People v. Gray

After jury trial, Defendant was convicted of, inter alia, aggravated domestic battery. Fifteen years prior to incident, Defendant and victim (who had known each other for 20 years) dated for 2 years and at time of incident were friends. After a night of drinking together, and having sex, victim slept over at Defendant’s home, and Defendant stabbed and strangled victim the next morning. Legislature’s decision not to include a time limit on former dating relationships, when applied to facts of this case, was reasonable and rationally related to statutory purpose of curbing domestic violence. Definition of family or household members in Section 12-0.9 of Criminal Code did not violate substantive due process as applied to Defendant. It was reasonable to place victim within protection of aggravated domestic battery statute. (KARMEIER, THOMAS, KILBRIDE, GARMAN, BURKE, and THEIS, concurring.)