People v. Winters

Case Date: 06/30/2004
Court: 1st District Appellate
Docket No: 1-02-2790 Rel

SIXTH DIVISION
June 30, 2004




No. 1-02-2790

 

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the
  ) Circuit Court of
                                       Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Cook County
  )  
v. ) No. 97 CR 12486
  )  
  )  
ROMMELL WINTERS, ) Honorable
  ) Edward M. Fiala
                                      Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge Presiding.


JUSTICE GALLAGHER delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Rommell Winters, presents several issues in his appeal from a natural lifesentence imposed by the trial judge after this court remanded his case for resentencing: whetherdefendant's sentence for the murder of more than one person was discretionary on remand;whether the trial judge abused his discretion in sentencing defendant to a natural life sentence;and whether a mandatory life sentence for a "young" adult defendant convicted under a theory ofliability is unconstitutional under the Illinois Supreme Court's decision in People v. Miller, 202Ill. 2d 328 (2002). We hold that a natural life sentence is mandatory for the murder of more thanone person, and that Miller does not apply to adult defendants. We affirm.

Defendant was convicted of two counts of first degree murder under a theory ofaccountability in the November 7, 1996, shooting deaths of Carl Barbee and Jerome Coleman. Defendant was sentenced to a mandatory life sentence under section 5-8-1(a)(1)(c)(ii) of theUnified Code of Corrections (the Code) (730 ILCS 5/5-8-1(a)(1)(c)(ii) (West 1998)) because hehad been convicted of the murders of more than one person. Codefendant Kevin Malone, thealleged shooter, was also convicted.

In defendant's first appeal, this court affirmed defendant's conviction, but vacated thesentence and remanded the case for resentencing because Public Act 89-203 (Pub. Act 89-203,eff. July 21, 1995), which had in part amended the statute under which defendant was sentenced,had been declared unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court in People v. Wooters, 188 Ill.2d 500, 520 (1999). The Wooters court held that Public Act 89-203 violated the single subjectrule of the Illinois Constitution (Ill. Const. 1970, art. IV,