People v. Shoemaker

── People v. Shoemaker ── Court: Appellate Court of Illinois Date: April 23, 2026 Category: General NOTICE 2026 IL App (4th) 251066-U This Order was filed under FILED Supreme Court Rule 23 and is NO. 4-25-1066 April 23, 2026 not precedent except in the Carla Bender limited circumstances allowed 4th District Appellate IN THE APPELLATE COURT under Rule 23(e)(1). Court, IL OF ILLINOIS FOURTH DISTRICT THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Circuit Court of v. ) Morgan County TONY W. SHOEMAKER, ) No. 00CF21 Defendant-Appellant. ) ) Honorable ) Adam Giganti, ) Judge Presiding. JUSTICE ZENOFF delivered the judgment of the court. Justices Knecht and DeArmond concurred in the judgment. ORDER ¶1 Held: The appellate court granted appellate counsel’s motion to withdraw and affirmed the trial court’s judgment, as no issue of arguable merit could be raised on appeal. ¶2 In 2000, defendant, Tony W. Shoemaker, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault (720 ILCS 5/12-14(a)(2) (West 2000)) (recodified as 720 ILCS 5/11-1.30 (West Supp. 2011)) and one count of home invasion (720 ILCS 5/12-11(a)(2) (West 2000)) (recodified as 720 ILCS 5/19-6 (West Supp. 2013)). The trial court sentenced defendant to two consecutive terms of 30 years in prison. In July 2025, defendant filed his fourth motion for leave to file a successive postconviction petition, alleging that (1) his convictions violated the one-act, one-crime doctrine and (2) the court improperly applied the same aggravating factor, great bodily harm, to both offenses during sentencing. The court denied the motion. Defendant timely filed a notice of appeal, and the court appointed appellate counsel to represent him. Appellate counsel now seeks to withdraw pursuant to the procedure in Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967), contending any argument he might make would be meritless. We grant counsel’s motion to withdraw and affirm the court’s judgment. ¶3 I. BACKGROUND ¶4 A. Defendant’s Charges, Plea, and Sentence ¶5 On February 18, 2000, defendant was charged with a two-count information, alleging that on February 16, 2000, he entered Sandy Herald’s home in Jacksonville, Illinois, without authority and sexually assaulted her. Count I alleged aggravated sexual assault in that defendant “placed his penis in the body of Sandy Herald and in doing so the defendant caused bodily harm to Sandy Herald by striking Sandy Herald about the body.” Count II alleged home invasion, alleging that defendant entered Sandy Herald’s dwelling and “intentionally caused injury to Sandy Herald within such dwelling in that he struck Sandy Herald [a]bout the body.” ¶6 On May 8, 2000, defendant entered an open guilty plea to both counts. At the guilty plea hearing, the State proffered that the evidence would show that on February 16, 2000, defendant, without authority, entered Herald’s dwelling, and “by the use of force he performed intercourse on her, placing his penis in her vagina, causing bodily harm to her and