People v. Young

233 N.E.3d 906

2022 IL App (1st) 210534

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

v.Deshanta YOUNG, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1-21-0534

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Third Division.

November 23, 2022

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County. No. 02 CR 11395 03, The Honorable James B. Linn, Judge Presiding.

James E. Chadd, Douglas R. Hoff, and David T. Harris, of State Appellate Defender’s Office, of Chicago, for appellant.

Kimberly M. Foxx, State’s Attorney, of Chicago (Enrique Abraham, David H. Iskowich, and Retha Stotts, Assistant State’s Attorneys, of counsel), for the People.

OPINION

JUSTICE D.B. WALKER¹ delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

¶ 1 Following a bench trial, defendant, Deshanta Young, was found guilty of ag- gravated kidnapping for ransom, aggravated kidnapping while armed with a firearm, and aggravated unlawful restraint. He was sentenced to 20 years for aggravated kidnapping for ransom, 20 years for aggravated kidnapping while armed with a firearm, and 7 years for aggravated unlawful restraint, to be served concurrently in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). Defendant was tried separately from his four codefendants—Cameron Fulwiley, Sedgwick Williams, Rashon Stokes, and Kelwyn Sellers—who were acquitted following a bench trial before the same trial court.

¶ 2 At the codefendants’ trial, the State presented only the testimony of the complaining witness, Dale Bragg, whose account of the kidnapping the trial court found insufficiently credible in the absence of any corroboration to find the codefendants guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. At defendant’s trial, however, the State presented testimony from Bragg as well as the prior statement and testimony of an additional witness, Cassandra Johnson. The trial court found this additional evidence to be sufficient corroboration of Bragg’s testimony and found defendant guilty of the foregoing offenses.

¶ 3 On direct appeal, this court vacated defendant’s conviction for aggravated unlawful restraint, but affirmed his other convictions and associated sentences. People v. Young, 368 Ill. App. 3d 1223, 341 Ill.Dec. 760, 931 N.E.2d 368 (2006) (table) (unpublished order under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 23). In 2009, defendant filed a pro se petition seeking postconviction relief pursuant to the Post-Conviction Hearing Act (Act) (725 ILCS 5/122-1 et seq. (West 2014)), which was summarily dismissed. This court affirmed. People v. Young, 406 Ill. App. 3d 1210, 376 Ill.Dec. 174, 998 N.E.2d 716 (2011) (table) (unpublished order under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 23). In 2014, defendant sought leave to file a successive postconviction petition alleging, among other things, actual innocence and ineffective assistance of appellate counsel for failure to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence on direct appeal. The trial court docketed defendant’s successive petition and advanced it to the second stage of postconviction proceedings, but then granted the State’s motion to dismiss. Defendant appeals from that dismissal, arguing that the trial court erred in dismissing his claims without an evidentiary hearing. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the decision of the trial court.

¶ 4 BACKGROUND

¶ 5 This court has twice considered issues related to defendant’s convictions for aggravated kidnapping for ransom, aggravated kidnapping while armed with a firearm, and aggravated unlawful restraint. A detailed recitation of the evidence and trial testimony can therefore be found in our prior orders, which we hereby incorporate by reference and from which the following relevant facts are drawn. Young, No. 1-04-2540; Young, 368 Ill. App. 3d 1223, 341 Ill.Dec. 760, 931 N.E.2d 368; Young, 406 Ill. App. 3d 1210, 376 Ill.Dec. 174, 998 N.E.2d 716.

¶ 6 I. Trial

¶ 7 The complaining witness, Dale Bragg, testified that he had been convicted of two felonies, namely, armed robbery and forgery. After serving a 15-year sentence for the armed robbery conviction, Bragg worked for a time as an FBI informant. Although he was originally paid for his work for the FBI, he ceased to be paid for his involvement at the time of trial due to his arrest for drug conspiracy. Bragg testified that at the time of alleged kidnapping, he considered himself a drug "bro- ker" with access to large amounts of cocaine and heroin.

¶ 8 Bragg testified that before the alleged kidnapping, he had introduced codefendant Stokes to a man named "Albini" to facilitate a heroin transaction. Albini subsequently claimed that Stokes owed him around $2200 and asked Bragg to collect the money from Stokes. On April 11, 2002, Bragg arranged a meeting at Stoke’s home on South Morgan Street in Chicago to effectuate a heroin transaction. When Bragg arrived at the porch of Stoke’s home at around 8:40 p.m., codefendants Williams and Sellers placed a gun to Bragg’s head and demanded the keys to Bragg’s black Lincoln Town Car. Once inside the vehicle, Williams and Sellers threatened Bragg’s life if he did not give them drugs and money.

