delivered the opinion of the court:
This case has been remanded to us from the Illinois Supreme Court. Following a joint jury trial, defendant, Jackie Wilson, and his brother, Andrew Wilson, were found guilty of the murders and armed robberies of Chicago police officers William Fahey and Richard O’Brien on February 9, 1982. Defendant was sentenced to natural life imprisonment for the murders and concurrent terms of three years for the two armed robbery convictions. Andrew received concurrent terms of 30 years on his convictions for armed robbery and was sentenced to death for the murders.
On appeal, we held that the trial court committed prejudicial error by expressly refusing — in contravention of the decision in People v. Zehr (1982),
The trial proceedings and evidence introduced thereat are set forth in detail in our original opinion and will be restated only to the extent necessary for an understanding of the issues to be resolved.
Opinion
In his supplemental brief, defendant urges us to reconsider his contention that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his statement. It is his position that the supreme court’s reversal of Andrew’s conviction following its determination that Andrew’s confession should have been suppressed as involuntarily given (People v. Wilson (1987),
After a careful reading of the supreme court’s opinion in Andrew’s appeal, we conclude that nothing therein warrants retraction of our original holding that the trial court did not err in finding that defendant’s statement was voluntary. In ruling that Andrew’s statement should have been suppressed, the supreme court made no factual findings regarding how, when or by whom the injuries Andrew undeniably sustained were inflicted but, rather, based its ruling solely on its determination that, as a matter of law, the State failed to meet its burden of proving they did not occur prior to his confession.
Noting at the outset the general rule that the burden on the State is to establish, by a preponderance of the evidence, that a defendant’s confession was voluntary (
This ruling in no way conflicts with or departs from the well-settled principle enunciated in People v. La Frana (1954),
We turn then to defendant’s contention that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to grant his motion for a separate trial.
The general rule has long been that “defendants jointly indicted are to be jointly tried unless fairness to one of the defendants requires a separate trial to avoid prejudice.” (Emphasis in original.) (People v. Bean (1985),
• Traditionally, there have been two primary forms of prejudice recognized by Illinois courts. The first occurs where the codefendants’ defenses are so inconsistent or antagonistic that one of the defendants could not receive a fair trial if tried jointly with the other, in which case nothing short of severance will ensure a fair trial. People v. Olinger (1986),
Second, a defendant may be denied his constitutional right of confrontation if, in a joint trial, the State introduces the extrajudicial admissions of a nontestifying codefendant which implicate the defendant. Because the defendant cannot call the codefendant to the stand for cross-examination, what is commonly referred to as a “Bruton problem” arises (Bruton v. United States (1968),
In this case, defendant and Andrew each filed and argued a pretrial motion for separate trials. Andrew alleged that both of the two forms of prejudice discussed above would occur as a result of being tried jointly with defendant because he would deny the truth of his statement and claim, as he did in his motion to suppress it, that he made it only after and because of repeated beatings and torture by the police and that, in truth, he was not involved in the shootings, but, rather, was falsely accused by his brother and misidentified by the State’s witnesses.
Defendant’s pretrial grounds for severance were the potentiality of antagonistic defenses; that he would be denied his right of confrontation if the State were allowed to introduce testimony that Andrew made a prearrest statement to a State witness which contradicted his statement that he took no part in the crimes charged; and that because, unlike Andrew, he was not eligible for the death penalty, the questioning of the jurors concerning their attitudes toward the death penalty would cause them to be predisposed against him.
The pretrial motions for severance were denied, as were the numerous motions made throughout the proceedings for severance and/ or a mistrial in which counsel raised the original, as well as several additional, allegations of prejudice resulting from the joint trial.
The parties did not reargue this issue in the supplemental briefs filed after the reversal of Andrew's conviction; 3 however, in its original brief the State argued, inter alia, that defendant did not and cannot establish that he was prejudiced by a joint trial, because (a) Andrew’s statement actually corroborated his own statement, which was admissible and on which he relied to support his claim that he did not participate in the crimes, and therefore negated the possibility of a Bruton problem, (b) Andrew’s defense in no way incriminated defendant so as to be considered antagonistic, and (c) in any event, the jury obviously rejected that defense by finding Andrew guilty.
