People v. Williams

              THIRD DIVISION
AUGUST 27, 2008
No. 1-06-3463
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the
) Circuit Court of
Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Cook County.
)
v. ) No. 01 CR 10786
)
SANDY WILLIAMS, ) The Honorable
) Kenneth J. Wadas,
Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge Presiding.
JUSTICE GREIMAN delivered the opinion of the court:
Following a bench trial that included inculpatory deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) evidence,
defendant, Sandy Williams, was convicted of two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault,
aggravated kidnaping and aggravated robbery. He was subsequently sentenced to two concurrent
terms of natural life imprisonment for the aggravated criminal sexual assault counts; a
consecutive term of 60 years’ imprisonment for the aggravated kidnaping count; and a concurrent
term of 15 years’ imprisonment for the aggravated robbery count. On appeal, defendant contends
that the trial court erred in admitting the inculpatory DNA evidence because sufficient foundation
was not established for the forensic scientist’s opinion testimony on the matter. Defendant
additionally contends that admission of the forensic scientist’s opinion testimony violated
defendant’s confrontation rights according to Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 158 L. Ed.
2d 177, 124 S. Ct. 1354 (2004). Defendant finally contends that the trial court erroneously
ordered that his aggravated kidnaping sentence run consecutive to his sentence of natural life
imprisonment for aggravated criminal sexual assault.