People v. Patterson

841 N.E.2d 889

217 Ill.2d 407

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Ricky A. PATTERSON, Appellant.

No. 98641.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

December 15, 2005.

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Thomas C. Brandstrader and Jodi L. Garvey, Chicago, for appellant.

Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Springfield, John C. Piland, State's Attorney, Urbana (Gary Feinerman, Solicitor General, Linda D. Woloshin, Claire E. Labbé, Assistant Attorneys General, Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

Justice McMORROW delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a jury trial in the circuit court of Champaign County, defendant Ricky A. Patterson was convicted of first degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(1) (West 2002)), concealment of a homicidal death (720 ILCS 5/9-3.1(a) (2002)), and arson (720 ILCS 5/20-1(a) (West 2002)). Defendant was sentenced to 55 years in prison. On appeal, defendant argued, inter alia, that the circuit court erred in admitting the grand jury testimony of Migdalia Rivera, who declined to testify at trial. The appellate court held that, under Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), the admission of Rivera's grand jury testimony violated defendant's sixth amendment right to be confronted with the witnesses against him (U.S. Const., amend. VI). 347 Ill.App.3d 1044, 1051, 283 Ill.Dec. 871, 808 N.E.2d 1159. The appellate court concluded, however, that this error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Defendant's conviction and sentence were affirmed. 347 Ill. App.3d at 1056, 283 Ill.Dec. 871, 808 N.E.2d 1159. We allowed defendant's petition for leave to appeal (177 Ill.2d R. 315). We affirm the judgment of the appellate court.

BACKGROUND

In October 2002 defendant was charged with first degree murder in the death of Derrick Prout, with whom defendant had met on June 17, 2002, for a drug transaction. Defendant also was charged with arson in the burning of defendant's rented residence in rural Champaign. In addition, defendant was charged with concealment of a homicidal death. According to the State's theory of the case, Prout was killed at defendant's residence, and defendant thereafter removed Prout's body from the residence to a remote location and set fire to the residence to conceal evidence of the killing.

In June 2002 when the offenses were committed, defendant was living in a rented house on the outskirts of Champaign with his girlfriend, Migdalia Rivera, and their young daughter. The $900 monthly rent had not been paid for four months. As of June 17, the date of the victim's disappearance, defendant still lived in the house but had told his landlord that he would be moving in a few days.

Prout, who lived in Indianapolis in June 2002, drove to Champaign the night of June 16. At about 4 p.m. on Monday, June 17, Prout visited his girlfriend, Candice Johnson, who lived in an apartment in Champaign. Prout brought with him a duffel bag containing cannabis. At about 8 p.m. on June 17, defendant came to Johnson's apartment and spoke briefly with Prout. According to Johnson, Prout then took the bag of cannabis and left in his Dodge Intrepid, and defendant followed in his Blazer. Johnson called Prout later in the evening on his cell phone but there was no answer. Prout was missing for the next five days. His body was found on June 22 in Lake County, near Chicago.

According to defendant, on June 17 he and Prout left Johnson's apartment in separate vehicles and drove to a nearby car wash where they conducted a drug transaction. Defendant testified that Prout gave him 30 pounds of cannabis and defendant paid Prout $16,000. Defendant asserted that Prout then left in his Dodge Intrepid and defendant stayed and washed his own vehicle. Defendant stated that, at that point, he went back to his residence, and went to bed at about 10:30 or 11 p.m. According to defendant, the next evening (June 18) he and Rivera and their daughter left Champaign at 8 or 8:30 p.m. and drove to Chicago, where defendant was due in court at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, June 19. Defendant testified that they stayed the night of June 18 at the Rand Motel near the Chicago suburb of Palatine, arriving at the motel at about 10:30 or 10:45 p.m. Defendant added that, prior to arriving at the motel, he stopped in Schaumburg, which is south of Palatine, and sold eight pounds of cannabis to a man named Chris Smith. Defendant stated that the next morning, June 19, his car would not start, and he was therefore late for his court date. The court appearance was rescheduled for the next day, June 20, and defendant stated that he and Rivera and their daughter began driving back to Champaign. Defendant testified that, while they were en route, he received a telephone call from his brother saying that defendant's residence had burned. This call was received on the couple's cell phone, which defendant acknowledged at trial was registered to Rivera. According to defendant, he and Rivera and their daughter arrived in Champaign at about 6:30 or 7 p.m. on June 19, went to their residence to survey the damage, and stayed the night at defendant's parents' home in Champaign. Defendant stated that the next morning he and Rivera and their daughter returned to Chicago for the rescheduled court date. Defendant testified that the next evening, June 21, he and Rivera and their daughter drove to St. Louis, arriving at about 10:15 or 10:30 p.m. The next day, June 22, defendant and Rivera were arrested by police in St. Louis.

