Illinois Official Reports 

Supreme Court

People v. Reyes, 2016 IL 119271

Caption in Supreme

Court:

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Appellee, v. 

ZACHARY A. REYES, Appellant.

Docket No. 119271

Filed September 22, 2016

Decision Under 

Review

Appeal from the Appellate Court for the Second District; heard in that 

court on appeal from the Circuit Court of Kendall County, the Hon. 

John A. Barsanti, Judge, presiding.

Judgment Appellate court judgment reversed.

Circuit court judgment reversed.

Cause remanded.

Counsel on

Appeal

Michael J. Pelletier, State Appellate Defender, Thomas A. Lilien, 

Deputy Defender, and Kathleen J. Hamill and Fletcher P. Hamill, 

Assistant Appellate Defenders, of the Office of the State Appellate 

Defender, of Elgin, for appellant.

Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, of Springfield (Carolyn E. Shapiro, 

Solicitor General, and Michael M. Glick and Gopi Kashyap, Assistant 

Attorneys General, of Chicago, of counsel), for the People.
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PER CURIAM 

OPINION 

¶ 1 The defendant, Zachary A. Reyes, was charged by indictment in the circuit court of 

Kendall County with the first degree murder of Jason Ventura and the attempted murders of 

Eduardo Gaytan and Jorge Ruiz. The indictment alleged that on December 20, 2009, defendant 

personally discharged a firearm in the direction of a vehicle occupied by Ventura, Gaytan, and 

Ruiz and that defendant’s actions caused the death of Ventura as well as serious injury to 

Gaytan. Defendant, who was 16 years old at the time of the shootings, was prosecuted as an 

adult (see 705 ILCS 405/5-130(1)(a)(i) (West 2008)). Following a jury trial, he was found 

guilty of the charged offenses. 

¶ 2 At defendant’s sentencing hearing, the trial court imposed the mandatory minimum 

sentence of 45 years’ imprisonment for the first degree murder conviction. This sentence 

consisted of the minimum 20-year sentence for murder (see 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-20(a) (West 

2008) (providing a range of 20 to 60 years)), plus a minimum 25-year mandatory firearm 

enhancement (see 730 ILCS 5/5-8-1(a)(1)(d)(iii) (West 2008) (providing for an add-on of 25 

years to natural life)). The court also sentenced defendant to 26 years’ imprisonment for each 

of the two attempted murder convictions. The 26-year sentences consisted of the minimum 

6-year sentence for attempted murder (see 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-25(a) (West 2008) (providing 

range of 6 to 30 years)), plus a 20-year mandatory firearm enhancement (see 730 ILCS 

5/5-8-1(a)(1)(d)(ii) (West 2008)). In addition, the trial court determined that, pursuant to 

section 5-8-4(d)(1) of the Unified Code of Corrections (730 ILCS 5/5-8-4(d)(1) (West 2008)), 

all of defendant’s sentences were required to run consecutively to each other. As a result, 

defendant was sentenced to a mandatory minimum aggregate sentence of 97 years’ 

imprisonment. Further, in light of the truth in sentencing statute (730 ILCS 5/3-6-3(b)(i)-(ii) 

(West 2008)), defendant was required to serve a minimum of 89 years of the 97-year sentence 

imposed before he would be eligible for release. Defendant appealed. 

¶ 3 In the appellate court, defendant argued that his sentence was unconstitutional pursuant to 

Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. ___, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012). In Miller, the Supreme Court held 

that the eighth amendment to the United States Constitution “forbids a sentencing scheme that 

mandates life in prison without possibility of parole for juvenile offenders.” Id. at ___, 132 S. 

Ct. at 2469. Citing its earlier decisions in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005) (holding it 

unconstitutional to impose capital punishment for crimes committed while under the age of 

18), and Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48 (2010) (holding it unconstitutional to sentence 

juvenile offenders to life imprisonment without possibility of parole for nonhomicide 

offenses), the Court in Miller explained that “children are constitutionally different from adults 

for purposes of sentencing” (id. at ___, 132 S. Ct. at 2464) and that “in imposing a State’s 

harshest penalties, a sentencer misses too much if he treats every child as an adult” (id. at ___, 

132 S. Ct. at 2468). The Supreme Court emphasized that a mandatory sentencing scheme for 

juveniles prevents the trial court from considering numerous mitigating factors, such as the 

juvenile offender’s age and attendant characteristics; the juvenile’s family and home 

environment and the circumstances of the offense, including the extent of the juvenile’s 

participation and the effect of any familial or peer pressure; the juvenile’s possible inability to 

interact with police officers or prosecutors or incapacity to assist his or her own attorneys; and 
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“the possibility of rehabilitation even when the circumstances most suggest it.” Id. at ___, 132 

