98911, People v. Baez

apartment.Back at his apartment, defendant got out a battery poweredelectric saw to dismember Estrada. Defendant said that he “choppedaway” at Estrada’s neck and right arm, but decided not to removethem. Instead, he decided to remove Estrada’s legs, and heaccomplished this using the hacksaw and the electric saw. He then putEstrada’s body into the garbage can and covered his head with agarbage bag. Defendant loaded the garbage can into his car and founda place to dump Estrada’s body near “Carroll Street and Sacramento.”Defendant then returned to his apartment and retrieved the limbshe had removed from the bodies, as well as “some other bags full ofsoiled articles.” He took the bags to the Chicago River and tossed thelimbs in one at a time. He then drove around dumping the other bags.Defendant then went back to the apartment again and retrievedEstrada’s jewelry and the weapons, except the swords. These items,too, defendant discarded around town. With respect to the swords,defendant said, “I couldn’t just throw them away because they’renoticeable objects in the house cause they were decoration. And tojust get rid of them all of a sudden would arouse suspicion.” Instead,defendant’s girlfriend took the swords to her cousin’s house.Pretrial ProceedingsDefendant’s first claim of error on appeal relates to certainproceedings that occurred before any evidence was taken in this case.We review the relevant pretrial proceedings.On March 16, 2000, defendant appeared in court accompanied byCharles Buchholz, an assistant public defender with the office’smurder task force. On May 24, 2000, defendant appeared again, andthe court indicated that defendant had mailed two letters directly tothe court. The first letter was addressed to the court and requested thecourt’s help in getting defendant into protective custody because hedid not feel safe in the jail. Buchholz, again appearing with defendant,indicated that he had “taken care of that matter.” The second letterwas a copy of a letter defendant had sent to the Attorney Registrationand Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) regarding Buchholz. Whenasked about the letter, defendant stated that he wanted to file a“motion for appointment of counsel other than a public defender.”-6-