Opinion ID: 2252960
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Establishment of Guilt

Text: The plurality opinion [1] authored by Justice Freeman and joined by two other justices focuses on supposed errors of the trial judge and says very little about the evidence amassed against the defendant. Consideration of that evidence, however, is necessary for a full understanding of this case. What it shows is that the defendant convicted himself by his several out-of-court statements. These ranged from his furnishing of detailed factual information known only to a person involved in the crime to outright admissions that he was the killer. In sum, these statements, together with the other evidence in the case, furnish ample support for the jury's verdict of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Detailed summations follow. Defendant became a suspect when, in hopes of collecting the reward offered, he approached the police with information about the Nicarico murder. On May 2, 1983, Detective Dennis Kurzawa interviewed defendant, who claimed he had received information from a man named Ray Ortega. Defendant told Kurzawa that Ortega and another man, Alexander (sometimes called Alejandro) Hernandez, had kidnapped a little girl during the course of a home invasion in Naperville. The girl had been injured, and Hernandez felt that he had better finish it. The home invasion had been set up by a person that defendant knew only as White Boy. On May 9, 1983, defendant phoned Detective Thomas Vosburgh. He reported that Hernandez fired a gunshot at him because he knew too much about the Nicarico murder. Vosburgh picked up defendant, but could find no evidence of a shooting. Vosburgh took defendant back to the Du Page County sheriff's office. On the way back to the sheriff's office, defendant began talking with Vosburgh. He was very upset and emotional. He told him that he had had a vision which revealed to him what had happened to the murdered girl in Naperville. He said that Jeanine had been dragged from her house, wrapped in a blanket, and placed in a car. He knew that she had been anally raped, hit on the back of the head so hard that her head left a depression in the dirt, and left in woods near a field. His account was accurate and replete with facts not known to the public. He begged Vosburgh to tell him that his vision was incorrect. Upon arriving at the sheriff's office, he spoke with Vosburgh and Detective Kurzawa, where he reiterated his story about his vision. Again, his account included facts about how Jeanine was murdered that were not available to the public, and again he begged the officers to tell him it was not true. The detectives spoke with Thomas Knight, the chief prosecutor of Du Page County, because defendant knew too much nonpublic information about Jeanine's murder. Knight decided to put defendant before a grand jury, and set up a date for three days later (May 12). Cruz spent the night of May 9 at the sheriff's office. The next morning he again spoke with Detective Kurzawa, and at this time expanded on his story. Defendant said that on the previous evening he had been approached by Hernandez about 30 minutes before a gunshot was fired at him. Hernandez had pointed to his head and told defendant that that was where he had hit Jeanine. Hernandez related that at the outset he had not meant to hurt Jeanine, but once he hurt her he felt he had to finish it. Hernandez also opined that defendant knew too much, and asked, What good is a dead Chinaman? Chinaman was defendant's street name. Thirty minutes later someone shot at defendant with a gun. At some point, defendant experienced his vision which told him the unreleased facts of Jeanine's murder. Defendant also told Kurzawa that he had received information from a man named Emilio Donatlan. Donatlan had told defendant that Ray Ortega had been over at his house on the day of the murder, at which time they were sniffing paint to get high. Hernandez came over with Jeanine, and offered her to Donatlan for sex. Donatlan accepted. The girl began screaming, Ortega told Donatlan to quiet the girl, and Donatlan struck her over the head with a bat. Ortega then kicked Jeanine down the stairs. At some point Jeanine's nose was broken. Hernandez then took her out to the car and drove away with her, and defendant denied knowledge of what happened after that. While defendant's knowledge of the nature of the attack was damningly accurate, his version of the circumstances surrounding the attack soon proved to be false. The supposed players in the murder were interviewed, and Donatlan's house was searched. Cruz related this same basic story before the special grand jury that convened on May 12, 1983, except that he did not claim to have come by the information through a vision. Instead, he said he derived the knowledge from talking with Ortega and Hernandez. Outside the presence of the grand jury, Knight asked defendant what he was doing on February 25, 1983. Defendant replied that he was working at the Oasis Whirlpool. However, upon investigation the owner told police that defendant did not begin working there until