Initially, we note that in evaluating the propriety of the denial of a motion for severance, a reviewing court looks to the facts and circumstances which existed at the time it was denied (People v. Daugherty (1984),
Here, the reasons expressly stated by the trial court for rejecting counsel’s arguments and refusing to grant a severance were that because defendant’s and Andrew’s statements did not conflict, but, in fact, were “interlocking” in that they were substantially identical in most material respects, there was neither (1) antagonism between them nor, (2) under the Parker exception to the Bruton rule, any problems relating to the sixth amendment right to confrontation. Obviously, neither of these findings could have been made without the trial court’s initially having determined that defendant’s and Andrew’s statements both met the first criterion of admissibility, i.e., that they were voluntary — a determination found by the supreme court to be erroneous in regard to Andrew; and although the supreme court found it unnecessary to reach the issue of severance in Andrew’s appeal, it is clear that its ruling that his confession was inadmissible completely negates the stated bases of the trial court’s rulings as to the nonexistence of either a Bruton situation or antagonistic defenses.
Second, as stated in People v. Byron (1987),
The supreme court reversed Bean’s conviction on the ground the defenses were conflicting and antagonistic and, noting that Byron’s strategy was to convince the jury of his own innocence by convincing them of Bean’s guilt, determined that irreparable prejudice resulted to Bean which could only have been avoided by ordering a separate trial. In so ruling, the court characterized the State’s argument, that because the defendants did not reciprocally blame each other the defenses were compatible, as “specious.” People v. Bean (1985),
Here, as in Bean, once it had been determined that his statement was admissible against him, defendant’s only means of persuading the jury of his innocence was by convincing the jury that although he was with Andrew at the scene of the crimes, Andrew had acted alone in shooting and robbing the officers. Thus, Andrew, like Bean, was forced to defend himself against two accusers. In addition to the obvious prejudice therefrom, in view of the supreme court’s ruling that Andrew’s own confession should not have been admitted, we must conclude that the admission of defendant’s statement directly accusing Andrew of the crimes violated his constitutional rights under Bruton, which, we believe, could have been avoided only by granting Andrew a separate trial.
Similarly, with respect to Byron’s appeal from the denial of severance, the State argued that (1) Byron had failed (a) to state specifically how he would be prejudiced by a joint trial, (b) to prove his defense was antagonistic to Bean’s, or (c) to show that he was “overwhelmed” by the evidence against Bean; (2) that the defenses were in fact compatible because they did not consist of reciprocal accusations against each other, i.e., that whereas Byron accused Bean, Bean did not testify and charge that Byron was the guilty party; and (3) that in any event, “an overwhelming abundance of evidence against a codefendant” has never been grounds for severance in this State.
Rejecting the State’s arguments and ordering that Byron be given a new trial, the supreme court noted as it did in Bean that because of the conflicts between the defenses, “[t]he trial became more of a contest between the two defendants rather than between the People and each defendant” (People v. Byron (1987),
Based on our interpretation of the supreme court’s explanation and application of the law relating to severance, we are of the opinion that defendant was not required to allege or establish the same type of degree of prejudice as that anticipated and asserted by Andrew in order to also be entitled to a severance; and, as has always been recognized, the grounds on which severance may be warranted are not limited to the two most commonly asserted, i.e., denial of the right to confrontation and antagonistic defenses (see, e.g., People v. Lee (1981),
Furthermore, we, like the court in Byron, do not agree with the State’s arguments or the trial court’s determination that the defenses were not sufficiently antagonistic or conflicting to require a severance so as to ensure defendant a fair trial.
