Murderpedia

 

 

Juan Ignacio Blanco  

 

  MALE murderers

index by country

index by name   A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

  FEMALE murderers

index by country

index by name   A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 

 

 
   

Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. To keep creating new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help the Murderpedia project stay alive. We have many
plans and enthusiasm to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really
need your help for this. Thank you very much in advance.

   

 

 

Lorenzo FAYNE

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Rape
Number of victims: 6
Date of murders: 1989- 1993
Date of arrest: July 24, 1993
Date of birth: 1965
Victims profile: Rita D. Scott, 32 / Aree Hunt, 6 (male) / Faith Davis, 17 / Glenda Jones, 17 / Fallon Flood, 9 / Latondra Dean, 14
Method of murder: Beating - Stabbing with knife - Strangulation
Location: Wisconsin/Illinois, USA
Status: Sentenced to life in prison without parole in Illinois on August 1994
 
 
 
 
 
 

Lorenso Fayne, convicted of killing 5 kids in Illinois, is linked to another murder

Mediatakeout.com

November 09, 2009

A former Milwaukee man convicted in the serial murders of five children in Illinois during the late 1980s and early 1990s was charged Tuesday in Milwaukee with killing a 32-year-old mother of three more than 20 years ago.

Lorenzo Fayne, 38, was charged in a complaint with the beating death Sept. 15, 1989, of Rita D. Scott, whose partially clothed body was found in a pool of blood near a loading dock in the 1500 block of W. Cherry St. Her head had been smashed in with chunks of concrete, and she had been sexually assaulted. Scott had three boys, ages 11, 5 and 11 months.

In May, a routine search of a national DNA databank of convicted felons linked Fayne to Scott's death.

"We've all waited 20 years," said Scott's mother, Mozella Scott of Milwaukee. "We were very happy and relieved. Now my daughter can sleep in peace, I'm pretty sure."

Rita Scott's uncle, Mike Mitchell, said his family never gave up hope that the killer would be found.

"We never gave up, but life went on," Mitchell said. "We said God would handle it, and that he did."

A sense of relief has swept over Scott's family, Mitchell said.

"There's never closure, but there is peace within the family," he said. "We all know that (Fayne) will never get out to do this to anyone else."

Fayne grew up in Milwaukee, lived in the 2400 block of W. Lloyd St., and began drifting between Milwaukee and his grandmother's home in East St. Louis, Ill., when he turned 18 in 1989.

That was the year he killed his first known victim, 6-year-old Aree Hunt of Centerville, Ill. Fayne was convicted of beating the child to death and was sentenced in August 1994 to life in prison without parole.

Fayne is charged with killing Scott two months after he killed Aree.

In 2001, Fayne was convicted of stabbing Latondra Dean, 14, in March 1992; of strangling Fallon Flood, 9, in July 1992; of stabbing Glenda Jones, 17, in June 1993; and of stabbing Faith Davis, 17, in July 1994.

All four girls lived in the East St. Louis area.

In a 2001 interview with the Journal Sentinel, Fayne's attorney, John O'Gara, said he doubted Fayne had committed any homicides in Milwaukee.

"He always denied doing anything" in Milwaukee, O'Gara said at the time.

In October, Milwaukee investigators visited Fayne at the Menard Correctional Institution in Chester, Ill.

Fayne, according to the complaint, told investigators he didn't remember the exact date he killed Scott, but that he did remember killing her.

He told police he sneaked up to Scott and bashed her head with a rock with such force that the rock broke in two.

He then dragged her body through a gangway between a factory and house, continued to beat her with the chunk of rock he still had in his hand, then had sex with her once she was dead.

"He stated he regrets committing this homicide as well as the other homicides and that he is glad he is locked up because he would still be doing it if he were not," the complaint says.

Mitchell said his family is thankful that Milwaukee police never gave up searching for their daughter's killer.

"They hung in there," Mitchell said.

"We hear so much bad about the police, but we need to say something good about the police. This family would really like to thank the police."

