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People v. Nestrock7/15/1999
IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS
Honorable Peter J. Dockery, Judge, Presiding.
Defendant, Sarah K. Nestrock, was convicted of reckless homicide (720 ILCS 5/9--3(a) (West 1996)) and subsequently sentenced to concurrent sentences of two years' imprisonment. Nestrock appeals her conviction, contending that she was denied a fair trial because (1) the State made several references to defendant's membership in a social group for gay students, intending to prejudice her in the eyes of the jury; (2) the trial court allowed the State's accident reconstruction expert to offer the opinion that defendant was conscious while driving her vehicle; (3) the trial court denied defendant's motion to suppress a tape-recorded conversation between defendant and one of her friends without conducting an evidentiary hearing; (4) the trial court did not allow defendant to offer as substantive evidence a statement that she made to an investigating police officer shortly after the accident; and (5) defendant did not receive the effective assistance of counsel. We reverse and remand.
Following a car accident that caused the deaths of Stephen Cornelius and his eight-year-old son, Zachery, defendant was charged with reckless homicide and aggravated driving while under the influence of drugs (625 ILCS 5/11--501(d)(1)(C) (West 1996)). Before trial, the State nol-prossed the charges that were based on driving under the influence of drugs.
The evidence at trial revealed that the accident in question took place on September 25, 1996, at the intersection of 79th Street and Clarendon Hills Road in Willowbrook. Defendant, who was driving a 1995 Ford Escort station wagon, was traveling south on Clarendon Hills Road when her car left the road and entered the ditch on the west side of the road. Defendant's car traveled through the ditch for approximately 300 feet, exited the ditch, traveled another 70 feet, and then ran into the driver's side of the Cornelius vehicle, a 1992 Pontiac Bonneville, which was stopped on 79th Street at a stop sign. Stephen Cornelius was driving the Bonneville, and his son, Zachery, was seated directly behind him. Barbara Hall, Stephen's wife and Zachery's mother, was also in the car at the time of the collision, as was the couple's 10-year-old daughter, Jane, who was seriously injured. The State's accident reconstruction expert opined that defendant's car was traveling 42 miles per hour at the time of impact. Defendant's accident reconstruction expert opined that her speed at impact was 31 miles per hour.
At trial, the State presented the theory that defendant purposely drove her car into and through the ditch in an attempt to either kill herself or feign suicide to attract the attention of her family and friends. Defendant testified that she was not trying to commit suicide. She stated that she remembered turning on her right turn signal and the next thing she remembered was being stopped next to a telephone pole.
In addition to other evidence that defendant was contemplating suicide, the State presented a tape-recorded conversation between defendant and Nagayo "Nick" Heath, a close friend of defendant's at the time of the accident. The recorded conversation took place on the evening of September 26, 1996, the day after the accident.
Heath testified that on the morning of September 26, 1996, he received a phone call from defendant, who said that she had hit a tree and was in the hospital. Later that day, defendant called Heath and another friend, Jason Taylor, at the home of Beth Johnson. Heath talked to defendant, who told him that she had killed two people. Heath testified that defendant said that " ubliminally pulle
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