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People v. Boand9/30/2005
dant argues that People v. Willer, 281 Ill. App. 3d 939 (1996), requires a reversal of his convictions and a remand for separate trials on the sex-offense and homicide charges. We agree, concluding that the trial court abused its discretion in finding that the criminal sexual assault and the two homicide counts arose from the same comprehensive transaction.
In Willer, the defendant was charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for vaginally penetrating and fondling one of his daughters several times over an eight-year period. The defendant was charged with one additional count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for touching another daughter's buttocks once during that period. Defendant was convicted on all counts, and he argued on appeal that the trial court should have severed the charges so that the allegations regarding each daughter would be tried separately. On appeal, this court reversed the defendant's convictions and remanded the cause for separate trials, holding that the charges pertaining to the two girls were not based on acts that were part of the same comprehensive transaction. Willer, 281 Ill. App. 3d at 955.
In Willer, we emphasized that, although both daughters were molested in the family home during a single eight-year period, the offenses were only peripherally connected in time and place because one of the daughters was regularly and frequently assaulted while the other was fondled only once. Willer, 281 Ill. App. 3d at 951. In this case, the drug-induced homicide was attenuated from the criminal sexual assault because the former allegedly was completed when Levin ingested the methadone, which occurred approximately five hours before defendant allegedly committed the assault. Thus, this factor weighs in favor of severing the drug-induced-homicide charge from the criminal-sexual-assault charge. However, the involuntary manslaughter was not so attenuated from the criminal sexual assault because defendant was accused of sexually assaulting Shepherd in his bedroom while at the same time failing to help Levin, who was dying in the living room. Thus, this factor weighs against severing the involuntary-manslaughter charge from the criminal-sexual-assault charge. However, an analysis of the remaining factors indicates that the best course clearly would be to sever both homicide charges from the criminal-sexual-assault charge.
In Willer, we held that the evidence necessary to prove the sex offenses was different for the two victims. Three of the charges alleged that the defendant fondled and had vaginal and oral sex with one of the girls. The fourth charge alleged only that the defendant fondled the other girl's buttocks. Therefore, the evidence necessary to prove each charge was the same only for the two aggravated-criminal-sexual-assault charges. We concluded that there was no similarity between the evidence necessary to prove the aggravated criminal sexual assault of one daughter and the aggravated criminal sexual abuse of the other. Willer, 281 Ill. App. 3d at 952. Like in Willer, the evidence necessary to prove defendant's guilt differed for the sexual-assault count and the homicide counts.
The alleged drug-induced homicide was completed when defendant knowingly delivered the methadone to Levin and she ingested it. Therefore, no subsequent conduct by defendant, including the alleged criminal sexual assault, was probative to any issue regarding the drug-induced homicide. Whether defendant assaulted Shepherd is irrelevant to whether he committed the drug-induced homicide of Levin.
Defendant's alleged commission of involuntary manslaughter by failing to assist Levin is expla
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