People v. Watkins

2023 IL App (5th) 200322

217 N.E.3d 1183

466 Ill.Dec. 907

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

v.Judah J. WATKINS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 5-20-0322

Appellate Court of Illinois, Fifth District.

Filed February 23, 2023

Karen Y. Ranos, of Law Office of Karen Ranos LLC, of Lansing, for appellant.

Josh Stratemeyer, State's Attorney, of Metropolis (Patrick Delfino, Patrick D. Daly, and Sharon Shanahan, of State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor's Office, of counsel), for the People.

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

¶ 1 The defendant appeals from his 46-year sentence, arguing that the sentence amounts to an unconstitutional de facto life sentence. He asks this court to reverse and remand this case to the trial court for resentencing. The defendant contends that the sentence is in violation of the eighth amendment of the United States Constitution ( U.S. Const., amend. VIII ) and alleges that the trial court failed to consider all Miller v. Alabama , 567 U.S. 460, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012), factors necessary to impose a life sentence on a juvenile. He also contends that the sentence is in violation of the proportionate penalties clause of the Illinois Constitution ( Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 11 ), and he alleges that the trial court failed to properly consider the seriousness of the offense and the defendant's rehabilitative potential. We affirm the sentence.

¶ 2 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 3 On May 26, 2004, the State charged the defendant with six counts of first degree murder,¹ home invasion ( 720 ILCS 5/12-11(a)(5) (West 2002)), aggravated battery with a firearm (id. § 12-4.2(a)(1)), armed robbery (id. § 18-2(a)(2)), and residential burglary (id. § 19-3(a)).

¶ 4 The background facts of the underlying crime and the State's evidence are important for a thorough analysis of the trial court's handling of this case on remand for resentencing. The facts contained in this opinion have been partially extracted from this court's order affirming the trial court's denial of the defendant's petition for postconviction relief. People v. Watkins , 403 Ill. App. 3d 1121, 373 Ill.Dec. 156, 993 N.E.2d 156 (2010) (table) (unpublished order under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 23 ).

¶ 5 On May 26, 2004, at approximately 2:30 a.m., Deputy Ronald Traversy of the Massac County Sheriff's Department was dispatched to Wes Edwards's trailer in rural Massac County in response to a report of "a burglary and possible shooting." Upon his arrival, after seeing that the trailer's front door had been kicked in, Traversy announced his presence and entered. Once inside, he observed a Ruger Mini-14 rifle with "blood all over it" lying on the kitchen table and "a black cordless phone that had bloody handprints on it." Edwards's voice led Traversy down the trailer's hallway to the master bedroom, where Traversy found Edwards and Edwards's girlfriend, Andrea Perdew.

¶ 6 Edwards was at the foot of his bed with a strip of grey duct tape wrapped around his left wrist. He was bleeding from numerous head lacerations, and several of his teeth had been "knocked out." He had also been shot once in the right wrist and once in the right leg above the knee. A bullet had also grazed Edwards's stomach. Perdew was lying dead on the bed in a pool of blood. She had been shot once in the left side of her chest, once in the left side of her abdomen, and once in the left side of her head through her ear. Gunpowder stippling observed on Perdew's left ear indicated that she had been shot in the head from "no further away than 18 inches."

¶ 7 Paramedics responding to the scene observed a crashed and abandoned white Chrysler New Yorker in a field approximately two miles from Edwards's trailer. An ensuing investigation led to the arrests of the defendant, Sharod Roundtree, and the defendant's cousin, Joel Nelson. Nelson was the owner of the abandoned vehicle. The defendant was walking down the street in his hometown of Pulaski on the afternoon of May 26, 2004, when he was arrested and brought in for questioning. The defendant later led investigators to a ditch in rural Massac County, where a black Lorcin 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun was recovered. At the defendant's trial, Gary Randolph of Brookport indicated that he had sold the Lorcin to Nelson in 2003.

¶ 8 When Edwards's trailer was processed for evidence, a roll of duct tape with blood on it was recovered from the master bedroom. The bedroom appeared as if it had been "ransacked or searched," and drawers and cabinets throughout the trailer were found open. Blood was also visible at various locations throughout the trailer.

¶ 9 Four spent 9-millimeter shell casings were recovered from the floor along the wall nearest the bed in the master bedroom. One jacketed bullet was found on the bed underneath Perdew's body, another jacketed bullet was found underneath the bed, and a bullet jacket was found inside Perdew's bloody pillow. During Perdew's autopsy, a jacketed bullet located near her right shoulder blade was recovered.

