Opinion ID: 1345745
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: The evidence relevant to defendant's purpose.

Text: David Gawronski awakened Ava early on January 6, 1982, screaming that the house was on fire. There was no fire in their bedroom at that time. When Ava tried to leave the room she was driven back by intense heat in the dining room. Based on this testimony, other evidence of the manner in which the separate fires in the home spread, and defendant's admission that he knew that David and Ava Gawronski were in their bedroom when he ignited the gasoline vapor and that their daughter was an infant who could not care for herself, the People argued that defendant's purpose in setting the fires was to kill all three members of the Gawronski household. Defendant testified, however, that his purpose in setting the fires was to drive the Gawronskis out of the house. Evidence of his extrajudicial statements made both before and after the crimes was consistent in expressing his intent when he went to the Gawronski home to set fires in the house for the purpose of driving the family outside. He planned to shoot David Gawronski as he fled from the front door as Ava Gawronski watched. To do so he would set one fire in the dining room to prevent the family from using the patio door as an exit. To drive the family members out of the front door another fire was to be set at the back of the house. Defendant assumed the master bedroom was in the front of the house. The plan was carried out methodically. One bucket of gasoline was left near a window at the rear of the house that defendant thought might be a bedroom, although he was not sure. Another bucket of gasoline was left on the patio with an unlit flare and a shotgun. Then defendant returned to the rear of the house where he threw the bucket of gasoline through the window, followed by the flare. Defendant threw the flare even though he had heard screams from David and Ava Gawronski and knew they might be in the room. After this he went to the patio where he threw the second bucket of gasoline through the sliding door or adjacent window. Defendant then picked up the shotgun, placed it in the trunk of a car he had rented, and left the scene. The shotgun and ammunition for it were found in the car during a search conducted two days after the fire. Although defendant knew, when he heard the Gawronskis' screams, that he could not carry out the plan specifically, he intended to carry out whatever other steps [he] had already preplanned.