Opinion ID: 2013856
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Evidence of Security Measures at Victim's Apartment

Text: At the first trial, the court granted defendant's in limine motion to bar evidence that the victim installed homemade security devices in her apartment following the alleged sexual assault. As already noted, on retrial the court indicated that it would not revisit in limine rulings from the first trial. At the second trial, Zacarias Meana, Entrata's uncle, testified that, during the first week in May 1987, he helped his niece move into a new apartment in the same complex where she had been living, and helped her install wooden poles to secure the doors from the inside. Over the objection of defense counsel, photographs of Entrata's apartment, which showed the make-shift security devices, were also introduced into evidence. Defendant's counsel later called to the trial court's attention its in limine order from the first trial and argued that the introduction of evidence contrary to that order was a ground for a mistrial. The trial court denied the motion for a mistrial. Defendant claims, in his post-conviction petition, that counsel was ineffective for failing to raise the trial court's prior in limine order as a bar to the admission of this evidence. We conclude that defendant's claim is barred by the doctrine of res judicata. On direct review from defendant's second conviction, defendant argued that the introduction of Meana's testimony and the photographs of Entrata's apartment were irrelevant and prejudicial and should have been excluded. Enis, 163 Ill.2d at 404-05, 206 Ill.Dec. 604, 645 N.E.2d 856. We held that any error in the admission of this evidence was not a material factor in defendant's conviction; that it did not deprive defendant of a fundamentally fair trial; and that it is not reversible error. Enis, 163 Ill.2d at 404-05, 206 Ill. Dec. 604, 645 N.E.2d 856. Defendant cannot obtain post-conviction relief by rephrasing this issue as one of ineffective assistance of counsel. See Evans, 186 Ill.2d at 103, 237 Ill.Dec. 118, 708 N.E.2d 1158; Williams, 186 Ill.2d at 62, 237 Ill. Dec. 112, 708 N.E.2d 1152.