The DNA sample in Scott's murder case was submitted by the Milwaukee Police Department's Homicide Cold Case Unit, which has submitted evidence recently in about 70 cold case homicides to the State Crime Laboratory. The unit is awaiting results on about 20 of those cases.

 
 

Lorenzo Fayne

Sonic.net

East St. Louis, IL -- Aug. 31, 1994

Lorenzo Fayne, 24, who was convicted of sexually assaulting and then bludgeoning Aree Hunt to death, after luring him away from a playground and is currently serving a life sentence with no parole confessed to killing the four girls. 

In his confession that he killed Aree he told police he wanted to hear the sound of a neck breaking.

His defense attorney, John O'Gara, contended that Fayne was insane, his behavior the result of suffering brutality as a child while growing up in Milwaukee in a home riddled with abuse of alcohol and other drugs. 

Eleven jurors had wanted Fayne executed, but one woman would not agree and refused to deliberate further. Illinois law requires unanimity for a death penalty. 

The juror, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the jury had informed the state's attorney that 11 of the 12 jurors were steadfastly in favor of executing Fayne for the murder. 

"Molten lava wasn't as hot as we were" after one female juror held out for sparing Fayne's life, the juror said in a telephone interview. The juror refused to identify the lone holdout. 

The juror said the holdout had voted against the death penalty only because her pastor's son suffered from a disease that made him violent. When a doctor suggested on the witness stand that Fayne might have the same disease, the holdout decided against execution, the juror said. 

The juror said the woman who held out should have notified authorities before the trial that her personal experience of knowing a violent person would have made her a poor candidate to sit on the jury. 

The state's attorney plans to try Fayne separately for each of the four remaining murders, and to seek the death penalty for each. 

O'Gara, as defense attorney, contends that because evidence from all five murders was used against Fayne in the first case, trying him anew violates the Constitution's prohibition against double jeopardy. So far he has been unable to get a judge or appellate court to agree. 

A psychiatrist who was the trial's final prosecution witness testified that Fayne's personality was abnormal but that he suffered no delusions or inability to control his behavior, and could not be considered mentally ill as defined by Illinois law. 

Fayne told police he committed all five murders, and the psychiatrist, Dr. John Rabun of the Missouri State Hospital, said Fayne gave a detailed account of each during a five-hour psychiatric exam. 

Rabun said Fayne was typical of serial sex killers - a sadist and necrophiliac who had sex with his victims after they were dead. 

With the evidence stacked overwhelmingly against him, Fayne's attorney, John J. O'Gara, opted for insanity as the only plausible defense. 

He told the jury Fayne was a "tortured soul," the victim of a "twisted, insane mind." 

Fayne showed no emotion when pronounced guilty. He had spent most of the trial staring down at the defense table. 

Fayne said before being sentenced for murder that "this may sound weird, but the things that I did, I deserve to die. I really do." 

Fayne, handcuffed and shackled, twice said he was sorry for killing Aree but said he could not bring him back to life. "I still don't understand none of this," he said. 

Aree was found beaten to death at the edge of a state park. His nude body had been sexually assaulted, then thrown down a ditch bank. 

Although he lived in Milwaukee, Fayne often visited relatives in East St. Louis. 

According to Rabun, the psychiatrist, Fayne had been in and out of legal custody from age 13 for such things as shoplifting, grabbing at women, stealing cars, breaking into homes and abusing animals. 

According to testimony, both parents were alcoholics, and Fayne's mother was a drug addict. 

Also, Fayne was a witness to and victim of violence at home, and he abused alcohol and drugs himself. 

Latondra's body was found in a bathtub less than a block from where another victim, Faith Davis was found. Latondra had been stabbed more than 20 times in the chest. 

Police arrested Fayne after a police dog followed a trail of blood to his grandmother's home from a burning house where firefighters had found the nude body of Faith Davis. She had been stabbed several times in the back. 

Besides those two murders, Fayne is charged with first-degree in the deaths of: 

Fallon Flood of East St. Louis. Her body was found in a locker at East St. Louis Senior High School. She had been strangled with a belt. 

