People v. Johnson

── People v. Johnson ── Court: Appellate Court of Illinois Date: April 23, 2026 Category: General 2026 IL App (1st) 230142-U No. 1-23-0142 Order filed April 23, 2026 FOURTH DIVISION NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1). ______________________________________________________________________________ IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST DISTRICT _____________________________________________________________________________ THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Cook County. ) v. ) No. 21 CR 14566 ) EUGENE JOHNSON AKA ROBERT JOHNSON, ) Honorable ) Alfredo Maldonado, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge Presiding. JUSTICE LYLE delivered the judgment of the court. Presiding Justice Navarro and Justice Quish concurred in the judgment. ORDER ¶1 Held: The evidence was sufficient to convict the defendant of attempted first degree murder. The circuit court did not commit plain error in admitting the body-camera video footage or in allowing a witness to testify to the content of a police dispatch. ¶2 Following a jury trial, the defendant-appellant, Robert Johnson, also known as Eugene Johnson, was convicted of attempted first degree murder and armed habitual criminal (AHC) and No. 1-23-0142 sentenced to concurrent prison terms of 21 and 20 years, respectively. 1 On appeal, Mr. Johnson argues that: (1) the evidence was insufficient to convict him of attempted murder and (2) the trial court erred in admitting hearsay statements into evidence from police body-camera video footage and the content of a police dispatch. We affirm the judgment of the circuit court of Cook County. ¶3 BACKGROUND ¶4 Mr. Johnson was charged with attempted first degree murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm for shooting at Crystal Fleming on or about October 30, 2021. He was also charged with home invasion and AHC committed on the same date. ¶5 At the August 2022 trial, Ms. Fleming testified that on October 30, 2021, she was living with her children and Mr. Johnson, her boyfriend at the time. Ms. Fleming’s relatives, including her stepfather, Michael Haney, were staying in her home for the funeral of Ms. Fleming’s mother. In the early morning, Ms. Fleming and her children were asleep in one bed when Mr. Johnson came home using his key, woke her, and berated her for not picking him up. Mr. Johnson and Ms. Fleming then fought, hitting each other. They were both upset, and Ms. Fleming could not recall who struck the first blow. They fought through the home and “woke the whole house up.” ¶6 At some point, Mr. Haney “jumped in and grabbed [Mr. Johnson] and started choking him.” They fought in the hallway by the kitchen while Ms. Fleming was in the living room. When asked what happened next and when Mr. Haney stopped fighting Mr. Johnson, Ms. Fleming replied she was “not sure” and said that “eventually the whole situation ended when the police came. But when they was fighting, *** I can’t remember all this. It happened too long ago and 1 Whi