People v. Bryant

54 N.E.3d 309

403 Ill.Dec. 649

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff–Appellee

v.John L. BRYANT, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 5–14–0334.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Fifth District.

May 17, 2016.

Michael J. Pelletier, State Appellate Defender, Ellen J. Curry, Deputy Defender, Lawrence J. O'Neill, Assistant Appellate Defender, Office of the State Appellate Defender, Mt. Vernon, IL, for Appellant.

Michael Carr, State's Attorney, Murphysboro, IL; Patrick Delfino, Director, Stephen E. Norris, Deputy Director, Patrick D. Daly, Staff Attorney, Office of the State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, Mt. Vernon, IL, for Appellee.

OPINION

Presiding Justice SCHWARM delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

¶ 1 The defendant, John L. Bryant, appeals from the circuit court's order denying his second motion to withdraw his guilty plea. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the circuit court's judgment but remand for a new sentencing hearing.

¶ 2 BACKGROUND

¶ 3 On the morning of January 28, 2006, Christopher Gandy's burnt car and burnt corpse were discovered in a cemetery south of Murphysboro. Gandy was a drug dealer from Chicago who had been attending Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. An autopsy revealed that he had been stabbed numerous times about the face and chest and had repeatedly been struck in the head with what could have been a wrench or a pipe-like object. An ensuing homicide investigation led authorities to four suspects: Rocky Maki, Jeffrey Holt, Lisa Bryant, and Lisa's husband, the defendant. All four were drug addicts from Murphysboro who had previously purchased cocaine from Gandy. The State's theory of guilt was that all four had participated in the events that led to Gandy's death but that the defendant and Maki were more culpable than Holt or Lisa. The defendant and Lisa were arrested on the afternoon of January 28, 2006, at a hotel in Carbondale.

¶ 4 In March 2006, following Maki's arrest, the State filed an amended information charging Maki, Lisa, and the defendant with four counts of first-degree murder (counts I, II, III, and IV) under a theory of accountability. See 720 ILCS 5/5–2(c), 9–1(a) (West 2004). In exchange for his cooperation with the State, Holt was not charged with anything. The State subsequently offered Lisa a negotiated plea to a lesser charge in exchange for her cooperation, but she refused. When the defendant waived his right to a preliminary hearing, the circuit court admonished him that the crime of first-degree murder “carries a penitentiary sentence of between 20 and 60 years.” See 730 ILCS 5/5–8–1(a)(1)(a) (West 2004).

¶ 5 Citing antagonistic defenses, the defendant and Lisa later filed a motion arguing that their trial should be severed from Maki's. The State agreed, and the motion was granted without objection.

¶ 6 In April 2006, at a pretrial hearing, the defendant informed the circuit court that by prescription, he had been taking 5 milligrams of Valium (diazepam ) twice a day and 10 milligrams of Lexapro (escitalopram) once a day. The defendant further informed the court that he had been taking the medications by prescription prior to his arrest. When the court asked the defendant if the drugs had “created any problems,” he indicated that they did not affect him and did not interfere with his judgment, focus, or ability to assist in his defense. The defendant's attorney at the time confirmed that the defendant had been able to communicate with him “without any problems.”

¶ 7 In June 2006, a Jackson County jury found the defendant and Lisa guilty of first-degree murder. The State's evidence established, among other things, that after Lisa lured Gandy to her and the defendant's home, where she and the defendant had purchased drugs from him on prior occasions, the defendant and Maki attacked him and robbed him of his money and cocaine. The evidence further established that the defendant had subsequently inflicted the wounds that had caused Gandy's death. The jury rejected the defendant's and Lisa's purported defense that they were asleep in their bedroom during the events in question and that Holt and Maki were solely responsible for the murder.

¶ 8 In September 2006, Maki pled guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9–2(a) (West 2004)) and was sentenced to 20 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. In October 2006, the defendant's and Lisa's case proceeded to a sentencing hearing before the Honorable W. Charles Grace, who had presided over their trial. At the hearing, the State argued that the defendant should receive a 45–year sentence. The State also noted that by statute, the defendant would be required “to serve 100 percent of [his] time.” Noting that the applicable sentencing range was 20 to 60 years, the defendant's attorney argued that the minimum sentence of 20 years would be appropriate under the circumstances. Before imposing sentence, the circuit court noted that the mandatory minimum sentence was 20 years. Referring to the defendant's crime as “brutal and heinous,” the court ultimately sentenced him “to 50 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.” Finding that Lisa was less culpable than the defendant, the court sentenced her to 25 years.

