People v. Cumbee

SUPREME COURT CASES

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People v. Cumbee

State: Illinois

Court: 2nd District Appellate

Docket No: 2-03-1177 Rel

Case Date: 06/30/2006

Preview:No. 2--03--1177 filed June 30, 2006 ______________________________________________________________________ ________ IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS SECOND DISTRICT ______________________________________________________________________ ________ THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the Circuit Court ) of McHenry County. ) Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ) v. ) No. 92--CF--676 ) JOHN A. CUMBEE, ) Honorable ) Sharon L. Prather, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, Presiding. _________________________________________________________________________ _____ JUSTICE BOWMAN delivered the opinion of the court: Following a jury trial in 1993, defendant, John A. Cumbee, was found guilty of first degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9--1(a)(1) (West 1992)) and sentenced to life imprisonment. On appeal, we reversed defendant's conviction and remanded the case for a new trial, based on the trial court's failure to instruct the jury on venue. People v. Cumbee, No. 2-93--0923 (1995) (unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23). Defendant was retried in 2003 and again convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Defendant raises several arguments on appeal, including that: (1) the trial court violated this court's mandate by providing the jury with a modified venue instruction; (2) the trial court erred by denying him a Frye hearing (see Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C.

Cir. 1923)) to determine the admissibility of luminol testing; and (3) the trial court erred by admitting evidence of other crimes. We affirm defendant's conviction and sentence. I. BACKGROUND Defendant's second trial commenced on July 23, 2003, and the following evidence was adduced. On May 6, 1992, around 6:45 a.m., the body of Kathy Twarowski was discovered in a Geo Tracker 35 to 40 feet from Rabine Drive, a private driveway in a secluded area. Defendant, a firefighter and former police officer, had worked part-time for Rabine Construction, which was located in the same area. Twarowski was covered in blood, her pants were unzipped and open, and she was in a reclined position in the driver's seat. There was a "pooling of blood" and a large blood spattering in the rear seat on the driver's side, but there were no blood spatters on the ceiling of the car. The distance between the place where Twarowski's body was discovered and defendant's home was less than one mile. Twarowski's mother, Elizabeth (Betty), testified as follows. Twarowski began dating defendant in September 1989. At that time, she was living with her parents. In August 1990, Twarowski moved in with defendant. In May 1991, Twarowski and defendant bought a house together. Then, in June 1991, Twarowski moved back in with her parents for about three weeks. After that, she moved back in with defendant. Later, in November 1991, she moved back in with her parents, where she lived until May 5, 1992. Without going into details, Betty testified that something happened that changed the relationship between defendant and her daughter. Over objection, Betty testified that sometime in January 1992, she observed bite marks on Twarowski's face, nose, and tongue. As a

No. 2--03--1177 result, Bob, Twarowski's father, took her to a medical center to treat the injuries. Pictures of the bite wounds were entered into evidence. On May 5, 1992, around 6:30 p.m., defendant called and Betty answered the phone. Defendant asked to speak to Twarowski, and Betty did not hear their conversation. Twarowski then sat down to dinner with Betty, Bob, and her brother Brad. After dinner, Twarowski went up to her room and then left the house around 8:30 p.m. She was wearing her DePaul jacket, a gray sweatshirt, and gray socks pulled over her jeans. Over defendant's objection, the State called several of Twarowski's friends to testify regarding defendant's prior acts. Michelle Gast, a close friend of Twarowski's since high school, testified that on December 31, 1991, Twarowski, Gast, and a group of friends went to Chicago to celebrate New Year's Eve. They first went to a hotel room, but had no definite plans for the evening. As a last-minute decision, the group decided to take a cab to the Hard Rock Caf

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