People v. Theis, 357 Ill. Dec. 425

The defendant, John M. Theis, was convicted in Illinois for predatory criminal sexual assault of a 2-year-old, S.C., and aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
Valorie Theis, the mother of another child, M.L., testified against him pursuant to a plea deal, including a prior videotaped interview.
Valorie gave two videotaped statements (March 2005 and June 2008) detailing sexual and abusive acts by Theis toward S.C. and M.L.
Detective Nachman testified regarding the interviews and the defendant's police interview, which was videotaped and admitted at trial.
The trial court admitted pretrial statements by S.C. to Brandi Lewis under section 115-10 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The jury found Theis guilty on three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault and one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, and he was sentenced to consecutive prison terms.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Admissibility of videotaped interrogation	Admission preserved; statements admissible as nonhearsay	Admission error; plain error; confrontation concerns	No plain error; admission affirmed
Body language evidence and related closing arguments	Forfeited; plain error not shown	Testimony and comments violated rights to silence and fairness	Forfeited; no reversible plain error
Other-crimes evidence about M.L.	Proper under 115-7.3; highly probative	Prejudicial and overly prejudicial; should be limited	Court did not abuse discretion; admissible and properly limited

People v. Woods, 292 Ill.App.3d 172 (1997) (hearsay admissibility and foundation for videotaped interrogations)
People v. Nicholas, 218 Ill.2d 104 (2005) (plain error and forfeiture standards)
People v. Donoho, 204 Ill.2d 159 (2003) (standards for admissibility of other-crimes evidence)
Hart, Hart v. State, 214 Ill.2d 490 (2005) (defendant's statements after Miranda waiver not 'silent' under Doyle framework)
Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610 (1976) (silence impeachment jurisprudence)