Opinion ID: 2135655
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: On October 27, 1988, defendant was an inmate at Stateville Correctional Center. He was assigned to work in the dining room and was expected to report between 5 and 5:30 a.m. Testimony revealed, however, that defendant did not show up for work on this date. Gary Adams, an employee supervisor at Stateville, testified that on the morning of October 27, 1988, he saw the defendant in the area of the commissary and it appeared as if he was hiding something behind his back. Jessie and James White, two additional Stateville employees, testified that at about 6:40 a.m. on October 27, 1988, they were walking down the main tunnel toward the commissary. As they approached the commissary, the Whites saw a cap belonging to Suon Troeng on the ground. Troeng, a Stateville employee, was assigned to open the commissary on that day. Next, Jessie White saw an inmate come down the tunnel and jump over one of the side walls. The Whites looked over the wall and saw an inmate crouched over in the corner of the grass. When they asked him what he was doing, the inmate, whom Jessie White later identified as the defendant, jumped over the wall and started running with a large plastic bag over his shoulder. James White ran after the defendant and called at two correctional officers for help. As the defendant was running, he dropped the plastic bag and a set of keys. The officers caught the defendant and recovered the bag and the keys. Inside the bag were loose cartons of cigarettes. While the defendant was being chased, Jessie White ran into the commissary for help. She noticed that the commissary was in disarray, with bags strewn around and open cigarette cartons on the floor. When Jessie White came back out of the commissary, she found Troeng's body. An iron bar was found near the body, and it was subsequently determined that Troeng died from a severe head injury due to blunt-force trauma. Richard Williams testified that on October 27, 1988, he was the correctional sergeant in unit 1, a segregation unit separated from the general prison population. Following the defendant's apprehension, defendant was brought into unit 1 and strip searched by Williams. Among the items taken from the defendant were State-issued work boots and a blue jumpsuit. The jumpsuit had stains on the knee and thigh areas which appeared to be bloodstains. A partial shoe impression was found on a paper sack on the floor of the commissary. Walter Sherk, an expert in footprint comparisons, testified that he compared the footwear impression on the paper sack with the boots recovered from the defendant. He stated that while the boots recovered from the defendant were standard issue at the Department of Corrections, the impression was consistent with defendant's right boot. In looking for defendant's fingerprints at the scene, his prints were found on two separate plastic bags. Judie Welch, an expert in forensic serology, testified that she compared blood samples of Troeng and the defendant with blood found on an iron bar found at the scene, a jumpsuit taken from the defendant, and a pair of pants taken from the defendant. Welch's conclusions were that the bloodstains found on the iron bar and the jumpsuit could have originated from Troeng, but not the defendant. The bloodstain on the pants, however, could have originated from the defendant, but not Troeng. During the second day of trial, November 6, 1989, defense counsel orally moved to exclude the testimony of correctional officer Elton Lawler, or, in the alternative, for a mistrial on the basis that the State had violated discovery requirements. Defense counsel noted that he had just received, for the first time that morning, a copy of Lawler's report, which was dated October 24, 1989. Lawler's report indicated that he was the first person to search the defendant following his arrest and found, among other things, two pairs of gloves on the defendant and four or five stingers. Stingers are heating elements for boiling water for coffee. The gloves were examined by the crime lab and found to have bloodstains on them consistent with that of Troeng's blood type. Defense counsel argued to the trial court that the late disclosure of Lawler's report was unduly prejudicial because prior to the surfacing of this report, there was no evidence linking the defendant to the gloves. While defense counsel was aware that the gloves existed and knew the result of the blood test performed on the gloves, there was no report linking the defendant to the gloves. Thus, defense counsel contended that prior to the surfacing of this report, the evidence would only show that the defendant was guilty of the theft of cigarettes from the commissary. Additionally, defense counsel pointed out that it was not until October 20, 1989, that he received a supplemental list of witnesses containing Lawler's name and the name of Yolanda Galvan, a correctional officer who allegedly received the gloves from Lawler. Upon receiving the supplemental list, defense counsel asked the prosecutor if he had a report from Lawler, but the prosecutor responded that he had not yet received a report from either Lawler or Galvan. The prosecutor responded to defense counsel's objection by noting that he first learned on October 22 or 23, 1989, while reconstructing the chain of custody for the gloves, that Lawler found the gloves on the defendant. The prosecutor stated that contrary to defense counsel's assertions of not having prior notice of Lawler's report, the report was given to defense counsel on October 25 or 26, 1989, only a day or two after it was prepared. The trial court denied defendant's motion and Lawler was allowed to testify. Lawler's testimony was consistent with the information contained in his report. Additionally, Lawler stated that immediately following his search of defendant, he turned over the stingers and the gloves to Yolanda Galvan. Lawler also claimed that he prepared a report of the incident and filed it with Galvan on October 27, 1988. Galvan testified that she received the gloves and two stingers from Lawler, but that he did not file a report. At the close of the State's case in chief, the parties stipulated that the Stateville commissary was inventoried on October 31, 1988, and, taking into account all of the cigarettes which had been taken into custody, an additional 242 packs of cigarettes remained unaccounted for following the break-in at the commissary. There was no evidence, however, as to any previous inventory of the commissary prior to that date. In his own defense, the defendant testified that on October 27, 1988, he arrived at his work assignment at about 5 a.m. Nobody was in the dining room, so the defendant left to get some supplies and then returned. When the inmates and staff began to arrive for breakfast between 5 and 5:30 a.m., the defendant emptied a trash container and then decided to go to the laundry room to get some bleach. As he approached the laundry room, he saw correctional officer Gary Adams and two inmates in the food wagon, and he waved at them. Shortly thereafter, the defendant decided to follow Adams to the general store and assist him there. When the defendant got to the store, though, Adams and the inmates were already inside. The defendant banged on the door of the store and waited about 10 minutes until he saw a line of inmates on their way back from breakfast. When he saw this, he realized it was close to 7 a.m. and he had to report back to the dining room to be counted. On the way back, he passed the commissary and saw a hat, some keys, some stingers, and two or three large bags on the ground. Next, the defendant claimed that he heard some groaning. He looked over the wall and saw Troeng lying on the ground. He climbed over the wall and lifted Troeng up to a sitting position. Some blood was coming from Troeng's mouth, but he did not appear to be seriously injured. The defendant did not want to be blamed for the incident, so he climbed back over the wall. The defendant recalled that, as he began to leave the area, he picked up two stingers, the keys, and one of the bags. He looked in the bag and saw that it contained a lot of cigarettes. He then heard someone coming so he hid on the other side of the wall. He still had the cigarettes with him, but he never made a conscious decision to steal them. When somebody yelled at him, he ran toward the general store and, as he did so, he dropped the bag of cigarettes and the keys. The defendant denied striking Troeng with an iron bar. He also testified that he did not have any gloves with him that day and that, after he was taken into custody, Lawler searched him but did not find any gloves.