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Docket No. 86975-Agenda 3-March 2001.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Appellee, v. 
FEDELL CAFFEY, Appellant.

Opinion filed October 18, 2001.

JUSTICE FREEMAN delivered the opinion of the court:

On November 16, 1995, Debra Evans was fatally shot and stabbed in the Addison apartment where she lived with James Edwards and her children, Samantha, Joshua, and Jordan. Debra was nine months pregnant. The baby she was carrying, Elijah, was cut from her womb. Samantha was killed in the apartment with her mother. Joshua and Elijah were taken from the apartment. Jordan was left alone in the apartment with his dead mother and sister. The next day, police found Joshua's dead body in an alley in Maywood. Police arrested defendant, Fedell Caffey, that night. In connection with the murders and kidnappings of the members of the Evans family, defendant, his live-in girlfriend Jacqueline Annette Williams, and her cousin Laverne Ward were jointly indicted on several counts of first degree murder and aggravated kidnapping. They were tried separately.

Following a jury trial in the circuit court of Du Page County, defendant was convicted of the first degree murder of Debra Evans and her daughter Samantha, and the aggravated kidnapping and murder of Debra's son Joshua. See 720 ILCS 5/9-1(a), 10-2(a) (West 1994). At a separate sentencing hearing, the same jury found defendant eligible for the death penalty and further determined that there were no mitigating circumstances sufficient to preclude imposition of that sentence. Accordingly, the trial court sentenced defendant to death on the murder convictions and to a consecutive 30-year prison term on the aggravated kidnapping conviction. The death sentence has been stayed pending direct review by this court. Ill. Const. 1970, art. VI,