People v. Ware

2023 IL App (1st) 220579-U
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 20, 2023
Docket1-22-0579
StatusUnpublished

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Bluebook
People v. Ware, 2023 IL App (1st) 220579-U (Ill. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

2023 IL App (1st) 22-0579-U Order filed: April 20, 2023

FIRST DISTRICT FOURTH DIVISION

No. 1-22-0579

NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1). ______________________________________________________________________________

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. 09 CR 13639 ) EMMANUEL WARE, ) Honorable ) Mary Margaret Brosnahan, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, presiding. ______________________________________________________________________________

JUSTICE ROCHFORD delivered the judgment of the court. Justices Hoffman and Martin concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

¶1 Held: We affirm the trial court’s denial of defendant’s motion for leave to file a second successive postconviction petition for failure to establish prejudice. The sentencing court gave insignificant weight to two prior AUUW convictions that were later vacated and greater sentences did not result.

¶2 Defendant-appellant, Emmanuel Ware, appeals from the denial of his motion for leave to

file a second successive postconviction petition under the Post-Conviction Hearing Act (Act) (725

ILCS 122-1 et seq. (West 2020)). On appeal, defendant contends that he established cause and

prejudice where the trial court, in sentencing defendant, relied on two convictions for aggravated

unlawful use of a weapon (AUUW) that were later vacated as unconstitutional. We affirm. No. 1-22-0579

¶3 In defendant’s direct appeal, we set forth a detailed background of this case. See People v.

Ware, 2014 IL App (1st) 120485. We present only those facts which are relevant to this appeal

including a detailed recitation of the sentencing hearing.

¶4 Defendant and codefendant, Anthony Johnson, were tried by a jury on various charges

including six counts of armed robbery with a firearm. At trial, the evidence established that, on

July 10, 2009, at around 7 p.m., defendant and codefendant, armed with guns, entered a crowded

barber and beauty salon (salon). Defendant pointed his gun at a customer and ordered everyone

else present to get down on the floor and give up their belongings. Complying with defendant’s

commands, codefendant collected property and money from six individuals in the salon. During

the incident, a woman with a young boy approached the salon. Defendant pulled the boy into the

salon, separating the child from the woman. The jurors viewed a surveillance video depicting the

incident. They found defendant guilty on the six counts of armed robbery with a firearm.

¶5 Defendant’s convictions for armed robbery with a firearm in violation of section 18-2(a)(2)

of the Criminal Code of 1961 (Code) (720 ILCS 5/18-2(a)(1) (West 2008)) and as a Class X

offense, carried a sentencing range of 6 to 30 years’ imprisonment. Id. § 18-2(b); 730 ILCS 5/5-8-

1(a)(3) (West 2012). Defendant was also subject to a mandatory firearm enhancement of 15 years’

imprisonment. 720 ILCS 5/18-2(b) (West 2012). A Class X offense is subject to an enhancement

if a defendant has a prior Class X conviction. See 730 ILCS 5/5-5-3.2(b)(1) (West 2012). The trial

court has discretion to impose consecutive sentences where there is a need “to protect the public

from further criminal conduct.” Id. § 5-8-4(c)(1).

¶6 After denying defendant’s motion for a new trial, the trial court held a sentencing hearing.

The evidence as to defendant’s criminal history, including the presentence investigation report

(PSI), showed that he had two juvenile convictions (possession of controlled substances and

2 No. 1-22-0579

trespass to vehicle) and four adult convictions. The adult convictions were for AUUW in 2003,

AUUW in 2004, aggravated kidnapping with a firearm in 2006, and possession of cannabis in

2009. Defendant received a sentence of 78 months on the aggravated kidnapping conviction and

was on parole when he committed the six armed robberies.

¶7 The State presented evidence as to the circumstances surrounding defendant’s aggravated

kidnapping conviction through the testimony of the investigating/arresting police officers. On

September 3, 2005, defendant was one of three individuals, two armed with handguns, who forced

the victim out of his automobile. The offenders took the victim’s jewelry and then forced him into

another vehicle. Defendant was in the back seat with the victim while another offender drove this

vehicle away. The third offender fled with the victim’s automobile. The police later stopped the

vehicle occupied by defendant and the victim for erratic driving. The police discovered defendant

and the victim struggling over defendant’s handgun in the back seat. After the gun discharged,

defendant stuck his arm through the car window and dropped the gun onto the sidewalk.

¶8 In discussing the armed robbery convictions, the State stressed that the six victims testified

at trial to being “terrorized” from the moment defendant and co-defendant entered the salon. The

salon was crowded with both adults and children. Defendant “dragged” a young boy into the salon

and threw him to the ground. The witnesses testified that defendant “was the one calling all the

shots” during the armed robberies. The State asserted that defendant hides behind a gun and

victimizes people and takes their belongings. The State also argued that defendant had “two gun

convictions and then he uses the gun *** to kidnap somebody and take their car.” The State urged

the court to impose a sentence “much higher than the minimum” as he had committed acts of terror

against the victims in the salon.

3 No. 1-22-0579

¶9 In mitigation, defense counsel argued that defendant was young and “[h]opefully he’ll learn

something through this trial,” and defendant’s mother and his sister had been in court every day.

Defense counsel said that “thankfully” no one was injured during the armed robberies. Defendant

chose not to speak in allocution.

¶ 10 Before announcing defendant’s sentence, the trial court stated that it would consider the

statutory factors in aggravation and mitigation (730 ILCS 5/5-5-3.1, 3.2 (West 2012)), the

arguments, the testimony, and the PSI. The court began by addressing each statutory factor in

mitigation.

¶ 11 First, the court considered whether defendant’s conduct neither caused nor threatened

serious physical harm and found:

“short of murder I can’t think of anything else that could have been a more horrific set of

circumstances to go through than what all of the victims endured in this case. People are in

after work. There was many, many people in there, as evidenced on the videotape and

certainly the videotape was chilling, chilling to watch from the moment it started as you

saw [defendant and codefendant] walking down the hallway about to enter until they left

and the case was over, chilling how it showed what each and every one of these folks went

through at the [salon].”

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People v. Aguilar
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People v. Ware
2014 IL App (1st) 120485 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2014)
People v. Smith
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2012 IL 112214 (Illinois Supreme Court, 2012)
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People v. Bailey
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Bluebook (online)
2023 IL App (1st) 220579-U, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-ware-illappct-2023.