People v. Battle

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People v. Battle

State: Illinois

Court: 1st District Appellate

Docket No: 1-06-1263 Rel

Case Date: 01/25/2008

Preview:FIFTH DIVISION January 25, 2008

No. 1-06-1263

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. RONALD BATTLE, Defendant-Appellant.

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Appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County

Honorable Luciano Panici, Judge Presiding.

JUSTICE GALLAGHER delivered the opinion of the court: A jury convicted defendant of first degree murder and armed robbery in connection with the robbery and shooting death of James Johns. After the jury convicted defendant, the trial court sentenced him to consecutive terms of 50 years' imprisonment for murder, 20 years' imprisonment for armed robbery, and an additional 25 years based on the jury's finding that the defendant used a firearm during the commission of the offense that was a proximate cause of Johns' death. Defendant now appeals the judgment on three different grounds. First, defendant contends that the trial court denied him a fair trial by instructing the jury with an improper version of Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, Criminal, No. 3.15 (4th ed. 2000) (IPI Criminal 4th No. 3.15). Second, defendant claims that he was denied a fair trial when the trial court refused

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1-06-1263 to give the jury instructions on, and a separate verdict form for, felony murder. Third, defendant asserts that the trial court abused its discretion by sentencing him to 95 years in prison. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment, but modify defendant's sentence.

BACKGROUND Defendant was charged with first degree murder and armed robbery in connection with an incident on May 29, 2003. His jury trial commenced on March 29, 2006, and produced the following evidence. On the morning of May 29, 2003, Johns was working alone in his store, the Gold and Diamond Connection jewelry store, in Calumet City, Illinois. Irene Sanchez testified that she arrived at the store after 9 a.m. to pick up some jewelry she had on lay-away. She testified that the four previous times she had been in the store, she came to know Johns by his first name and noticed that he was the only one behind the counter while she was in the store. On that morning, however, Sanchez parked her car in front of the store and noticed a young black man, whom she later identified as defendant, behind the counter. Sanchez testified that when defendant saw her, he came out from behind the counter, walked toward the front door, made eye contact with her, and exited the store right with an overstuffed white garbage bag. Sanchez stated that as

defendant walked from the store past a beauty salon, the garbage bag broke and "the stuff fell out" on the lawn in front of the salon. The defendant picked up some articles, ran to his car, which Sanchez described as a large, "boxy," older model black car, and sped off. Sanchez returned to the jewelry store to ring the buzzer, but did not see anybody in the store. Sanchez testified that she decided to walk over to the salon and as she passed the lawn she 2

1-06-1263 noticed all kinds of jewelry lying on the ground. She immediately became alarmed and called police. Later that day, Sanchez traveled to the police station, where a computer sketch was made from her description of the offender

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