As previously noted, the court expressly found that because defendant’s and Andrew’s statements were not conflicting there was no antagonism between them. In other words, the court ruled on the basis of the statements — one of which was subsequently ruled to be inadmissible — rather than on the proposed theories of defense. From the several colloquies among counsel and the trial court before and during trial, it appears that the court inverted the generally sound premise that where codefendants’ statements materially conflict so, usually, will their defenses, to conclude that, conversely, where the pretrial statements are “interlocking” there can be no true antagonism between the defenses presented at trial. Although there are, of course, innumerable cases finding the extent to which statements are consistent to be relevant to the question whether their admission poses potential Bruton problems, we have found none holding that the existence of interlocking statements in itself negates the possibility of antagonistic defenses.
Additionally, we do not believe that the facts in this case are supportive of such a proposition. The State argues, as it did in Byron, that while defendant, through his statement, attempted to exculpate himself by directly accusing Andrew of the crimes, Andrew did not reciprocally place the blame for them on defendant, but merely asserted as his defense theory that he was mistakenly identified as one of the men involved in the shooting incident. As was held in Byron, however, the defenses need not consist of reciprocal accusations to be inconsistent and antagonistic. Moreover, the State’s argument oversimplifies, and thus ignores, what the record clearly reveals, which is that the crux of Andrew’s defense theory-intended to countermand the devastating effects of a fraternal accusation — was that defendant and two of the State’s witnesses who implicated him in these murders were fellow gang members; that it was not he but one of them who was with defendant when the shootings occurred; and that defendant thereafter voluntarily gave the police a statement consisting of a fabricated version of events so to protect his friends and himself — in other words, that defendant’s statement, on which defendant relied to exculpate himself, was a lie.
Counsel for Andrew laid the foundation for this theory in his opening statement and later attempted to develop it by asking Derrick Martin about his gang affiliation, whether Edgar Hope and Kojak (Donald White) were members of the Disciples street gang, and whether he knew defendant was also a Disciple. Although the trial court sustained defendant’s objection to the last question and thereafter granted, over the strenuous objections of Andrew’s attorney, his (defendant’s) motion in limine barring the introduction of any additional evidence relating to gang activities or affiliations, counsel for Andrew nevertheless expounded on that theory in his closing argument, referring to defendant as “a Disciple, a crook [and] a friend of gang members.” In his impassioned speech, from which we have deleted, for the sake of continuity, the repeated objections by defendant’s attorney and the State along with the trial court’s rulings thereon, counsel for Andrew further argued:
“You heard the evidence, ladies and gentlemen, of where Jackie was *** [w]ith Derrick Martin. ***. You heard from Derrick Martin, you know where he was. You heard where Jackie was. You know who those people were. ***. I’m only commenting that Mr. Martin said where they were. Kojak’s house. Derrick Martin admitted he was a gang member, an El Rukn. Nevertheless Jackie wasn’t about to get his tail kicked *** [a]t the police station. *** He went along with the program. *** What I argue [is that] there’s no evidence that Jackie Wilson was beaten. There is evidence that he agreed to make a statement. It’s reasonable for you to infer that if Jackie Wilson knew he could have identified that person. It’s also reasonable for you to infer that he identified his own brother knowing that his own brother didn’t do it. That [it’s] unlikely in Jackie’s mind, at least, that his brother would ever be convicted. And it certainly takes the heat off whoever was in that car with him. You don’t live long by the way, if you testify against gang members. [Defendant’s attorney] is not a foolish lawyer.” (Emphasis added.)
