People v. Ritcheson

1

2023 IL App (5th) 190093-U

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. KEITH R. RITCHESON, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 5-19-0093

Court of Appeals of Illinois, Fifth District

October 4, 2023

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

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Jackson County. No. 17-CF-401 Honorable Ralph R. Bloodworth III, Judge, presiding.

PRESIDING JUSTICE BOIE delivered the judgment of the court. Justices Moore and Barberis concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

BOIE PRESIDING JUSTICE.

¶ 1 Held: We affirm the judgment of trial court. The defendant was not denied the effective assistance of counsel where he fails to demonstrate any prejudice as a result of his trial counsel stipulating to the admission of the defendant's interrogation videos as evidence. The defendant was similarly not denied the effective assistance of counsel where his posttrial counsel declined to raise the aforementioned issue in his supplemental motion for a new trial.

¶ 2 On September 13, 2018, after a bench trial, the defendant Keith R. Ritcheson, was convicted of four counts of first degree murder in violation of sections 9-1(a)(1) and 9- 1(a)(2) of the Criminal Code of 2012 (Code) (720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(1), (a)(2) (West 2016)), for the murder of his parents, Burl and Brenda Ritcheson. Additionally, the trial court found that during the offenses of first degree murder the defendant personally discharged a firearm that proximately caused the death of the two victims in violation of subsection (d)(iii) to section 5-8-1 of the Unified Code of Corrections (730 ILCS 5/5-8-1(d)(iii) (West Supp. 2017). At sentencing on January 31, 2019, the trial court imposed a sentence of natural life in prison on two counts of first degree murder, dismissed the other two counts pursuant to the one-act, one-crime rule, and noted that the sentence imposed was mandated by statutory law.

¶ 3 The defendant raises two issues on appeal. He argues that (1) his trial counsel was ineffective for stipulating to the admission of the defendant's interrogation videos as evidence and (2) his posttrial counsel was ineffective for failing to raise the aforementioned issue in his supplemental motion for a new trial. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the circuit court of Jackson County.

¶ 4 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 5 On September 6, 2017, the defendant was charged by indictment with four counts of first degree murder. Counts 1 and 3 alleged that the defendant, without lawful justification, killed Burl and Brenda Ritcheson, in that, in performing the acts which caused the deaths of Burl and Brenda, the defendant shot Burl and Brenda with a firearm, knowing such act would cause the deaths of Burl and Brenda, thereby causing the deaths of Burl and Brenda, in violation of section 9-1(a)(1) of the Code (720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(1) (West 2016)). Counts 2 and 4 alleged that the defendant, without lawful justification, killed Burl and Brenda Ritcheson, in that, in performing the acts which caused the deaths of Burl and Brenda, the defendant shot Burl and Brenda with a firearm, knowing such act created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm to Burl and Brenda, thereby causing the deaths of Burl and Brenda, in violation of section 9-1(a)(2) of the Code (id. § 9-1(a)(2)). In conjunction with all four counts of first degree murder, it was further alleged that the defendant personally discharged a firearm that proximately caused the death of Burl and Brenda Ritcheson, in violation of subsection (d)(iii) to section 5-8-1 of the Unified Code of Corrections (730 ILCS 5/5-8-1(d)(iii) (West Supp. 2017)).

¶ 6 A bench trial took place September 11-13, 2018. The following testimony was elicited at trial. At around 24 minutes past midnight on August 14, 2017, Shauna Taylor, a patrol deputy for the Jackson County, Illinois, sheriff's office, received a dispatch call to respond to a residence near Murphysboro, Illinois, regarding a possible shooting. Deputy Taylor was the first officer to arrive at the house, where she found the defendant sitting on the front porch. Deputy Taylor asked the defendant what happened, and the defendant stated that his parents had been shot and that he did not think they were still alive. Deputy Taylor testified that the defendant, who had been living with his parents for four years after going through a divorce and losing everything, was very calm and did not seem emotional. Deputy Taylor further testified that the defendant then led her from the front porch to the south side of the house near the garage to a door, which was standing open. The defendant explained to deputy Taylor that when he had returned to the house from a trip to purchase beer, the door was open and that was unusual. Thereafter, the two proceeded through the door, which led into the house from the garage. As they passed through the garage, the defendant informed deputy Taylor that the interior door in the garage that led into the house was also open, and had been when he got home, which was also unusual.

