People v. Alsup

              1Justice Wexstten was added to the panel after oral argument; he has read the briefs
and listened to the audiotape of oral argument.
1
NOTICE
Decision filed 04/16/07. The text of
this dec ision may be changed or
corrected prior to the filing of a
Petition for Rehea ring or the
disposition of the same.
NO. 5-05-0486
IN THE
APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS
FIFTH DISTRICT
________________________________________________________________________
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the
) Circuit Court of
Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Madison County.
)
v. ) No. 03-CF-3441
)
RICHARD ALSUP, ) Honorable
) Ann Callis,
Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, presiding.
________________________________________________________________________
JUSTICE WEXSTTEN1 delivered the opinion of the court:
On January 28, 2005, a Madison County jury convicted the defendant, Richard Alsup,
of knowing first-degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9-1(a)(2) (West 2002)), aggravated possession
of stolen firearms (720 ILCS 5/16-16.1(a)(1) (West 2002)), unlawful possession of weapons
by a felon (720 ILCS 5/24-1.1(a) (West 2002)), and aggravated possession of a stolen motor
vehicle (625 ILCS 5/4-103.2(a)(7)(A) (West 2002)). On appeal, the defendant argues that
the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed first-degree murder
and that erroneously admitted hearsay evidence denied him a fair trial. For the reasons that
follow, we affirm.
BACKGROUND
On the morning of Tuesday, December 2, 2003, the defendant stole a 1995 GMC
conversion van from an automobile dealership in Florissant, Missouri, and led police on a
high-speed chase that began in Florissant at approximately 5:15 a.m., spanned an estimated