People v. Frank-McCarron

SUPREME COURT CASES

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State: Illinois

Court: 3rd District Appellate

Docket No: 3-08-0366 Rel

Case Date: 07/29/2010

Preview:No. 3--08--0366 _________________________________________________________________ Filed July 29, 2010 IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS THIRD DISTRICT A.D., 2010 THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the Circuit Court ) of the 10th Judicial Circuit, ) Tazewell County, Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ) v. ) No. 06--CF--285 ) KAREN FRANK-McCARRON, ) Honorable ) Stephen A. Kouri, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, Presiding. _________________________________________________________________ PRESIDING JUSTICE HOLDRIDGE delivered the opinion of the court: _________________________________________________________________ The defendant, Karen Frank-McCarron, was convicted of first degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9--1(a)(1) (West 2006)), obstructing justice (720 ILCS 5/31--4(a) (West 2006)), and concealment of a homicidal death (720 ILCS 5/9--3.1(a) (West 2006)). The circuit On

court sentenced the defendant to 36 years of imprisonment.

appeal, the defendant argues that: (1) the court erred when it denied her motion to suppress her inculpatory statements to police; (2) the defendant was denied a fair trial because she wore an electronic monitoring device (EMD) during trial; and (3) the court erred when it found that the defendant failed to prove she was insane at the time of the murder. FACTS We affirm.

On June 1, 2006, the State charged the defendant with two counts of first degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9--1(a)(1), (a)(2) (West 2006)), two counts of obstructing justice (720 ILCS 5/31-4(a) (West 2006)), and concealment of a homicidal death (720 ILCS 5/9--3.1(a) (West 2006)). The indictment alleged that the

defendant killed her three-year-old daughter, Katie, by holding a plastic bag over Katie's head, and then attempted to conceal the circumstances surrounding Katie's death. The defendant filed a pretrial motion to suppress two inculpatory statements she made to police within days of Katie's death. The circuit court denied the motion, finding that the

defendant was not in custody at the time she first confessed and, therefore, was not entitled to receive warnings pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694, 86 S. Ct. 1602 (1966), prior to her first confession. Evidence and testimony presented at the suppression hearing, and at trial, revealed the following facts. On May 13, 2006, the

defendant and her mother, Erna Frank, were at the McCarron house in Morton, Illinois, with the defendant's two daughters, Katie and two-year-old Emily. The defendant was a pathologist and When she returned, she fed

spent an hour at work that morning. her daughters. nap.

After lunch, the defendant put Emily down for a

Rather than put Katie down for a nap as well, the defendant

decided to take Katie, who had autism, for a car ride to calm her

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down.

Erna testified that it did not appear as if Katie needed

to be calmed down. The defendant drove Katie to the Frank house, which was near the McCarron house. Given that Erna was at the McCarron house

and Erna's husband was in Germany, the defendant knew that no one would be present at the Frank house. The defendant parked inside

the garage, closed the garage door, and took Katie inside the house. While inside, the defendant suffocated Katie by placing a

white plastic garbage bag over Katie's head. Approximately 45 minutes to an hour after she left, the defendant returned with Katie to the McCarron house. The

defendant carried Katie into the house, told Erna that Katie was sleeping, and carried her upstairs to bed. The defendant went about her normal activities after she put Katie in bed around 1 p.m. Sometime during the afternoon, the The

defendant's brother, Walter, came to the McCarron house.

defendant sat in the kitchen with Erna and Walter, who talked to the defendant about a recent trip they took. While the defendant

did not talk much, neither Erna nor Walter noticed any irrational behavior or incoherency in the defendant. At one point, the defendant decided to go to the grocery store to get ice cream. After getting the ice cream, the

defendant drove back to the Frank house and retrieved the garbage bag she used to suffocate Katie. The defendant took the bag to a

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local gas station, where she threw the bag into an outdoor garbage can. Around 4 p.m., the defendant said she was going to go upstairs to check on Katie, as she normally did not nap that long. The defendant screamed when she went into Katie's room,

and told Erna and Walter that Katie was not breathing. When the police and paramedics arrived, the defendant told a police officer that she found Katie not breathing approximately 2

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