¶ 9 The presentence investigation report (PSI) that was prepared for the defendant's sentencing hearing indicates that he had been prescribed Valium for anxiety in 2005 and had been taking it ever since. The PSI further indicates that he had been prescribed Celexa (citalopram ) for depression in September 2006 and had been taking Lexapro for depression prior to that. When the PSI was prepared, the defendant's only reported medical complaint was that he had been seeing a physician for “problems related to his colon.”

¶ 10 In August 2007, Holt, who had been the State's key witness at the defendant's and Lisa's trial, passed away. In April 2009, Lisa and the defendant were granted a new trial when their convictions were reversed on direct appeal due to the ineffective assistance of counsel. People v. Bryant, 391 Ill.App.3d 228, 330 Ill.Dec. 49, 907 N.E.2d 862 (2009). In June 2009, the State indicated that Maki would be testifying against the defendant and Lisa at their retrial.

¶ 11 In October 2010, without objection, the circuit court granted the defendant's motion to sever his retrial from Lisa's. Lisa subsequently agreed to testify against the defendant in exchange for the State's agreement that she be allowed to enter a plea of guilty to a charge of second-degree murder with a recommended sentence of 11 ½ years.

¶ 12 In March 2011, the defendant's retrial commenced with new counsel and with the Honorable E. Dan Kimmel presiding. At the final pretrial conference held days before, the State advised the court that plea negotiations had been going on for “probably four or five months” but that no agreed disposition had been reached.

¶ 13 On the second day of the defendant's retrial, Holt's testimony from the defendant's first trial was admitted as substantive evidence. See 725 ILCS 5/115–10.4 (West 2010) ; Ill. R. Evid. 804 (eff. Jan. 1, 2011). At the conclusion of the second day, defense counsel asked that after Maki testified for the State, he be “made available for the defense's case in chief as well.”

¶ 14 On the third day of the retrial, the State's first witness was the pathologist who performed Gandy's autopsy, and the State's second witness was Lisa. After a recess following Lisa's direct examination testimony, the State advised the circuit court that the defendant had decided to enter a negotiated guilty plea. Thereafter, the defendant entered a plea of guilty to count IV in exchange for the State's recommendation that he receive a 28–year sentence followed by a 3–year term of mandatory supervised release. The defendant's attorney also tendered a written plea-of-guilty form that counsel and the defendant had reviewed and signed.

¶ 15 Before accepting the defendant's plea, the circuit court recited the allegations set forth in count IV and admonished him, among other things, that by pleading guilty, there would be no further trial. The court also confirmed that no one had threatened or forced him to plead guilty. When the court asked the defendant if he was taking any medications, he indicated that he was taking one Klonopin (clonazepam) pill per day but that the drug did not “affect or alter [his] mind” or otherwise impair his ability “to understand what's happening.” After the parties jointly waived the preparation of a PSI, the court informed the defendant that it would proceed to sentence him without the benefit of the report. Finding that the defendant had knowingly and voluntarily entered his guilty plea, the court subsequently accepted the plea and entered an order sentencing the defendant in accordance with the parties' agreement.

¶ 16 In April 2011, the defendant filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, alleging that due to his ingestion of Klonopin, “his state of mind at the time of his guilty plea was such that no type of admonishment would have made his plea knowing or voluntary.” In May 2011, the cause proceeded to a hearing with Judge Kimmel presiding.

¶ 17 At the hearing, the defendant testified that when he entered his guilty plea, the Klonopin that he had been taking had interfered with his ability to “reason properly” and “think clearly.” The defendant stated that he had since “cut [his] dose in half.” The defendant further stated that he did not remember telling the court that the Klonopin did not affect or alter his mind or otherwise impair his ability to understand what was happening. The defendant suggested that his trial attorney had “talked [him] into” pleading guilty and had advised him that he could withdraw his plea within three or four days. Indicating that he was able to recall specific details of their testimony, the defendant also claimed that Lisa and Holt had testified falsely against him. Noting that he and Lisa had “been together 19 years,”...