Glenda Jones of Centreville...her body was found behind Martin Luther King Junior High near the boundary between East St. Louis and Centreville. She had been stabbed to death. 

All the victims other then Fallon had been sexually assaulted.

UPDATE

Nov. 15, 2001 -- A jury recommended Thursday that confessed child killer Lorenzo Fayne be put to death for the slayings of four girls.

Fayne, 30, showed no emotion as the verdict was read by St. Clair County Circuit Judge James Donovan. The jury reached its decision after about three hours of deliberations.

Fayne has admitted killing Faith Davis, 17, Glenda Jones, 17, Fallon Flood, 9, and Latondra Dean, 14. Autopsies determined Fayne molested the girls after killing them.

Although Donovan set an execution date for May 15, the death sentence would likely not be carried out then because of a moratorium on the death penalty, imposed by Gov. George Ryan. The appeals process also would extend that date by years, St. Clair County State's Attorney Robert Haida said.

Fayne's attorney, John O'Gara said that Fayne will appeal the death sentence issued in each of the killings.

Jurors declined to talk to reporters after issuing their decision.

Haida said he was glad to see the case end.

"The emotions are different than a normal case. It's so definite and final," Haida said. "We continue to think of the victims and their survivors. That's what kept us pursuing this case to its disposition."

Fayne, who already was serving a life sentence for the 1989 murder of 6-year-old Aree Hunt, pleaded guilty in October to the four remaining murder charges against him in an attempt to avoid multiple trials and opportunities for prosecutors to win a death sentence.

Jurors spent a week viewing grisly crime scene photos and hearing testimony detailing the rape and murders of the four girls. They also heard psychologists testify about Fayne's childhood of rape and abuse at the hands of his mother and stepfather, and an adolescence spent in juvenile detention facilities.

O'Gara had asked the jury to spare Fayne's life, saying his abusive past should keep them from condemning Fayne to death. He argued that Fayne had a low IQ, and that childhood beatings left him with severe brain damage.

But Assistant State's Attorney Lisa Porter said Fayne "chose to kill; he knew exactly what he was doing every step of the way."

Dean was raped, stabbed more than 20 times and left in a bathtub at a friend's home in East St. Louis in March 1992. 

In July of that year, Flood was lured from a school lunch program, strangled and hung by a belt in the locker room at East St. Louis High School.

After her first day of work at Illinois Public Action in Belleville, Jones was raped and stabbed behind Martin Luther King Junior High in June 1993.

A month later, Davis was stabbed and raped in the kitchen of her family's East St. Louis home.

 
 

SEX: M RACE: B TYPE: T MOTIVE: Sex.

MO: Rape-strangler of black children age six to 17.

DISPOSITION: Life term on one count, 1994.

 
 

In the Appellate Court of Illinois
Fifth District

NO. 5-96-0333

October 16, 1998 

The People of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee
v.
Lorenzo, Fayne, Defendant-Appellant

Circiut Court St. Clair County

JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH delivered the opinion of the court:

      Defendant, Lorenzo Fayne, was charged in the circuit court of St. Clair County with five separate charges of first-degree murder (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 38, par. 9-1(a) (now 720 ILCS 5/9-1(a) (West 1996))).  In cause No. 93-CF-785, defendant was charged with the murder of Aree Hunt, age six; in cause No. 93-CF-786, defendant was charged with the murder of Faith Davis, age 17; in cause No.  93-CF-944, defendant was charged with the murder of Fallon Flood, age nine; in cause No. 93-CF-945, defendant was charged with the murder of Glenda Jones, age 17; and in cause No. 94-CF-66, defendant was charged with the murder of Latonda Dean, age 14.  The first case that proceeded to trial was No. 93-CF-785.  In that case, after a jury trial, defendant was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Aree Hunt.  At a separate sentencing hearing, the jury could not agree that there were no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude the imposition of the death penalty.  The trial court subsequently sentenced defendant to natural life in prison.  Defendant's conviction and sentence were affirmed by this court in People v. Fayne, 283 Ill. App. 3d 382, 669 N.E.2d 1172 (1996). 

