People v. Wilson

615 N.E.2d 1283, 246 Ill. App. 3d 311, 186 Ill. Dec. 226, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 967
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 29, 1993
Docket4-92-0218
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 615 N.E.2d 1283 (People v. Wilson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Wilson, 615 N.E.2d 1283, 246 Ill. App. 3d 311, 186 Ill. Dec. 226, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 967 (Ill. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE STEIGMANN

delivered the opinion of the court:

In September 1991, a jury found defendant, James Wilson, guilty of one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 38, par. 12 — 14(b)(2)) and one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 38, par. 12 — 16(c)(1)(i)) as to C.J., who was 41/2 years old in October 1990 when these crimes were committed. The jury also found defendant guilty of a second count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse as to his own child, A.J., who was eight years old in October 1990 when that crime was committed. The trial court later sentenced defendant to nine years in prison for the aggravated criminal sexual assault conviction and ordered defendant to serve that sentence consecutively to concurrent three-year prison terms the court imposed for the two aggravated criminal sexual abuse convictions.

Defendant appeals, making the following arguments: (1) the trial court improperly admitted hearsay statements that the State offered pursuant to section 115 — 10 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (Code) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 38, par. 115 — 10); (2) the court erred by admitting hearsay statements of the child complainant made to the State’s Attorney without considering their admissibility under section 115 — 10 of the Code; (3) the court erred by admitting evidence of defendant’s committing other criminal acts upon C.J.; (4) the court abused its discretion by not allowing expert testimony “concerning the unique problems associated with children of tender years in recounting instances of abuse and the problems associated with interviews by authorities”; and (5) the court erred by not conducting a hearing to determine whether one juror was “coerced” into convicting defendant.

We affirm.

I. Background

Around October 1988, C.J. (born January 22, 1986) and her parents, Susan and Bart Jones, moved next door to the house occupied by defendant and his family, including A.J. C.J. was no relation to defendant or anyone in his family. A.J. (born October 17, 1982) lived with Sue Wilson (her mother), defendant (her stepfather), and J.W. (her younger half brother and the son of defendant and Sue Wilson). Prior to and in October 1990, C.J. and A.J. often played together. Their parents also frequently sat outside at night and talked.

Defendant worked nights and stayed home during the day. On October 8, 1990, a school holiday (Columbus Day), A.J. asked C.J. to come over to her house to play. Mrs. Jones knew defendant would supervise them, so she allowed C.J. to do so, telling her to return home when A.J.’s mother got home for supper. When C.J. returned at around 5 p.m., Mrs. Jones noticed that she acted withdrawn and quiet. She asked C.J. if she had fun, and C.J. responded by shrugging her shoulders and saying, “I guess.” C.J. usually came home excited after she played with a friend, so Mrs. Jones asked her if anything was wrong. C.J. shook her head, and her mother continued to prepare supper.

However, C.J. still stayed next to her mother in the kitchen. Mrs. Jones asked several more questions, and C.J. eventually responded that she could not say what troubled her because “[i]t was a secret.” After further questioning, C.J. then responded that defendant would “ ‘whip her butt’ ” if she told. Despite Mrs. Jones’ reassurances that defendant would not hurt her, C.J. insisted that he would.

Mrs. Jones then assumed that C.J. got in trouble and that defendant had punished her, so she asked if C.J. had broken something at defendant’s house. C.J. responded, “ ‘It wasn’t nothing like that.’ ” Only then did it dawn on Mrs. Jones that some sort of abuse might have occurred. She thus took C.J. up to Mrs. Jones’ bedroom to talk. She asked C.J. if defendant did something wrong to her, and C.J. nodded that he had. After further questions, C.J. told her mother that “she had to take her pants off.” Mrs. Jones asked where J.W. and A.J. were, and C.J. said that defendant had told J.W. to stay in his room and play, and that A.J. was in defendant’s bedroom with C.J. and defendant. C.J. said that defendant closed the bedroom curtain because it faced the Jones’ living room.

C.J. continued that A.J. also stood naked in the room and cried. C.J. said that defendant had rubbed C.J.’s legs and played with her “privates,” indicating what she meant by pointing to her vagina. C.J. began to cry, started rubbing on her mouth, and told her mother that defendant forced her to put her mouth on his penis. She said that “it didn’t taste good at all.”

Based on this information, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) became involved in the case. Two days later, October 10, 1990, the State charged defendant with the multiple counts of sex offenses of which the jury later convicted him.

When C.J. took the witness stand at defendant’s trial, she initially did not want to testify about the events at issue. She first denied that anyone had ever touched her and then testified that she “forgot” that anything she “did not like” happened in defendant’s bedroom. Ultimately, however, when the prosecutor asked her if she had touched anyone, she testified that she had kissed defendant’s “privates” because defendant had told her to do so. She said that this occurred in defendant’s bedroom one day when she went to play at A.J.’s house. She added that when she did so, “[h]e told me to make it go up and down.” She also testified that defendant had kissed her on her privates and that A.J. had watched as these events occurred. When asked what A.J. did at the time, she responded that A.J. cried “[because she didn’t want to do it.” Finally, she added that defendant “[t]old me that if I told anybody, *** he would spank my butt.” C.J. testified that she had discussed these events with her mother and the prosecutor.

Over defense counsel’s repeated objections, C.J. also testified about another time when she went over to play with J.W. when A.J. was not home. She testified that, while she wore only her shirt, she kissed defendant “[o]n the private” and he kissed her “on the privates” in defendant’s bedroom. She added that when she kissed defendant’s privates, defendant again told her to “make [her] head go up and down.” After she finished, defendant then told her, “if I told anybody, he’d spank my butt.”

A.J. also had problems testifying. A.J. initially testified that she and C.J. almost never played together, saying that C.J. came over to play “[m]aybe a couple” of times. A.J. said that she went to play at C.J.’s house only once. When the prosecutor asked her if she could tell the jury what happened when C.J. came over to play, she first said that she forgot, and then said that she did not know if she could tell what happened.

A.J. eventually testified that she saw C.J. kiss defendant but refused to say where. When the prosecutor asked A.J. if C.J. kissed defendant on his privates, A.J. did not say or do anything in response. The court encouraged A.J. to tell the truth, but A.J. continued to remain mute when asked any question pertaining to sexual contact. She explained that she did not want to say where defendant touched her.

The prosecutor then suggested that she write the answer down, which she agreed to do.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
615 N.E.2d 1283, 246 Ill. App. 3d 311, 186 Ill. Dec. 226, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 967, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-wilson-illappct-1993.