People v. Morrow

2022 IL App (1st) 200388

217 N.E.3d 210

466 Ill.Dec. 383

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.Mitchell MORROW, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1-20-0388

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Third Division.

September 7, 2022

James E. Chadd, Douglas R. Hoff, and Erica Margaret Mail, of State Appellate Defender's Office, of Chicago, for appellant.

Kimberly M. Foxx, State's Attorney, of Chicago (Enrique Abraham, Tasha-Marie Kelly, and Sara McGann, Assistant State's Attorneys, of counsel), for the People.

JUSTICE GORDON delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

¶ 1 After a jury trial, defendant, Mitchell Morrow, was convicted of first degree murder and armed robbery and sentenced to concurrent terms of 60 years for murder and 20 years for armed robbery with the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). On direct appeal, this court vacated his conviction for armed robbery but affirmed his murder conviction. Defendant was convicted in part based on the pretrial statements and grand jury testimony of one alleged witness, Ramona Siler, who told the police and grand jury that she performed oral sex on the victim shortly before defendant shot the victim. Siler recanted her account of the murder at trial, but her statements and grand jury testimony were published to the jury. Since his conviction, defendant has asserted his actual innocence and sought forensic testing of a condom recovered from the victim's clothing in order to show that Siler did not perform oral sex on the victim and that her statements to police and before the grand jury were therefore false. Most recently, defendant filed several motions under section 116-3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 ( 725 ILCS 5/116-3 (West 2018) ), requesting an order compelling Siler to submit a buccal swab for further forensic testing and comparison analysis, which the trial court denied. For the following reasons, we affirm.

¶ 2 BACKGROUND

¶ 3 This court has considered various issues raised by defendant in connection with his conviction and sentence for first degree murder on at least three prior occasions, including affirming the dismissal of two prior postconviction petitions. A detailed recitation of the evidence and trial testimony can therefore be found in our prior decisions, which we hereby incorporate by reference and from which the following relevant facts are drawn. See People v. Morrow , 303 Ill. App. 3d 671, 236 Ill.Dec. 844, 708 N.E.2d 430 (1999) ( Morrow I ); People v. Morrow , 2013 IL App (1st) 121316, 378 Ill.Dec. 184, 3 N.E.3d 464 ( Morrow II ); People v. Morrow , 2019 IL App (1st) 161208, 438 Ill.Dec. 331, 146 N.E.3d 85 ( Morrow III ).

¶ 4 I. Trial

¶ 5 The evidence at trial established that on August 28, 1994, the victim, Kazmierz Kosinski, was discovered dead in the driver's seat of his vehicle on Leclaire Avenue near Blackhawk Park in Chicago. Kosinski had suffered three gunshot wounds, one to the right wrist, one to the chest, and one to the right hip. Defendant, along with two codefendants, were subsequently charged by indictment with murder and armed robbery.

¶ 6 The State's case at trial relied primarily on the prior statement and grand jury testimony of Siler, an alleged eyewitness to the murder. Siler's initial statements to investigators were introduced to the jury through the testimony of Detective William Johnston. Johnston testified that he investigated Kosinski's murder and that he initially thought it was related to prostitution because the victim was found near Blackhawk Park, a place known for prostitution, and a used condom was recovered inside the victim's clothing. A week after the murder, Johnston learned that a prostitute named Ramona Siler, who usually worked nearby, had not been observed for several days following the murder. Police officers later observed Siler in the area and arrested her on a bond forfeiture warrant. Following her arrest, Siler was questioned concerning Kosinski's murder. Siler initially told detectives that she did not know anything about Kosinski's death and that she needed to be released from custody so that she could attend to her children, who were alone in a hotel room. When officers went to the hotel to check on the children, they found defendant, Siler's pimp, alone in the hotel room. Defendant told the officers that Siler's children did not live there, but defendant agreed to go to the police station for an interview.