The fire at defendant's residence in Champaign was discovered at about 3:20 a.m. on June 19. After the fire was suppressed, authorities looked in the living room and found two plastic containers with an odor similar to gasoline. An investigator for the Illinois fire marshal concluded that the fire was intentionally set. That evening, at about 7:30 p.m., an investigator for the Champaign County sheriff's office spoke to defendant in the yard of the residence. Defendant was asked his whereabouts at the time of the fire. Defendant told the investigator he had left Champaign about 8 p.m. the previous night, June 18, and had gone to Chicago. Defendant also told the investigator that he first learned of the fire the next afternoon, June 19, while he was en route from Chicago to Champaign.

On Saturday, June 22, 2002, five days after Prout's disappearance, authorities were alerted to a car fire in a rural area of Lake County, near Chicago. The fire was discovered at about 8:50 a.m. The automobile, a Dodge Intrepid, was registered to the victim, Derrick Prout. After the fire was suppressed, officials looked in the trunk and found Prout's charred body. It was wrapped in a blanket with a "whitish background" and a "bluish print." An autopsy revealed that the burns on Prout's body occurred postmortem, and he had been dead "for some time." The victim had been stabbed eight times and shot twice. The coroner's physician who performed the autopsy concluded that Prout died of "multiple stab wounds with multiple gunshot wounds contributing to his death."

Lake County authorities contacted the police in St. Louis and directed them to pick up defendant and Rivera, who were in St. Louis at the time. Early the next morning, June 23, Lake County sheriff's detectives interviewed defendant at a police station in St. Louis. After being advised of his Miranda rights, defendant told the detectives: "I guess I'll answer some of your questions." Defendant told the detectives that he did not own a cellular telephone. He refused to provide them with Rivera's telephone number. The detectives questioned defendant as to his whereabouts in the early morning of June 19, the time of the fire at defendant's residence in Champaign. Defendant gave essentially the same explanation he had given to the Champaign County sheriff's police the evening of June 19. Defendant told the detectives that he had left Champaign at 9:30 or 10 p.m. the night before the fire, June 18, and drove to Chicago for a court date the next morning. Defendant declined to state specifically where in Chicago he stayed that night, but he "ma[d]e it clear" that he was not in Champaign at the time of the fire at his residence. Defendant told the detectives he learned of the fire the next day when a family member called him in Chicago. Following the questioning by Lake County detectives, defendant and Rivera were released and they drove back to Champaign.

The next day, June 24, authorities in Champaign County executed a search warrant at defendant's burned residence. Under the terms of the warrant, investigators were authorized to seize "any and all items of physical evidence related to the commission of the offense[] of Murder, including but not limited to *** bodily fluids, including blood; weapons; cutting instruments; *** any items indicating the presence of Derrick A. Prout [in the residence]; and photographs of the above-described items, and the residents." Pursuant to this warrant, a number of items were recovered from defendant's residence, including a section of the living room carpet with a large, "reddish brownish" stain that tested positive for blood. Investigators said the carpet had a strong odor of cleaning solution such as Pine-Sol. In the padding underneath they found what appeared to be "soap suds." Other items recovered from the residence included an empty Pine-Sol bottle, an empty Clorox bottle, a plastic bucket, a spray bottle of Clorox cleaner, and a film canister with a roll of film inside.

Kelly Gannon, the State's expert on deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), testified that, based on her analysis of the human DNA in the carpet sample from defendant's living room, the blood found on the carpet matched that of the victim, Derrick Prout. According to Gannon, the probability that the DNA profile found in the carpet would appear again in the general population was one in 38.3 quadrillion for Caucasians, one in 16.3...