4(b); Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 38, par. 9-l(i); 134 Ill. 2d Rules 603, 606.

FACTS

At 11 a.m. on July 12, 1989, 14-year-old Natalie Shelton discovered the body of her mother, Sandy Shelton, in their home in Beckemeyer, Illinois. Noticing a strong odor of natural gas, Natalie went over to the stove and turned off all burners. Natalie also saw a container of vegetable oil on the floor in the living room and several burning candles. Emergency paramedics arrived at the scene a few minutes later and found the victim’s nude body lying face up between the living room and the bedroom. The emergency personnel also noticed a heavy concentration of gas in the home, as well as several burning candles.

Crime scene technician Alva Bush arrived at the victim’s house at approximately 12:30 p.m. Bush inspected the victim’s body and found that she was nude except for a green blouse tied around her neck that was intertwined with a necklace, two shoestrings tied to her right wrist, and a black watch on her left wrist. The victim had received injuries to the face and stab wounds to the chest. The body appeared to have a shiny, oily substance on it and the victim had small red droplets of wax spread over her body from the shoulders down. The technician also observed feces between the victim’s legs, both on the floor and on her body. The victim’s bra was lying near her right shoulder with a portion of the bra tom off lying north of the victim’s head. East of the victim’s feet were a pair of underpants and a pair of blue jeans that were turned inside out. One hundred dollars was found inside a jeans pocket. Bush further found a red candle and a Miller Lite beer can underneath a blanket which was partially covering the victim’s left foot. Another can of Miller Lite was found on an ashtray table and a six-pack of Miller Lite with two cans missing was found in the victim’s refrigerator.

A pathologist, Dr. Steven Nuemberger, performed an autopsy on Sandy Shelton on July 12, 1989. After removing the tightly wound blouse from the victim’s neck, he noticed a linear depression where the blouse had been. He also noticed hemorrhaging to the muscles on either side of the neck, as well as hemorrhaging beneath the mucosa which reflected that the victim’s trachea had been crushed. In his autopsy report, Dr. Nuernberger listed strangulation as the primary cause of the death.

Dr. Nuernberger also noticed five stab wounds down the left side of the victim’s body. Four of these stab wounds penetrated the victim’s chest wall. One stab wound went through the victim’s lung, diaphragm, and stomach and ultimately cut the inferior vena cava. According to Dr. Nuernberger, the stab wound to the inferior vena cava would prove fatal to most human beings. In his opinion, the stab wounds were caused by a sharp knife, and these wounds would be put in the category of “making sure the victim was dead.” The small amount of blood present in the chest cavity and abdomen indicated to Dr. Nuernberger that the victim had been stabbed at the time of death or shortly thereafter.

Dr. Nuernberger also observed bruising and swelling around the victim’s left eye, left lower lip, and cheekbone. There were also three subgaleal hemorrhages in the left and right temporal area of the skull which indicated blunt trauma to the victim’s head. In his opinion, these head injuries were caused by a minimum of five separate blows to the head. Dr. Nuernberger also noted bruises or contusions on the victim’s wrist, right clavicle, and the lateral top of her breast. The bruise to the wrist was consistent with someone’s having grabbed the wrist very tightly, and the bruise to the chest indicated a blow to the chest. The victim had also received three superficial cuts across the abdomen which appeared to have been caused by a knife.

Dr. Nuernberger also testified that the fecal matter found on the victim’s body indicated that she had been standing when she was suffocated. Upon examination of the wax droplets, he opined that their appearance indicated that they had been applied after death. Dr. Nuernberger also stated that the victim’s blood-alcohol level had peaked at 0.48 during the evening, but had declined to 0.35 at the time of her death. Finally, Dr. Nuernberger indicated that the vaginal smears he took showed no identifiable presence of sperm, and he detected no evidence of trauma to the vagina or rectum. However, he further testified that such findings do not rule out the possibility that a sexual assault in fact occurred.

The following testimony was relevant to the victim’s and defendant’s activities on July 11 and July 12, 1989. At approximately 1 p.m. on July 11, the victim stopped in to visit her mother and showed her mother a black purse that she had just purchased. A bartender at the Sports Page Bar & Grill, Bruce Davis, testified that at about midnight the victim entered the bar, sat at the bar, ordered a Miller Lite, and paid for the beer with money she obtained from the purse that she was carrying. Shortly thereafter, the defendant entered the bar, sat down next to the victim, ordered a draft beer, and started talking to the victim. The victim and the defendant then left the bar together at approximately 12:30 a.m. They both walked to their vehicles; the defendant made a U-tum and stopped his vehicle on the street, while the victim pulled up beside him, and they both turned south traveling in the same direction. A patron at the Sports Page Bar & Grill, Merle Kennett, testified to essentially the same facts elicited from Davis. Both Davis and Kennett described the defendant’s car as dented and beat-up and both witnesses identified the defendant in a lineup as the man they had seen in the bar that night.

Thereafter, at approximately 12:45 a.m., a bartender at the Main Street Saloon, Linda Berry, saw the victim and the defendant enter the establishment. The victim asked the bartender for a magic marker and the defendant then proceeded to write on the saloon’s wall, which was something patrons typically did at the saloon. The victim then ordered a six-pack of Miller Lite to go; then she and the defendant left the saloon together.

Scott Nielson testified that he had shared a cell with the defendant in the Clinton County jail. He stated that defendant had told him that he was in jail because he had met a girl in a bar, they had a beer, and then they went to another bar. Defendant said that they had danced a little bit, had a couple of drinks, and that he had signed his name underneath hers on the wall of one of the bars. They then got some beer and went back to her house. At her house, they walked in, and he grabbed a beer and sat down.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
607 N.E.2d 1189, 154 Ill. 2d 57, 180 Ill. Dec. 676, 1992 Ill. LEXIS 210, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-todd-ill-1992.