      In one of the remaining untried cases, No. 93-CF-786, defendant filed a motion to dismiss and to bar a death penalty sentencing hearing on the basis that the decision not to impose the death penalty after the murder conviction for the death of Aree Hunt barred any successive capital sentencing hearing.  Defendant argued he would be subjected to double jeopardy since in the Aree Hunt sentencing hearing the State had already presented evidence of all the murders.  Defendant later filed motions to dismiss in the other remaining cases, No. 93-CF-944, No. 93-CF-945, and No. 94-CF-66.  The trial court denied the pretrial motions to dismiss, and the cases were consolidated for appeal.  The issue we are asked to address is whether the State is barred from seeking the death penalty in the remaining four cases pending against defendant when  the question whether defendant should be put to death was already decided in No. 93-CF-785 and the jury chose to impose a sentence other than death.  We affirm.

FACTS

      We recite only those facts necessary for an understanding of this appeal.  On July 24, 1993, defendant was arrested in conjunction with the murder of Faith Davis, after the East St. Louis fire department was called to the Davis home to extinguish a fire.  An investigation of the fire determined that Davis had been murdered.  A trail of blood led from Davis's home to the home of defendant's grandmother, where defendant was residing.  After the police talked to witnesses, defendant was arrested and brought to the East St. Louis police department for questioning.  The East St. Louis police department contacted the Illinois State Police to assist in the investigation.  Ultimately, defendant confessed not only to the murder of Davis, but also to the murders of four other victims. 

      The first of the five murder cases to be prosecuted was No. 93-CF-785.  For a full recitation of the facts in that case, see People v. Fayne, 283 Ill. App. 3d 382, 669 N.E.2d 1172 (1996).  Defendant, who was age 23 at the time of that trial, asserted an insanity defense, which the jury rejected by returning a guilty verdict.  The State sought the death penalty.  A sentencing hearing was conducted from August 16, 1994, through August 18, 1994.  At the hearing, the State introduced evidence concerning each of the four remaining murders with which defendant was charged.  For example, the State introduced People's Exhibit 39, which contained five- by seven-inch color photographs of each of the five victims defendant was accused of killing, along with each person's age, residence, date of death, manner of death, and location where the body was found.  Graphic pictures of each of the crime scenes and the victims were introduced into evidence over defendant's objection.  In addition to Aree Hunt, defendant's victims were identified as Fallon Flood, Glenda Jones, Faith Davis, and Latonda Dean. 

      Flood's body was found on the floor of a local high school in an abandoned locker room with a belt tightened around her neck and her underwear around her ankles.  Defendant's statement admitting to the murder of Flood was introduced into evidence.  In that statement, defendant admitted that he choked Flood and attempted to rape her. 

      Glenda Jones died as a result of stab wounds.  Her body was badly decomposed when it was found.  Jones's body was clothed, but her bra was turned inside out.  Defendant's statement, in which he admitted that he stabbed Jones and had sex with her, was admitted into evidence.  In that statement, defendant stated that he first approached Jones with a knife but that later she consented to sex with defendant.  According to defendant, Jones even discussed starting a relationship with him.  However, something "snapped" in defendant, and he ended up stabbing Jones. 

      Faith Davis's nude body was found face-down bent over a coffee table with her knees on the floor and her legs spread apart.  She had several stab wounds in her upper chest and back.  The crime scene indicated that she died in one area and then was dragged over to the coffee table.  A large amount of petroleum jelly was spread on her buttocks, and she had been sexually assaulted.  Defendant's statement admitting to stabbing Davis and then returning to sexually assault her was introduced into evidence. 

      Latonda Dean's nude body was found lying in a bathtub.  She died as a result of 24 stab wounds, mainly in her chest and abdomen.  Defendant's statement admitting that he raped and stabbed Dean was admitted into evidence. 