¶ 10 Ballistics testing revealed that one of the four shell casings found on the floor of Edwards's master bedroom had been ejected from the Lorcin and that the jacketed bullet found underneath the bed could have been fired from the Lorcin. The other two bullets, the bullet jacket, and the other three shell casings all came from "the same unknown firearm" and did not come from the Lorcin. Like the Lorcin, the "unknown firearm" was also a 9-millimeter weapon.

¶ 11 DNA testing revealed the presence of Edwards's blood on the driver's-side air bag of Nelson's crashed New Yorker. Edwards's blood was also found on a black tee shirt that was recovered from a trash can behind Leon Blye's house in Metropolis. Black fibers from the tee shirt were microscopically consistent with black fibers found on the New Yorker's passenger side air bag.¶ 12 At the trial, Edwards testified that sometime around 2 a.m. on May 26, 2004, he awoke to find someone on top of him hitting him in the head with a handgun. He indicated that there were two black males present and that he could hear them talking back and forth. As both men repeatedly struck Edwards in the face, they asked him where his money was, but he "didn't know what they were talking about." Edwards testified that he struggled with the intruders while trying to protect Perdew. Edwards stated that he heard gunshots and realized that he had been shot in the arm. Edwards testified that, when Perdew did not answer him when he yelled at her and he could tell that she was not moving, he realized she was dead. When the men forced Edwards's arms behind his back and tried to bind them with duct tape, he "was able to turn around and start fighting." At one point, one of the men referred to the other as "Jonathan." The men eventually fled, and Edwards indicated that he was shot in the leg just "before they took off out of the room."

¶ 13 Edwards subsequently retrieved his Ruger Mini-14 rifle from his closet and "went to the front of the trailer to see if [he] could see headlights anywhere." He then grabbed the cordless phone from the kitchen so that he could call 911. Edwards recalled that, as soon as he picked up the phone, Joel Nelson was on the phone, apparently having called Edwards. Nelson told Edwards to call 911. Edwards could not remember whether he had actually called 911, but Deputy Traversy and the paramedics arrived shortly thereafter. Edwards advised Traversy that two men had attacked him. At the trial, Edwards indicated that he could not remember all the details of what had occurred, and he testified that one of the responding paramedics was amazed that he had not lost consciousness. Edwards later discovered that his wallet, his cell phone, and Perdew's cell phone were missing from the trailer.

¶ 14 Edwards testified that prior to May 26, 2004, he and Nelson had been friends, and Nelson had been to his trailer on several occasions. Edwards had met Roundtree a few times while "hanging out" with Nelson, but he did not know the defendant. Edwards indicated that Nelson had children with two different girlfriends, Katreeka Hardy and Christy McCormick.

¶ 15 Christy McCormick testified that on May 26, 2004, Nelson, Roundtree, and the defendant had stopped by her apartment in Metropolis at approximately 12:30 a.m. They were "dressed in black" and were "acting rowdy and loud." McCormick indicated that the defendant was armed with a black handgun, and he took a latex glove from a drawer in her kitchen. While Roundtree and the defendant waited downstairs, McCormick accompanied Nelson upstairs, where he retrieved a second black handgun, which he had previously stashed in her bedroom closet. McCormick testified that the three men were "talking of a robbery," but they did not say who they were going to rob or where it was going to occur. McCormick tried to talk them out of it but could only convince Nelson not to go. The defendant and Roundtree subsequently left in Nelson's New Yorker, while Nelson stayed behind. McCormick indicated that the defendant had left her apartment with the handgun in his possession and Roundtree had left with the handgun that Nelson had retrieved from her closet. They also left with a green and blue diaper bag, which was later found in a wooded area a mile or so away from where the Lorcin handgun was recovered.

¶ 16 McCormick testified that around 2 a.m. Roundtree called Nelson from her apartment using Edwards's cell phone. Thereafter, Nelson called Edwards's trailer, and believing that Edwards was dying, Nelson "freaked out" and drove McCormick's car to Katreeka Hardy's house, where he had Hardy call 911. He then returned to McCormick's apartment. Around 3 a.m., McCormick dropped Nelson off at Hardy's house. Around 6 a.m., the defendant and Roundtree returned to McCormick's apartment, banging on the door and throwing rocks at her upstairs window. She did not respond, however, or acknowledge their presence.

¶ 17 In...