S. Ct. at 2468. The Court concluded: 

“[A] judge or jury must have the opportunity to consider mitigating circumstances 

before imposing the harshest possible penalty for juveniles. By requiring that all 

children convicted of homicide receive lifetime incarceration without possibility of 

parole, regardless of their age and age-related characteristics and the nature of their 

crimes, the mandatory sentencing schemes before us violate this principle of 

proportionality, and so the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual 

punishment.” Id. at ___, 132 S. Ct. at 2475. 

¶ 4 The Court clarified that its holding was not a categorical prohibition of life-without-parole 

sentences for juvenile murderers. Id. at ___, 132 S. Ct. at 2469. Rather, the Court’s holding 

required that life-without-parole sentences be based on judicial discretion rather than statutory 

mandates. Id. 

¶ 5 In the appellate court, defendant acknowledged that he had not received an actual life 

sentence without possibility of parole. However, he contended that the various sentencing 

statutes to which he was subject had combined in such a way so as to eliminate all judicial 

discretion and impose on him a mandatory prison term that could not be served within one 

lifetime, i.e., a de facto natural life sentence without possibility of parole. Defendant 

maintained that the principles of Miller were applicable to such a de facto life sentence and, 

therefore, his sentence was unconstitutional. 

¶ 6 The appellate court rejected defendant’s argument. 2015 IL App (2d) 120471. The 

appellate court declined to extend the eighth amendment rationale in Miller to the facts of this 

case, concluding that Miller applied only to actual sentences of life without the possibility of 

parole and not to aggregate consecutive sentences that amounted to a de facto life term. Id.

¶¶ 23-25. The appellate court therefore affirmed defendant’s sentence. We granted defendant’s 

petition for leave to appeal. Ill. S. Ct. R. 315 (eff. Jan. 1, 2015). 

¶ 7 In this court, defendant again argues that he has received a de facto mandatory life sentence 

without the possibility of parole and that such a sentence is unconstitutional under Miller. 

Defendant therefore contends that his sentence should be vacated and the cause remanded for a 

new sentencing hearing. 

¶ 8 The State, in response, has filed a brief in which it concedes that the Miller rationale 

applies to a mandatory term of years that “indisputably amount[s]” to life imprisonment 

without the possibility of parole for a single offense or for offenses committed in a single 

course of conduct. We agree. 

¶ 9 A mandatory term-of-years sentence that cannot be served in one lifetime has the same 

practical effect on a juvenile defendant’s life as would an actual mandatory sentence of life 

without parole—in either situation, the juvenile will die in prison. Miller makes clear that a

juvenile may not be sentenced to a mandatory, unsurvivable prison term without first 

considering in mitigation his youth, immaturity, and potential for rehabilitation. As one court 

has stated:

“the teachings of the Roper/Graham/Miller trilogy require sentencing courts to provide 

an individualized sentencing hearing to weigh the factors for determining a juvenile’s 

‘diminished culpability and greater prospects for reform’ when, as here, the aggregate 

sentences result in the functional equivalent of life without parole. To do otherwise 
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would be to ignore the reality that lengthy aggregate sentences have the effect of 

mandating that a juvenile ‘die in prison even if a judge or jury would have thought that 

his youth and its attendant characteristics, along with the nature of his crime, made a 

lesser sentence (for example, life with the possibility of parole) more appropriate.’ 

Miller, 567 U.S. at ___, 132 S. Ct. at 2460. Such a lengthy sentence ‘ “means denial of 

hope; it means that good behavior and character improvement are immaterial; it means 

that whatever the future might hold in store for the mind and spirit of [the juvenile 

convict], he will remain in prison for the rest of his days.” ’ Graham, 560 U.S. at 70, 

130 S. Ct. at 2027 (quoting Naovarath v. State, 105 Nev. 525, 779 P.2d 944, 944 

(1989)). That is exactly the result that Miller held was unconstitutional. Miller, 567 

U.S. at ___, 132 S. Ct. at 2460.” Bear Cloud v. State, 2014 WY 113, ¶ 33, 334 P.3d 132 

(Wyo. 2014). 

