People v. Streater

242 N.E.3d 457

2023 IL App (1st) 220640

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

v.Willie STREATER, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1-22-0640

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, FIFTH DIVISION.

Filed November 17, 2023

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County. No. 17 CR 15760, Honorable Ursula Walowski, Judge Presiding.

James E. Chadd, Douglas R. Hoff, and Tomas G. Gonzalez, of State Appellate Defender’s Office, of Chicago, for appellant.

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

OPINION

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

¶ 1 After a jury trial, defendant Willie Streater was convicted of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated criminal sexual assault and sentenced to 35 years in prison. On appeal, he argues (1) the State failed to prove him guilty of the aggravated form of criminal sexual assault based on his displaying a dangerous weapon because the weapon—a metal baseball bat—was not displayed during the commission of the sexual assault; (2) the trial court erred in denying his motion to quash arrest and suppress evidence because the arrest was an illegal, warrantless arrest based on an investigative alert; and (3) he was denied a fair sentencing hearing based on the trial court’s comments at sentencing that showed he was being punished for holding the State to its burden of proof and exercising his constitutional right to trial. For the following reasons, we affirm.

¶ 2 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 3 Mr. Streater was charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated criminal sexual assault, and aggravated stalking on September 12, 2017. The victim was K.W., who was 17 years old at that time.

¶ 4 A. Pretrial Proceedings

¶ 5 Before trial, the State filed a motion to allow evidence of other crimes, seeking to introduce testimony from four women whom Mr. Streater had been convicted of stalking when they were teenagers. The State maintained this evidence would show Mr. Streater’s identity; intent; motive; absence of mistake; common design, scheme, or plan; lack of consent; and modus operondi. The court granted the motion as to three of the four prior crimes, and the State only introduced testimony from two of those women at trial.

¶ 6 At the pretrial hearing on Mr. Streater’s motion to quash his arrest and suppress evidence, Officer Jack Reed testified that he was one of the officers present for Mr. Streater’s arrest on October 7, 2017. Officer Reed testified that Mr. Streater was arrested in the parking lot of his apartment complex at approximately 1 p.m. Officer Reed acknowledged that at the time Mr. Streater was arrested, there was no arrest warrant for him. The officer explained that they arrested Mr. Streater based on what the detective working on the case, Detective Johnnie Minter-Edwards, had told him—that she was investigating an aggravated criminal sexual assault case and that the victim had identified Mr. Streater in a photo array. When asked if the arrest was also based on an investigative alert, Officer Reed said it was not.

¶ 7 The State argued that Mr. Streater had been arrested in a public place and that probable cause supported the arrest. Defense counsel argued that the arrest was really based on an investigative alert. Defense counsel also argued that the police "could have easily gotten an arrest warrant through a magistrate, but they didn’t" and that Officer Reed’s reliance on the detective’s word alone was a violation of the ban against unreasonable searches and seizures.

¶ 8 In denying the motion to quash, the trial court said, "[y]ou do not need an arrest warrant when probable cause exists and efforts are made by police officers based on probable cause and a Defendant is arrested in public, as this was the case in this case." The judge found there was probable cause based on the information the detective "personally gave to the officers, [and] the officers relied on that information properly." The court found no constitutional violation.

¶ 9 B. Trial

¶ 10 1. Mr. Streater’s Assault of K.W.

¶ 11 K.W., who was 22 years old at the time of trial, testified that in September 2017, she was a senior in high school. She took a bus to school at that time, using the bus stop at 97th Place and Vincennes Avenue, which was approximately a block away from her home. She was usually by herself at the stop and would catch the bus around 7:30 or 7:40 a.m.

¶ 12 According to K.W., at that time, Mr. Streater, whom she identified in open court, would drive by in an orange four-door Jeep and bother her "[a]lmost every day" while she was waiting for the bus. K.W. did not know him at the time. K.W. said Mr. Streater would offer her rides to school or ask if she wanted money as he drove past, but she never accepted either. She did not tell anyone she was being bothered by a man at the bus stop because she was not worried at the time.