several months after February 1983. On May 26, 1983, defendant went out with Dan Fowler to celebrate his birthday. Fowler testified that he picked up defendant, that they purchased some beer, and that they were sitting in Fowler's car when defendant became very emotional and started to cry. Fowler had never seen defendant cry before. Defendant asked Fowler if he had heard about the killing of the little girl in Naperville, and told Fowler that he was there and had been involved but was not the one who killed her. He told Fowler that Jeanine had reminded him of his little sister. He told Fowler that the murder weapon was a baseball bat and that he knew where it was. However, when Fowler suggested that they retrieve it and turn it in to the police, defendant said no. They then went to the house of John Ruiz, whose mother and sister were employed by the Nicaricos as housecleaners. On June 24, 1983, defendant was again brought before a grand jury, and again asked where he was on February 25, 1983. At this time he changed his alibi, claiming that he was smoking dope all day with Iliana Garcia, Gracie Martinez, David Hoehn and Joe Schaeffer. Again, this alibi did not pan out. On July 21, 1983, defendant was brought before a grand jury for the third time. He talked about his conversations with Detectives Vosburgh and Kurzawa, and again related how Jeanine was killed. Once again, he demonstrated knowledge of information not possessed by the general public. Ramon Mares, a friend of defendant, testified before a grand jury on October 20, 1983. He said that, in March of 1983, he was riding around with defendant in a car when defendant told him that he had been present at the Nicarico slaying, but that he was not the one that killed her. At defendant's trial, Mares limited the extent of the March 1983 discussion. Mares testified that defendant became very upset and began to cry, which was unusual for defendant. Defendant told him to promise not to tell anyone. I know who killed the little girl in Naperville. I know who did it. Mares then asked him how he knew, and whether he was present at the murder. Defendant's reply was inaudible. On November 21, 1983, defendant, who was then confined to the Du Page County jail, talked with Steven Ford, a fellow inmate. He told Ford that he kind of killed a girl in Aurora. He also said that he had stashed something in the woods. On March 13, 1984, defendant asked to speak with the lieutenant in charge of the Du Page County jail, Robert Winkler. He told Winkler that Hernandez and Stephen Buckley had approached him to commit a burglary in Naperville. He declined, but hot-wired a car for them. Hernandez called him two days later, and asked him if he wanted to have sex with a little girl. Again, Cruz declined. Hernandez then indicated that he would dispose of the vehicle that Cruz had hot-wired. In November 1984, defendant had many conversations with Steven Pecoraro, another inmate in the Du Page County jail. Defendant told Pecoraro that he, Hernandez and Buckley had broken into the Nicarico house, they abducted Jeanine, and took her to an abandoned house. They took the girl, who was screaming and crying, upstairs. Hernandez put two fingers into her vagina. He told him that she was killed because, once they had taken her, it was too late to let her go because she could identify them. Pecoraro also testified about an incident that occurred one morning in February 1985. Defendant came into a common area shared by defendant, Pecoraro, and others, and was in a good mood. He was singing, Ooh little Jeanine, and he bragged that he was going to write a book called How to Kill Little Girls, or Five Ways to Crush a Skull. In late summer and early fall of 1987, while an inmate in the Menard penitentiary, defendant had several conversations with Robert Turner, another inmate. On at least one of these occasions, defendant related how Jeanine had been killed. He gave basically the same story that he gave to Pecoraro except that he told him that Brian Dugan was also involved. Defendant told Turner that he had tried to scam the reward money from the authorities by telling them that he had received a vision of how Jeanine had been murdered. At that time defendant also told Turner that it was a shame that he had to kill her, because she was the tightest little white bitch he ever had. In an attempt to discredit Turner's testimony, the plurality improperly reaches outside the trial record and considers, as an impeachment matter, statements made by prosecutors at Turner's own trial. The gist of the statements is that Turner and the State may have made a deal in exchange for Turner's testimony. The plurality opines that the arrangement clearly impugns Turner's testimony at defendant's trial concerning any agreement he might have made with the State. (162 Ill.2d at 330, 205 Ill.Dec. at 353, 643 N.E.2d at 644.) However, since defendant chose not to introduce this information at his trial despite its availability, any sua sponte weighing done by this court as to the relative credibility of the evidence (a dubious exercise to begin with) should be resolved in the State's favor.