¶ 9 Williams and Sellers then drove Bragg at gunpoint to the home of codefendant Fulwiley and witness Cassandra Johnson, which Bragg later learned was located in Harvey, Illinois. Williams and Sellers brought Bragg down to the basement of the house, where defendant was waiting with Fulwiley and Stokes. Bragg identified defendant in court as one of the men who was present at Fulwiley’s house in Harvey. Bragg testified that the group interrogated him in order to find out where he stored the drugs. Bragg told them he did not have any drugs, but that he could call a few of his connections to obtain some. The group brought him to the main floor of the house and locked him a bedroom closet. Later, Bragg was taken out of the closet, and Williams hit Bragg in the head with a shoe. Eventually, Bragg told the group that some drugs were buried outside his condominium located in downtown Chicago. However, Bragg testified that this statement was a lie and that he instead hoped that the group would be observed digging around his building and that they would be arrested.

¶ 10 Defendant, Williams, Sellers, and Stokes left Fulwiley’s house to find the drugs that were supposedly buried near Bragg’s condominium, but Fulwiley remained with Bragg and offered him some food. Fulwiley and Bragg discovered that they had some acquaintances in common. Fulwiley allowed Bragg to sit on the bed and watch television. However, after Fulwiley received a telephone call telling him that the men could not find the drugs, he placed Bragg back into the closet. When the group returned, they took Bragg out of the closet, and Williams hit Bragg on the head with a gun and accused him of lying. Defendant yelled at Bragg. Williams tied Bragg’s hands and feet together with Bragg’s shoelaces and placed him in the closet again. Williams then told Bragg that he needed to come up with either drugs or money. Defendant, Williams, and Stokes left the house, while Sellers and Fulwiley remained with Bragg.

¶ 11 While still in the closet, Bragg explained to Fulwiley that the group must have looked for the drugs in the wrong place and suggested that Fulwiley and Sellers take him to his condominium so that he could show them where to find the drugs. Fulwiley untied Bragg and drove him to the condominium. Sellers accompanied them on the drive and held a gun to Bragg’s head during the trip. Outside the condominium, Bragg fumbled around in the bushes near a window in a failed attempt to set off a security alarm. Bragg then returned to the vehicle where Fulwiley and Sellers sat and asked to use one of their cell phones to place a call to obtain drugs. Bragg used one of Fulwiley’s or Seller’s cell phones to make the call, as the men drove back to Fulwiley’s home in Harvey. However, instead of placing a call to a drug dealer, Bragg left a cryptic request with his contact at the FBI, for whom he had worked as an informant.

¶ 12 Upon returning to Fulwiley’s house, Bragg discussed with Fulwiley a plan to obtain drugs using bundles of fake money. Sellers then went home for the evening, and Fulwiley told Bragg to sleep on the living room couch, which was close to the front door of the house. The doors to the house were locked, but the bedroom doors were left open so Fulwiley and Johnson could check on Bragg. Bragg testified that he did not attempt to leave the house at that time because he did not have his keys, his vehicle, or his identification.

¶ 13 On the morning of April 12, 2002, Bragg awoke before Fulwiley or Johnson and took a cordless phone from the residence into the kitchen to call 911. He informed the Harvey police that he had been kidnapped and gave them a phone number to reach his FBI contact. Shortly thereafter, Fulwiley received a phone call, tied Bragg up again, and placed him back into the closet. Defendant, Williams, and Stokes then returned to the house. Fulwiley told them about Bragg’s plan to use bundles of fake money to obtain drugs.

¶ 14 Bragg began to cut up phone book pages into the size of money, placed the fake currency in a bag, and covered it with some real money. Bragg then used his cell phone to place another call to his FBI contact, pretending to the group as though he was contacting a drug dealer. Bragg arranged a location to meet his FBI contact. Fulwiley placed a gun in the glove compartment of Bragg’s Lincoln Town Car, and he and Bragg proceeded to the exchange location near the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) campus. Williams followed them in another vehicle, while defendant and Stokes followed in a third vehicle. As the vehicles approached their destination, FBI agents stopped Fulwiley, Bragg, and Williams, but were unaware of the third vehicle carrying defendant and Stokes. Defendant and Stokes drove off, after observing the agents stop the other vehicles. Bragg explained to the agents that he had been kidnapped and told them of the house in Harvey where he was held....