¶ 13 K.W. said that on the morning of September 12, 2017, she was at the bus stop, alone, when Mr. Streater came up behind her on foot and grabbed her. She noticed him pull up in his vehicle, but she first saw him when he was on foot and grabbed her. K.W. testified that Mr. Streater had a metal bat in his right hand and grabbed her right arm just above her elbow with his left hand. Mr. Streater told her to get in the car and pulled her two or three feet away to where it was parked. The car door was already open, and Mr. Streater pushed her into the front passenger seat. K.W. said she "was in shock, so [she] really didn’t say anything." When K.W. was in the car, Mr. Streater got into the driver’s seat, put the bat in the back seat, then drove off. Mr. Streater drove to an "alley where it said no parking." K.W. first said the alley was a couple blocks away, but on cross-examination agreed that it was approximately two miles away and agreed they were in the car for 10 or 15 minutes. K.W. testified that while they were driving, Mr. Streater "told [her] that [she] wasn’t going anywhere and that [she] was the only one for him and that [her] vagina was his and his penis was [hers] and stuff like that." K.W. did not try to get out of the car while Mr. Streater drove. She said she noticed a closed pocketknife in the middle of the dashboard, but Mr. Streater did not touch it.

¶ 14 K.W. testified that once the car was stopped in the alley, Mr. Streater "threw [her] into the back seat," which hurt, then he got into the back seat on top of her. The bat was next to them on the back seat, but neither she nor Mr. Streater attempted to grab it. K.W. said Mr. Streater took off both of their clothes and kissed her, then penetrated her vagina with his penis. The contact went on for "probably like three to like five minutes," until a construction worker walked into the alley. At that point, Mr. Streater pushed K.W. out of the car and drove off.

¶ 15 K.W. said that she did not tell the construction worker that she had just been sexually assaulted because "[she] didn’t feel comfortable." K.W. then walked to school and texted her mother from a classmate’s phone. K.W. did not tell her mother that she had been sexually assaulted at that time, explaining: "my mom, she’s very emotional, so I knew her reaction wasn’t going to be well to what I was telling her." She did tell her mother other details about what had happened, prompting her mother to arrange for her father to pick her up from school.

¶ 16 When K.W.’s father picked her up, she did not tell him about the assault "[b]ecause I know how my father is and I know he was going to like try to find him." She went straight home, but noticed blood in her underwear, which was unusual. K.W. then told her sister, Chanti W., that she had been sexually assaulted.

¶ 17 Chanti, K.W.’s older sister, testified that when K.W. approached her, Chanti could tell she was upset because she was quiet and did not "really want to tell [Chanti] what was going on." K.W. told Chanti about "the man that had pulled the bat out on her, that he raped her," and then K.W. showed Chanti the blood in her underwear. Chanti testified that she told their mother what happened, and their mother told their father.

¶ 18 K.W. went to the hospital where she told the doctors and nurses what had happened and was treated for a sexual assault. She also went to the police station to file a report.

¶ 19 After September 12, 2017, K.W. said she would wait at the same bus stop in the morning, but only with a family member. K.W. continued to see Mr. Streater in her neighborhood, "[d]riving past like taunting [her] and stuff." In explaining the taunting, K.W. said, "[i]t was one time he drove past and was waving, smiling, and my mom, she was standing at the bus stop with me so she seen him." K.W. did not attempt to get his license plate number.

¶ 20 2. The Investigation

¶ 21 Rachel Foxx, a registered nurse, testified that at approximately 6:50 p.m. on September 12, 2017, she was working in the emergency room when K.W. was brought into a patient treatment room. K.W. told Ms. Foxx that a man had forced her into his car with a bat, driven a few blocks away, then, in Ms. Foxx’s words, "forced her into the back seat and had intercourse with her vaginally." Ms. Foxx obtained K.W.’s consent to administer a criminal sexual assault kit and identified the kit at trial.

¶ 22 Morris T., K.W.’s father, testified that after he found out that K.W. had been sexually assaulted, he also learned that the offender had been driving a four-door orange Jeep. Morris said that every day before work, he would stand at the bus stop looking for the Jeep to try and get a license plate number. One day, as he drove to work along the route the bus took to K.W.’s school, he saw the Jeep at a stoplight and followed it, getting its full license plate number. Morris wrote down the license plate number on a piece of paper and gave it to his wife, who gave it to the police.

¶ 23 Detective...