Court Opinion

ID: 9861573
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 00:10:23.957628+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:28:40.769807
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE TULLY, dissenting: I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion affirming defendant’s conviction for first degree murder. The majority’s conclusion that the evidence was sufficient to support the jury’s finding of guilt is not supported by the record. I would reverse defendant’s conviction. When reviewing a challenge to the sufficiency of evidence, the critical inquiry is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. People v. Willer, 281 Ill. App. 3d 939, 667 N.E.2d 708 (1996). We will not reverse a conviction unless the evidence is so unreasonable, improbable, or unsatisfactory as to justify a reasonable doubt of defendant’s guilt. People v. Collins, 106 Ill. 2d 237, 478 N.E.2d 267 (1985). Here, the only evidence that the defendant was the shooter was the grand jury testimony and written statement of Latonya Payton, which Ms. Payton disavowed at trial. I find this evidence to be so unsatisfactory as to justify reasonable doubt of defendant’s guilt. I think the majority fails to conduct a proper analysis of the evidence by relying on the jury’s determination of which testimony is credible and simply stating that this court cannot substitute our judgment for that of the jury. I agree that we must accept the jury’s determinations of the credibility of a witness. However, our analysis must go further to determine whether that evidence which the jury found to be credible was satisfactory to sustain the conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. In this case, I do not believe that it was. The majority relies upon Morrow, Curtis and Zizzo to support the conclusion that a recanted prior inconsistent statement alone is sufficient to sustain a conviction. However, while maintaining that corroborative evidence is not necessary to sustain a conviction, each of these cases notes the corroborative evidence as support in affirming the conviction. In Zizzo, the court noted that the witness gave two sworn accounts of defendant’s role in the alleged crime, both of which could not be true. The court held that the trier of fact weighed the inconsistent statements, after listening and watching the witness on the stand, and found that his prior testimony was more truthful. The court found nothing in the record to justify the substitution of its judgment for that of the trial court with respect to the witness’s credibility. The court found that this statement, taken together with the discovery of defendant’s fingerprint at the crime scene, was sufficient for a rational trier of fact to find defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Zizzo, 301 Ill. App. 3d 481, 703 N.E.2d 546. Similarly, in People v. Curtis, 296 Ill. App. 3d 991, 696 N.E.2d 372, the court found that the trial court weighed the evidence and assessed the witness’ testimony and properly could have found that defendant’s prior inconsistent statement was more believable than his trial testimony. The Curtis court stated that this prior statement, combined with other physical evidence linking defendant to the crime, was sufficient to find defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The majority does acknowledge cases that have found the evidence insufficient to support a conviction where there is only a disavowed witness statement and no other evidence against a defendant. Without any analysis though, the majority merely states that these cases “turned on their facts” (352 Ill. App. 3d at 80) and do not establish that a recanted prior inconsistent statement cannot support a conviction. I agree that there may be a case where a recanted inconsistent statement alone supports a conviction, but I do not believe this is that case. I believe these cases, summarily dismissed by the majority, support my position that in this case, the evidence is not sufficient to sustain the conviction. In People v. Brown, 303 Ill. App. 3d 949, 709 N.E.2d 609 (1999), the court found that a recanted witness statement alone, with no other evidence against the defendant, was insufficient to support the conviction. After finding that certain witness statements were improperly admitted, the court was left with only one witness’s prior statement implicating the defendant in the murder, which the witness disavowed at trial. The Brown court reasoned that the only evidence linking the defendant to the victim’s murder was a disavowed witness statement. The court noted that there was no physical evidence indicating that the defendant committed the crime. The court found that the recanted testimony alone was insufficient to prove defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In People v. Parker, 234 Ill. App. 3d 273, 600 N.E.2d 529 (1992), the three eyewitnesses testified that the defendant had not participated in the crime, but their prior inconsistent statements said that he had participated. The court reversed defendant’s conviction, finding that the witnesses gave explanations for giving untruthful testimony in their previous statements, indicating their unreliability. This, combined with the complete lack of physical evidence, led the court to conclude that defendant had not been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. See also People v. Arcos, 282 Ill. App. 3d 870, 668 N.E.2d 1177 (1996) (the court reversed defendant’s conviction since the witness disavowed earlier statement implicating defendant in the murder and there was no corroboration for the earlier statement); People v. Wise, 205 Ill. App. 3d 1097, 563 N.E.2d 1057 (1990) (witness disavowed earlier statement that defendant had robbed him, and this combined with complete lack of corroborative evidence rendered the witness’s testimony insufficient to sustain the defendant’s conviction). In the instant case, as in Brown, Parker, Arcos, and Wise, the only evidence linking defendant to the victim’s murder is a recanted witness statement. Other than Ms. Payton’s prior statements, which she recanted at trial, there is no physical evidence indicating that the defendant was the shooter. The majority points to the fingerprints of the defendant on a compact disc case that was recovered from the vehicle used in the shooting. However, the evidence showed that Ms. Payton had the car for five days and there was no testimony as to when the compact disc case was put in the car or that the defendant left his fingerprint on the compact disc case when it was in the car. Even more troubling is the majority noting the fingerprint of the defendant on a beer bottle taken from Ms. Payton’s apartment. This evidence merely puts the defendant in Ms. Payton’s apartment on March 19, 1997. This evidence does not link the defendant to the crime, and the fact that the majority noted such evidence as “corroborating” raises serious concerns about what the majority relies upon to support this conviction. Finally, Ms. Payton was questioned by police for more than 24 hours and she gave the police at least eight different stories of what occurred the night of the shooting. Significantly, Payton’s grand jury testimony and her statement are contradicted by other eyewitness accounts. The State’s witness, L.C. Robinson, testified that he watched as a man got out of the front passenger door of the SUy walked over to the victim, shot the victim in the head and returned to the vehicle and got in the front passenger door. Payton’s recanted testimony was that the defendant was the driver, that the defendant got out of the car, shot the victim, and returned to the car and drove away. I look at the evidence and see an uncorroborated statement that is inconsistent with other eyewitness accounts; a statement given after more than 24 hours of interrogation; a statement taken after eight other versions were given. I do not find any other evidence against the defendant. Due to the discrepancies in Ms. Payton’s testimony which was recanted and lacked corroborative evidence, I believe that Payton’s prior statements, alone, were insufficient to prove defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Accordingly, I dissent.