No. 2--05--0980
IN THE
APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS
SECOND DISTRICT
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE ) Appeal from the Circuit Court
OF ILLINOIS, ) of Lake County.
)
Plaintiff-Appellee, )
v. ) No. 88--CF--1461
)
JOHN WALDRON, ) Honorable
) Victoria A. Rossetti,
Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, Presiding.
JUSTICE McLAREN delivered the opinion of the court:
Defendant, John Waldron, appeals the dismissal of his second postconviction petition, seeking
to have his 60-year sentences of imprisonment, imposed to run consecutively to his natural life
sentence, modified to run concurrently. We reverse the dismissal and modify his sentences.
Defendant was charged by indictment with three counts of first-degree murder (Ill. Rev. Stat.
1987, ch. 38, par. 9--1(a)(1)) and two counts of armed robbery (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 38, par. 18--
2(a)). The evidence indicated that defendant pulled a gun on a gas station attendant, demanded
money, and then shot the attendant in the neck, killing him. Defendant then motioned another gas
station attendant to the cash register and that attendant gave defendant all the bills from the register.
Defendant then fled the scene with his codefendant. Following a jury trial, defendant was found
guilty on all counts. Despite the jury's finding that defendant was eligible for the death penalty, on
July 28, 1989, he was sentenced to natural life in prison on the first-degree murder convictions and
No. 2--05--0980
two extended 60-year terms of imprisonment on the armed robbery convictions, with one 60-year
term to run concurrently with and the other to run consecutively to his life sentence.
On direct appeal, this court vacated two of defendant's convictions of first-degree murder but
otherwise affirmed his convictions and sentences. People v. Waldron, 219 Ill. App. 3d 1017, 1046-47
(1991). The facts of the case are recited in the direct appeal and will not be repeated here. Defendant
filed a pro se postconviction petition on December 26, 2000. The dismissal of that petition as
frivolous and patently without merit was affirmed by this court in a Rule 23 order issued on
September 23, 2002, and corrected on October 29, 2002. In that order, this court modified
defendant's sentences such that his two 60-year sentences would run concurrently with one another
but consecutively to his natural life sentence. This court otherwise affirmed his sentences as modified.
On July 27, 2005, defendant filed a second pro se postconviction petition, seeking to have his
60-year sentences modified to run concurrently with his life sentence. Defendant