People v. Lewis

── People v. Lewis ── Court: Appellate Court of Illinois Date: June 04, 2026 Category: General NOTICE 2026 IL App (5th) 240147-U NOTICE Decision filed 06/04/26. The This order was filed under text of this decision may be NO. 5-24-0147 Supreme Court Rule 23 and is changed or corrected prior to the filing of a Petition for not precedent except in the Rehearing or the disposition of IN THE limited circumstances allowed the same. under Rule 23(e)(1). APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIFTH DISTRICT ______________________________________________________________________________ THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Saline County. ) v. ) No. 18-CF-28 ) TYLAR LEWIS, ) Honorable ) Todd D. Lambert, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, presiding. ______________________________________________________________________________ JUSTICE HACKETT delivered the judgment of the court. Presiding Justice Cates and Justice Sholar concurred in the judgment. ORDER ¶1 Held: The defendant’s convictions for predatory criminal sexual assault and aggravated battery of a child are affirmed where even if the defendant’s trial counsel was deficient, the defendant did not establish prejudice. ¶2 Following a jury trial in the circuit court of Saline County, the defendant, Tylar Lewis, was convicted of one count of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child (720 ILCS 5/11-1.40(a)(1) (West 2016)) and two counts of aggravated battery of a child (id. § 12-3.05 (b)(1)). Thereafter, the trial court merged the two aggravated battery convictions and sentenced the defendant to 40 years in prison for the predatory criminal sexual assault conviction and 20 years in prison for the aggravated battery conviction, to be served consecutively. On appeal, the defendant contends that his trial counsel was ineffective for (1) presenting to the jury, as impeachment evidence, police 1 interview videos of two of the State’s witnesses and (2) agreeing to a submitted jury instruction with a typographical error. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. ¶3 I. BACKGROUND ¶4 On January 17, 2018, the State, by information, charged the defendant with one count of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child (id. § 11-1.40(a)(1)) in that between January 10, 2018, and January 12, 2018, the defendant committed an act of sexual penetration against Tesla G., who was eight months old at the time. The State also charged the defendant with two counts of aggravated battery of a child (id. § 12-3.05 (b)(1)) based on allegations that, between the above dates, the defendant knowingly caused great bodily harm and permanent disfigurement to Tesla. ¶5 The jury trial commenced on August 7, 2023, at which the following testimony was presented. Chelsey H., Tesla’s mother, testified that she started dating the defendant in October 2017 and they lived together. The defendant was not Tesla’s father. At the time, it was believed that Brandon G., Chelsey’s ex-boyfriend, was Tes