      Defendant presented a number of witnesses in mitigation.  The evidence showed that defendant's mother drank heavily and took drugs throughout her pregnancy with defendant.  Defendant's mother admitted to hitting defendant in the head as a form of punishment.  She believed that this was the way to punish a child.  It was not until after a child care agency intervened and specifically told her that this was an improper means of disciplining that she realized that anything was wrong with it.  Defendant's mother, a crack cocaine addict and an alcoholic, beat defendant with anything within reach, including broom handles and extension cords.  Defendant's biological father was found in a Veterans Administration mental hospital and is a diagnosed schizophrenic.  Defendant has had virtually no contact with him.  Defendant's stepfather was  an alcoholic, and he often beat defendant.  On one occasion, he choked defendant until defendant lost consciousness.   Defendant's grandmother and sister testified about the abusive home environment in which defendant was raised.  Defendant's grandmother explained that defendant was raped by a neighborhood boy when defendant was seven years old.  The boy who raped defendant was approximately four years older.  The police were not called.  Instead, defendant's stepfather beat him after defendant told him that he had been raped.  There was testimony that defendant had been raped on other occasions, usually when he was serving time in a juvenile facility for one of his many brushes with the law.  Experts testified that defendant has limited intellectual abilities and a low IQ.  Defendant suffered brain damage from the beatings to which he was subjected.  At the conclusion of the sentencing hearing, the jury could not agree that there were no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude the imposition of the death penalty.  The trial judge then sentenced defendant to natural life in prison.  As previously set forth, we affirmed in People v. Fayne, 283 Ill. App. 3d 382, 669 N.E.2d 1172 (1996).

      On March 15, 1996, defendant filed a motion to dismiss and to bar a death penalty hearing in No. 93-CF-786, on the basis that defendant would be subjected to double jeopardy because the State had already presented evidence of all five murders in the first sentencing hearing.  Defendant argued he could not again be exposed to the death penalty.  Defendant later filed the same motion in the remaining three cases.  On April 24, 1996, the trial court denied defendant's motion in No. 93-CF-786.  On June 5, 1996, the trial court denied defendant's pretrial motion to dismiss in No. 93-CF-944, No. 93-CF-945, and No. 94-CF-66.  The cases were consolidated on appeal.  The State moved to dismiss defendant's appeal on the basis that we lacked jurisdiction.  On June 6, 1998, we denied the State's motion to dismiss.

ANALYSIS

I. JURISDICTION

      We first address the State's ongoing contention that this court has no jurisdiction to hear this appeal.  The State maintains that we have no jurisdiction under Supreme Court Rule 604(f) (145 Ill. 2d R. 604(f)).  However, the State fails to offer any new reasons for dismissal not previously considered in our January 6, 1998, order rejecting the State's motion to dismiss.  The State merely urges us to reconsider our order denying its motion to dismiss.  As defendant points out, whether the State is barred from seeking the death penalty in the four remaining cases in which defendant was charged with separate murders will affect each trial in numerous ways, including whether potential jurors can be asked whether they support or oppose the death penalty (see People v. Cloutier, 156 Ill. 2d 483, 622 N.E.2d 774 (1993)) and how many peremptory challenges are granted.  In a capital case, 14 peremptory challenges are granted, whereas in cases involving imprisonment, only 7 are granted.  134 Ill. 2d R. 434(d).  We find that it would not be a prudent use of judicial resources to wait to determine the double jeopardy issue until sentences are imposed in the remaining four cases.  To wait to decide the issue would promote repetitive litigation and waste judicial resources.  In addition, Supreme Court Rule 604(f) provides:

      "(f) Appeal by Defendant on Grounds of Former Jeopardy.  A defendant may appeal to the Appellate Court the denial of a motion to dismiss a criminal proceeding on grounds of former jeopardy."  145 Ill. 2d R. 604(f).

We conclude that Supreme Court Rule 604(f) specifically allows this appeal.  Accordingly, we have jurisdiction over this appeal.

