Opinion
3-20-0018
04-25-2023
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ANTONIO T. COAXUM, Defendant-Appellant.
This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).
Appeal from the Circuit Court of the 10th Judicial Circuit, Peoria County, Illinois, Circuit No. 15-CF-465 Honorable Paul P. Gilfillan, Judge, Presiding.
JUSTICE HETTEL delivered the judgment of the court. Justice Peterson concurred with the judgment. Justice Brennan specially concurred.
JUSTICE HETTEL delivered the judgment of the court.
ORDER
HETTEL JUSTICE
¶ 1 Held: The second-stage dismissal of defendant's postconviction petition is reversed where retained counsel failed to comply with Illinois Supreme Court Rule 651(c), and the cause is remanded for further proceedings. 1 Justices Hettel, Brennan, and Peterson substituted for Justices Hauptman, Lytton, and Schmidt after oral argument and have read the briefs and listened to the recording of the oral argument.
¶ 2 Defendant, Antonio T. Coaxum, appeals the dismissal of his postconviction petition, alleging that the cause should be remanded for further second-stage proceedings where privately retained counsel failed to file a certificate pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 651(c) (Ill. S.Ct. R. 651(c) (eff. July 1, 2017)) and failed to amend defendant's pro se petition. We reverse and remand with directions.
¶ 3 I. BACKGROUND
¶ 4 Following a jury trial, defendant was found guilty of armed robbery (720 ILCS 5/18- 2(a)(2) (West 2014)) and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon (id. § 24-1.1(a)). The court sentenced defendant to concurrent terms of 22 years and 6 months' imprisonment for armed robbery and 5 years' imprisonment for unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon. Defendant's convictions were affirmed on direct appeal. People v. Coaxum, 2018 IL App (3d) 160069-U.