People v. Gracia

── People v. Gracia ── Court: Appellate Court of Illinois Date: June 05, 2026 Category: General 2026 IL App (1st) 242113-U FIFTH DIVISION June 5, 2026 No. 1-24-2113 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. 2021 CR 0784001 ) MICHAEL GRACIA, ) Honorable ) Aleksandra Gillespie, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge Presiding. JUSTICE MIKVA delivered the judgment of the court. Presiding Justice Mitchell and Justice Johnson concurred in the judgment. ORDER ¶1 Held: Defendant’s attempted first degree murder convictions are affirmed. The evidence sufficiently established his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and his counsel was not ineffective for failing to object to out-of-court statements made by his codefendant, where it was presumed that the trial judge considered that evidence only in the codefendant’s severed but simultaneous bench trial. ¶2 Following a bench trial, defendant Michael Gracia was convicted on two counts of attempted first degree murder and sentenced to concurrent terms of 31 years and 26 years in prison. Mr. Gracia argues on direct appeal that (1) the State’s evidence was insufficient to prove his guilt No. 1-24-2113 beyond a reasonable doubt, and (2) his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the admission of text messages sent by his codefendant that were inadmissible hearsay in Mr. Gracia’s case. We are unpersuaded on both grounds and affirm Mr. Gracia’s convictions. ¶3 I. BACKGROUND ¶4 The State charged Mr. Gracia by indictment with nine counts of attempted first degree murder (720 ILCS 5/8-4(a), 9-1(a)(1) (West 2020)), one count of aggravated battery with a firearm (id. § 12-3.05(e)(1)), and two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm (id. § 24-1.2(a)(2)), charges all stemming from shots fired from a truck at two individuals, Sergio Cabral and Miguel Sierra, on January 16, 2021. Mr. Gracia and his codefendant, Nicholas Athans, were tried in severed but simultaneous bench trials, beginning on November 6, 2023, with the State proceeding against Mr. Gracia as the principal and against Mr. Athans, not a party to this appeal, on a theory of accountability. The evidence at Mr. Gracia’s trial was as follows. ¶5 A. The State’s Eyewitness Testimony ¶6 While another witness, Evelyn Hernandez, saw the shooting from her living room window, she could only identify the truck. She also provided evidence that the front driver’s side window of her own vehicle, a black PT Cruiser parked in front of her building, had been shot out and that there was a bullet lodged in the steering column. Only the two victims, M