II. DOUBLE JEOPARDY

      Defendant maintains that the principles of double jeopardy and collateral estoppel bar the State from seeking the death penalty in the remaining four cases pending against defendant because the question whether defendant should be put to death was already decided in No. 93-CF-785 and the jury chose to impose a sentence other than death.  The earlier proceeding on which defendant relies is the St. Clair County prosecution for the murder of Aree Hunt.  In that prosecution, during the first phase of the bifurcated sentencing hearing the jury found defendant eligible for the death penalty, but following the second phase of the sentencing hearing, during which evidence was presented in aggravation and mitigation, the jury could not agree that there were no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude the imposition of the death penalty.  The trial judge then sentenced defendant to natural life in prison.  Defendant points out that all these murders occurred in the same county, specifically within a one-mile radius of each other, that "[t]he State referred to defendant as a `serial sexual offender,'" and that "all of the murders were part of a pattern of behavior repeated for sexual gratification that defendant achieved in conjunction with the person's death."  Defendant admits that the jury in the first case that went to trial did not have his convictions in the remaining murders to consider in aggravation, but he insists that because it had his confessions, as well as testimony concerning the circumstances of all five murders, the rejection of the death penalty in the first case tried precludes the imposition of the death sentence in any of the remaining four cases.  We disagree.

      In general, a death penalty acquittal bars the State from seeking the death penalty again on that conviction.  Poland v. Arizona, 476 U.S. 147, 90 L. Ed. 2d 123, 106 S. Ct. 1749 (1986); Bullington v. Missouri, 451 U.S. 430, 68 L. Ed. 2d 270, 101 S. Ct. 1852 (1981); People v. Davis, 112 Ill. 2d 78, 491 N.E.2d 1163  (1986).  The rationale for such a ruling is that the protections afforded by the double jeopardy clause are applicable to defendants in such proceedings because of the trial-type nature of a capital sentencing hearing.  Bullington v. Missouri, 451 U.S. 430, 68 L. Ed. 2d 270, 101 S. Ct. 1852 (1981).  However, our own supreme court has determined that an earlier decision not to impose the death penalty for a capital murder conviction does not bar the imposition of the death penalty in a later case involving a different murder conviction, even though the earlier sentencing hearing involves the same aggravating and mitigating factors presented at the later sentencing hearing.  People v. Page, 155 Ill. 2d 232, 614 N.E.2d 1160 (1993) (Page I); People v. Page, 156 Ill. 2d 258, 620 N.E.2d 339 (1993) (Page II). 

      Page I and Page II involved the same defendant, Patrick Page.  Page was charged with three separate murders.  His victims were John Goodman, Andrew Devine, and Charles Howell.  In Page I, the defendant was convicted in the circuit court of Cook County of, inter alia, the murder of John Goodman.  During the first stage of the sentencing hearing, the State presented evidence of the defendant's conviction in 1988 in Will County for the murder of Andrew Devine.  That murder occurred sometime in 1985.  Page I, 155 Ill. 2d at 242, 614 N.E.2d at 1164.  The jury determined that the defendant was eligible for the death penalty.  155 Ill. 2d at 243, 614 N.E.2d at 1164.  During the second stage of the sentencing hearing, the State introduced additional evidence of the defendant's criminal history, including the defendant's confession to the 1985 murder of Charles Howell in Cook County.  Howell was murdered in an attempt to cover up the Devine murder.  155 Ill. 2d at 243, 614 N.E.2d at 1164.  The defendant argued that the principles of double jeopardy and collateral estoppel barred the imposition of the death penalty in the Goodman murder.  The defendant relied on the 1988 Will County prosecution in which he was convicted of the murder of Andrew Devine.  155 Ill. 2d at 270, 614 N.E.2d at 1177.  In that prosecution, during the first stage of the sentencing hearing, the same jury that convicted the defendant of Devine's murder found the defendant eligible for the death penalty.  The defendant waived the jury for the second stage of the hearing, and the trial court refused to impose the death penalty, imposing instead a sentence of 60 years in the Department of Corrections.  People v. Page, 196 Ill. App. 3d 285, 553 N.E.2d 753 (1990). 

