Defendant, age 20 at time of offense, was convicted, after bench trial, of 1st-degree murder of his 19-year-old girlfriend and concealment of a homicidal death, and sentenced to aggregate term of 63 years. Officers located victim's body in a closet in Defendant's bedroom; she had been stabbed and bludgeoned. Court properly denied Defendant's motion to suppress, as the officers' search of his apartment was confined to places where a human could be located, as they were conducting a well-being check based on reports of victim's mother and employer that she had not been seen for several days. Court properly found that the search was constitutional based on the emergency-assistance exception. Defendant cannot be considered a juvenile when he committed the murder. Defendant failed to show that his sentence is so wholly disproportionate to the offense that it shocks the moral sense of the community; sentence is not excessive. Psychological report concludes that Defendant is sat high risk for recidivism. q(BRIDGES and SCHOSTOK, concurring.)
Illinois Appellate Court
Criminal Court
Motion to Suppress