¶ 7 Back at the station, the interview with Siler resumed. This time, Siler stated that she did have information concerning the murder near Blackhawk Park. On the night of the shooting, Siler was working "her corner," which was the intersection of Dickens and Cicero Avenues, with another prostitute, named Birandi "Brittany" Paschal. Defendant and Alanda "JR" McComb, Paschal's pimp, were also present that evening.¹

¶ 8 Siler told detectives that, at 2 a.m., a prior customer pulled up to Siler and motioned for her to approach his vehicle. The customer told Siler that he wanted to hire two prostitutes, and he pointed to Paschal. Siler and Paschal both entered the customer's vehicle, and he drove to a location near Blackhawk Park. Defendant and McComb followed behind them in their own vehicle and parked in front of the customer.

¶ 9 After the customer parked his vehicle, Siler put a condom on Kosinski and performed oral sex on him. Siler eventually stopped and told the customer that his "time was up," but he reached into the vehicle's visor and handed Siler $10, and she resumed. Shortly thereafter, Paschal reached into the customer's pants for his wallet, and a physical struggle ensued. Siler exited the vehicle and shouted for defendant and McComb to come and help. Defendant and McComb ran to the customer's vehicle, and McComb punched Kosinski. Defendant then pulled out a small, semiautomatic handgun and shot Kosinski twice. Siler observed the muzzle of the gun flash, and she heard both shots.

¶ 10 After the shooting, Siler and Paschal returned to McComb and defendant's vehicle, and they drove away with the victim's wallet. McComb handed the victim's wallet to Paschal, who then removed $160 in cash and divided it equally amongst the group before throwing the wallet out the vehicle's window. At some point, they stopped and McComb hid the gun underneath the hood of the vehicle, and they continued to drive away.

¶ 11 Siler said that at the time of the shooting, she had been using $40 of heroin per day and that defendant used $200 of heroin daily. Up until this point in the interview, detectives had not shown Siler any photographs of the crime scene or potential suspects.

¶ 12 Siler remained in police custody overnight following her interview. The next day, Siler provided a written statement in the presence of an assistant state's attorney. That statement was admitted in evidence and published to the jury at trial. Siler's account in her statement was substantially similar to what she told police. However, through her statement, Siler added that although she did not know the man's name at the time, she identified the customer who she picked up on August 28, 1994, as the victim, Kosinski, in a Polaroid photograph, which she signed. Siler's statement concluded with an acknowledgement that she was treated well by the assistant state's attorney and the police and that she was not threatened in any way. Siler also stated that she was not offered any promises in exchange for giving her statement and that she was not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol at the time.

¶ 13 A transcript of Siler's grand jury testimony was also admitted in evidence and published to the jury at trial. Before the grand jury, Siler testified to substantially similar facts as those she provided to police in her initial interview and those recorded in her statement to the assistant state's attorney.

¶ 14 On the witness stand at trial, Siler confirmed that in August 1994, she worked as a prostitute and defendant was her pimp. Defendant was also her boyfriend of nearly four years at that time, and they had lived together in a hotel for two years. Siler typically performed sex acts for customers in their vehicles, while defendant would "protect" her, meaning that he would follow Siler and park nearby and help her if she was in danger. Siler identified defendant in court.

¶ 15 However, Siler recanted her prior account of the murder. She initially testified at trial that she was working as a prostitute at the intersection of Dickens and Cicero Avenues during the early morning hours of August 28, 1994, but then testified that she did not remember the exact dates when she was working.

Siler then denied knowing who Kosinski was and testified that she was not with Kosinski, defendant, Paschal, or McComb on the night of Kosinski's death. The State asked Siler about a number of specific statements she made in her prior written statement and grand jury testimony, and Siler admitted to providing those statements.

¶ 16 On cross-examination, Siler testified that she lied to the police because she was a heroin addict, and she did not want to suffer from withdrawal while in jail. When Siler was arrested, she lied to the police that she had children alone in her hotel room because she believed she would be released from custody if she told the police that her children were alone. Detective Johnston then interviewed Siler concerning Kosinski's death, and Siler was not released from custody even though she told him that she did not know anything about the murder. According to Siler, she then made up a story based on the photographs that Johnston showed her, and she implicated defendant and McComb, the only two pimps she knew, in the shooting. Siler was still in custody when she testified before the grand jury, and she was going through heroin withdrawal at the time. She admitted that she lied under oath because she thought she would be able to go home and avoid a murder charge if she implicated the offenders. Siler...