See also, e.g., Brown v. State, 10 N.E.3d 1, 7-8 (Ind. 2014) (150-year sentence “ ‘forswears 

altogether the rehabilitative ideal’ ” as stated in Miller, 567 U.S. at ___, 132 S. Ct. at 2465 

(internal quotation marks omitted)); Fuller v. State, 9 N.E.3d 653, 657-58 (Ind. 2014) (same);

State v. Null, 836 N.W.2d 41 (Iowa 2013) (Miller applies to a sentence that amounts to the 

functional equivalent of life without parole); Moore v. Biter, 725 F.3d 1184, 1193-94 (9th Cir. 

2013) (sentence of 254 years is unconstitutional); People v. Caballero, 282 P.3d 291, 295 (Cal. 

2012). Accordingly, we hold that sentencing a juvenile offender to a mandatory term of years 

that is the functional equivalent of life without the possibility of parole constitutes cruel and 

unusual punishment in violation of the eighth amendment. 

¶ 10 In this case, defendant committed offenses in a single course of conduct that subjected him 

to a legislatively mandated sentence of 97 years, with the earliest opportunity for release after 

89 years. Because defendant was 16 years old at the time he committed the offenses, the 

sentencing scheme mandated that he remain in prison until at least the age of 105. The State 

concedes, and we agree, that defendant will most certainly not live long enough to ever become 

eligible for release. Unquestionably, then, under these circumstances, defendant’s 

term-of-years sentence is a mandatory, de facto life-without-parole sentence. We therefore 

vacate defendant’s sentence as unconstitutional pursuant to Miller.

¶ 11 Having vacated defendant’s sentence, we must determine the proper remedy. Both the 

State and defendant note that, during the pendency of this appeal, our legislature enacted a new 

law, codified in section 5-4.5-105 of the Unified Code of Corrections (730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-105 

(West Supp. 2015)), which provides a new sentencing scheme for individuals under 18 years 

of age at the time of the commission of an offense. In general, the new statute requires the 

sentencing judge to take into account several factors in mitigation in determining the 

appropriate sentence for those under 18. In addition, the statute provides that the imposition of 

firearm enhancements is a matter of discretion with the trial court:

“(b) Except as provided in subsection (c), the court may sentence the defendant to 

any disposition authorized for the class of the offense of which he or she was found 

guilty as described in Article 4.5 of this Code, and may, in its discretion, decline to 

impose any otherwise applicable sentencing enhancement based upon firearm 

possession, possession with personal discharge, or possession with personal discharge 

that proximately causes great bodily harm, permanent disability, permanent 

disfigurement, or death to another person. 
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 (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, if the defendant is convicted of first 

degree murder and would otherwise be subject to sentencing under clause (iii), (iv), (v), 

or (vii) of subsection (c) of Section 5-8-1 of this Code based on the category of persons 

identified therein, the court shall impose a sentence of not less than 40 years of 

imprisonment. In addition, the court may, in its discretion, decline to impose the 

sentencing enhancements based upon the possession or use of a firearm during the 

commission of the offense included in subsection (d) of Section 5-8-1.” 730 ILCS 

5/5-4.5-105(b), (c) (West Supp. 2015). 

¶ 12 Both the State and defendant agree that, pursuant to section 4 of the Statute on Statutes (5 

ILCS 70/4 (West 2014)), defendant is entitled, on remand, to be resentenced under the 

sentencing scheme found in section 5-4.5-105. See People v. Hollins, 51 Ill. 2d 68, 71 (1972) 

(section 4 of the Statute on Statutes entitles a defendant “to be sentenced under either the law in 

effect at the time the offense was committed or that in effect at the time of sentencing”). In 

addition, both the State and defendant agree that by applying this new sentencing scheme, the 

circuit court will have the discretion not to apply the firearm sentencing enhancements and, 

without these enhancements, the mandatory minimum aggregate sentence to which defendant 

would be subject is 32 years, a term that is not a de facto life sentence. Because defendant 

would not be subject to a mandatory, life-without-parole sentence under section 5-4.5-105, we 

remand this matter to the trial court with directions that a new sentencing hearing be held in 

accordance with this statute.

¶ 13 CONCLUSION 

¶ 14 The judgments of the circuit and appellate courts are reversed. The cause is remanded to 

the circuit court for resentencing in accordance with section 5-4.5-105 of the Unified Code of 

Corrections (730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-105 (West Supp. 2015)). 

¶ 15 Appellate court judgment reversed. 

¶ 16 Circuit court judgment reversed. 

¶ 17 Cause remanded.