¶ 7 For officer safety, deputy Taylor asked the defendant if he had any weapons on him, so the defendant lifted his shirt to show his waistband, where deputy Taylor did not observe any weapons on the defendant's person. The two then proceeded through the door of the residence into a living room and then the kitchen. From the kitchen, there was a threshold that met another living room. At that threshold, to the left, there was a hallway, and here the defendant and deputy Taylor stopped. Deputy Taylor testified that she did not feel comfortable going any further into the house because she was by herself, so they waited for another officer to arrive to ensure the house was clear. The defendant informed deputy Taylor that his mother's and father's bedrooms were at the end of the hallway-mother's on the left and father's on the right. Deputy Taylor testified that when additional police officers arrived, she and the other officers checked every single room in the house to ensure that no one was hiding. Other than the deceased victims, police officers did not find anyone else inside the house.

¶ 8 Deputy Taylor testified that when she made it to the end of the hallway where the deceased's bedrooms were located, both of the doors leading into each bedroom were open and the bedrooms' lights were on. Brenda Ritcheson was lying on the floor of the left bedroom and Burl Ritcheson was lying on his right side on the bed in the right bedroom. Deputy Taylor initially observed that Burl was "very bloody," having blood all over the front of his shirt, and he appeared to be deceased. In the left bedroom across the hallway from Burl's, deputy Taylor stated that Brenda was lying at the foot of the bed on the floor, face down, with her feet toward the door. Deputy Taylor did not see any blood, but it appeared to her that the back of Brenda's shirt was torn, and that Brenda also appeared to be deceased. Deputy Taylor's sergeant, Mark Wilson, had called an ambulance, and once the house was cleared, paramedics came in to check both Burl and Brenda.

¶ 9 Deputy Taylor testified that she then returned to the living room to speak with the defendant. She asked the defendant what had happened, and the defendant said that earlier that evening, his parents had been arguing and that he did not want to stay there. The defendant told deputy Taylor that he did not know what his parents were arguing about, that he tries to stay out of their disagreements as it is not his business, and that they mostly argued about money. Because of this, the defendant told deputy Taylor that he left the house around midnight to go buy beer at the Circle K gas station near Williams Street, which intersects with Route 13 in Murphysboro, and when he returned home, he found his parents both shot in their rooms. The defendant stated that he was only gone for around 20 minutes and that when he returned home, the open door to the garage immediately caught his attention, as well as the interior garage door being open. The defendant also told deputy Taylor that it was unusual for his parents' bedroom doors to be open and for their lights to be on. After observing his parents' bodies, the defendant told deputy Taylor that he called 911. Deputy Taylor testified that while she was speaking with the defendant in the living room, she noticed, and thought it was odd, that a cold and sweating beer was sitting on the table next to a chair and that it did not look to have very much missing from it. When deputy Taylor asked the defendant about the beer, he stated that he had opened the beer when he called 911. Deputy Taylor noted that aside from the defendant's deceased parents, she observed no signs of forced entry, nothing appeared to be out of place or obviously missing, nor any evidence of a fight, struggle, or trauma in the house.

¶ 10 Deputy Taylor asked the defendant whether there were any firearms present in the house and the defendant said that there were three-Burl owned two: one .22 semiautomatic handgun and one .410 shotgun, and the defendant owned one, but he did not tell deputy Taylor what type of firearm it was. The defendant also did not tell deputy Taylor where his firearm was located; however, he stated that Burl kept his two firearms in the garage on a shelf. Deputy Taylor testified that she did not have an occasion to observe the shelf that the defendant was referring to, but that she relayed this information to sergeant Wilson.

¶ 11 Deputy Taylor testified that she asked the defendant what he thought had happened that night before the police arrived. The defendant stated that it was pretty obvious that someone had come in...