      In Page I, the defendant argued that the decision not to impose the death penalty in the defendant's first conviction in Will County for the death of Devine precluded the imposition of the death penalty.  Our supreme court disagreed:  "[A] sentencer's rejection of the death penalty in one case *** [does not] establish[][,] even on virtually the same record of aggravation and mitigation, the general inappropriateness of that penalty for other murders committed by the same defendant.  The issue resolved in a capital sentencing hearing is not whether the defendant, in general, is deserving of the death penalty, but whether the defendant may, and should, be sentenced to death for a particular offense of murder."  Page I, 155 Ill. 2d at 272-73, 614 N.E.2d at 1178.  The court in Page I went on to hold:

"That the same evidence in aggravation and mitigation might be admitted at a subsequent sentencing hearing does not alter our view of the matter.

      *** We conclude that the favorable decision rendered in the earlier case does not collaterally estop the State from seeking, and obtaining, the death penalty here."  155 Ill. 2d at 273-74, 614 N.E.2d at 1178. 

Likewise, in Page II, our supreme court held that even where a previous court declined to impose the death penalty based on almost identical evidence in aggravation and mitigation, the principles of double jeopardy and collateral estoppel did not bar the imposition of the death penalty in a subsequent murder trial.  Page II, 156 Ill. 2d at 285-86, 620 N.E.2d at 1154. 

      Page II involved the prosecution of the defendant for the murder of Charles Howell.  After finding the defendant guilty, the jury found that there were insufficient mitigating factors to preclude the imposition of the death penalty.  The defendant was sentenced to death, but the death sentence was stayed pending direct appeal.  156 Ill. 2d at 262, 620 N.E.2d at 343.  The court in Page II pointed out that there was a difference in the first case, the Will County case, because even though the sentencing body heard about the other two murders in which the defendant was involved, it found that the defendant did not have a significant criminal history because the defendant had not yet been convicted of the other two murders.  The Page II court stated, "[W]here the sentencing body in the instant case considered, in addition to defendant's confessions to the other two murders he had committed, defendant's convictions for those murders, the aggravating evidence was substantially greater than that considered by the Will County court."  156 Ill. 2d at 286, 620 N.E.2d at 354.  The same situation is presented in the instant case.

      Here, defendant was prosecuted first for the murder of Aree Hunt.  During sentencing, defendant's confessions to the four other murders were introduced, and evidence concerning each of the other four murders was presented, but defendant had not been convicted of any other murder.  Furthermore, the characteristics of the five victims--gender, age, and background--varied from victim to victim.  While it is true that they were all murdered within a one-mile radius of each other, the set of facts surrounding each murder was different.  Accordingly, the only question decided in the first prosecution was whether defendant should be sentenced to death for the murder of Aree Hunt.  The question whether defendant should be sentenced to death for any other of the four murders remains to be decided.

      Defendant attempts to distinguish Page I and Page II on the basis that the murders there occurred and were prosecuted in different counties.  The Devine murder occurred in Will County (Page I, 155 Ill. 2d at 242, 614 N.E.2d at 1164), and the Goodman and Howell murders occurred in Cook County (see Page I, 155 Ill. 2d at 238, 614 N.E.2d at 1160; Page II, 156 Ill. 2d at 262, 620 N.E.2d at 343).  We are unpersuaded that this fact in any way makes a difference which would make Page I and Page II inapplicable in the instant case.  Relying on Page I and Page II, we find that the earlier proceeding in which defendant was found guilty of the death of Aree Hunt but was not sentenced to death does not estop the State from seeking and obtaining the death penalty in the remaining four cases.

      For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the circuit court of St. Clair County is affirmed. 

      Affirmed. 

      RARICK and MAAG, JJ., concur.

  


 


Lorenzo Fayne

 

 

 
 
 
 
home last updates contact