Thus, while Andrew’s defense did not, and could not by its very nature, consist of as pointed or specific an accusation against defendant as defendant’s accusation against him, the fact remains that in order for the jurors to have accepted both theories of defense, they would have had to come to the conclusion that defendant’s statement was a lie as to all matters relating to Andrew’s guilt but truthful as to all matters relating to his own innocence. In other words, when examined side by side, it becomes clear that the essence of each defense was that the other was a lie, and that in attempting to advance their respective positions, counsel for Andrew and defendant — as they predicted at the time of their motions to sever and pointed out on repeated occasions at trial — were frequently forced to take diametrically opposed positions on various evidentiary matters and to structure their arguments in such a way as to attack each other’s clients, the above-quoted portion of closing argument being only one of several such instances. 4
As to the State’s arguments that, in any event, defendant was not prejudiced by Andrew’s defense because in finding Andrew guilty the jury obviously rejected it in its entirety, it appears likely that the jury found Andrew guilty because of the overwhelming abundance of evidence against him, the bulk of which came through his own improperly admitted confession, defendant’s accusations against him and questionable testimony of Tyrone Sims, 5 6and that, as suggested in Byron, the jury was unable, despite the court’s limiting instructions, to disregard or at least compartmentalize that evidence in considering defendant’s theory of defense and determining his guilt or innocence. In summary, we find that the repeated motions for severance sufficiently delineated the manner in which each defendant would be and, as we believe the facts illustrate, were prejudiced by a joint trial and that the denial of those motions, on the basis of an erroneous ruling and faulty reasoning constituted an abuse of discretion necessitating reversal of defendant’s convictions and remandment of his case for a new trial separate from that of his brother.
Defendant also contends that it was prejudicial error for the trial court to allow the State to introduce evidence that on the day of the shootings there was a warrant outstanding for his arrest in connection with the robbery of a camera store for the purpose of showing a motive for the killings, i.e., to avoid arrest.
In response to an identical argument made by Andrew, the supreme court agreed that this evidence was improperly admitted, noting that “the State did not produce any evidence that the defendant knew that the warrant existed, or even that the officers were arresting the defendant pursuant to the warrant.” The court further stated that “[t]he existence of the arrest warrant does not by itself show that the defendant was trying to avoid apprehension. Unless the defendant knew about the warrant or knew that the officers were attempting to arrest him, the existence of the warrant does not establish anything about the defendant’s state of mind. [Citations.]” (People v. Wilson (1987),
Defendant also contends that he is entitled to a hearing pursuant to Batson v. Kentucky (1986),
For the reasons stated, we reverse defendant’s convictions and remand this case for a new trial.
Reversed and remanded.
LORENZ and MURRAY, JJ., concur.
Notes
1
In his dissent, Justice Simon reiterated the views he expressed more fully in his special concurrence in People v. Britz (1986),
2
The Parker decision was recently reconsidered and overruled by the United States Supreme Court in Cruz v. New York (1987),
4 Another such instance concerned the admissibility of the testimony of the State’s key witness, Tyrone Sims, who had undergone hypnosis the day after the shooting to assist him in recalling the license plate number of the car driven by the officers’ assailants. Andrew argued that Sims’ recollection of the shooting and the post-hypnotic identification Sims made of him and defendant was induced and/or influenced by the hypnosis and requested the court to either bar it in its entirety or, at the very least, conduct a hearing to determine the extent of Sims’ prehypnotic recollection and allow the introduction of expert testimony both at that hearing and at trial regarding the effects hypnosis may have had thereon. Defendant’s attorney joined the State in opposing Andrew’s motion and thereafter elicited on cross-examination of Sims that defendant appeared to be in a state of shock during the shootings.
Following a lengthy discussion of the issue in Andrew’s appeal, the supreme court adopted the approach taken by a number of other States, which is that prior to its admission the proponent of such testimony must establish the nature and extent of the witness’ prehypnotic recollection and that the parties should be permitted to present expert testimony regarding the potential effects of hypnosis, and then found that because there was a dispute regarding the extent of Sims’ prehypnotic recollection the State must demonstrate to the trial court upon retrial of his case that the post-hypnotic identification he made was anchored in his prehypnotic memory — a determination which, the court suggested, would be facilitated by the introduction of expert testimony on the effects of hypnosis; and further, that he also be permitted to present at trial expert testimony to assist the jurors in understanding the potential effects of hypnosis on Sims’ testimony. People v. Wilson (1987),
See Footnote 4.
