People v. Sapp

── People v. Sapp ── Court: Appellate Court of Illinois Date: May 26, 2026 Category: General 2026 IL App (1st) 241317-U SECOND DIVISION May 26, 2026 No. 1-24-1317 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 Cook County. Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ) v. ) No. 94 CR 7322 ) MICHAEL SAPP, ) Honorable ) Arthur Willis, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge Presiding. PRESIDING JUSTICE VAN TINE delivered the judgment of the court. Justices Ellis and D.B. Walker concurred in the judgment. ORDER ¶1 Held: We affirm the circuit court’s dismissal of defendant’s postconviction petition at the second stage where both untimeliness and res judicata bar defendant’s claim. Further, postconviction counsel did not provide unreasonable assistance. ¶2 Defendant Michael Sapp appeals from the circuit court’s second-stage dismissal of his postconviction petition (725 ILCS 5/122-1 et seq. (West 2018)) challenging the circuit court’s 1-24-1317 imposition of a natural life sentence after it found him guilty of (1) the 1994 murder of Shawnte Graham, and (2) the intentional homicide of Graham’s unborn child. On appeal, he argues that his natural life sentence violates the Illinois Constitution’s proportionate penalties clause (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 11), and, alternatively, that his postconviction counsel provided unreasonable assistance. For the following reasons, we affirm. 1 ¶3 I. BACKGROUND ¶4 In January of 1994, Sapp and Weldon May, a United States Navy recruiter, devised a plan to terminate Shawnte Graham’s pregnancy. Graham was a Navy recruit who had named May as the father of her unborn child. In exchange for terminating the pregnancy, May was to help Sapp bypass the Navy’s eyesight requirement so that he would be eligible to enlist. ¶5 On February 15, 1994, Sapp entered Graham’s Chicago apartment by posing as a maintenance man, held the apartment’s other occupants at gunpoint, and shot and killed Graham. Graham was approximately eighteen weeks pregnant at the time of her death; her fetus died from the same gunshot wound. Police subsequently apprehended Sapp on February 22, 1994, and charged him with first degree murder of Graham, intentional homicide of an unborn child, home invasion, aggravated unlawful restraint, and other offenses. Approximately two years later, the matter proceeded to a bench trial. ¶6 At trial, the circuit court found Sapp guilty of first degree murder, intentional homicide of an unborn child, home invasion, and armed robbery. ¶7 At the sentencing hearing, a forensic psychiatrist testified in mitigation that Sapp suffered from dependent personality disorder, bipolar disorder, and alcohol dependence. According to the 1 The parties completed briefing in November of 2025. However, the original authoring justice’s illn