People v. Aldaco

437 N.E.2d 905, 107 Ill. App. 3d 672, 63 Ill. Dec. 256, 1982 Ill. App. LEXIS 2041
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 25, 1982
Docket80-2768
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 437 N.E.2d 905 (People v. Aldaco) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Aldaco, 437 N.E.2d 905, 107 Ill. App. 3d 672, 63 Ill. Dec. 256, 1982 Ill. App. LEXIS 2041 (Ill. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

JUSTICE LORENZ

delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a jury trial, defendant was found guilty of attempt armed robbery (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 38, par. 8 — 4) and was sentenced to a term of eight years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. He appeals, contending that (1) the trial court erred by admitting a transcript of the victim’s preliminary hearing testimony in that the State failed to exercise due diligence in procuring the victim’s attendance at trial, and (2) he was denied a fair trial by the trial court’s failure to ask prospective jurors questions during voir dire sufficient to allow him to intelligently exercise his peremptory challenges.

The following pertinent evidence was adduced at trial.

Chicago police officers James Molloy and John Farrell both testified for the State that they were assigned to a plainclothes Tactical Unit of the Chicago Police Department on May 28,1978. Shortly after midnight, they were patrolling westbound on 18th Street near 18th and Racine, in Chicago, Illinois, when they observed three Latino men standing on the sidewalk in a well-lighted area. The' three men were identified as the defendant, a shorter companion, and the victim, Salvador Razo.

Defendant was holding a gun to the head of Salvador Razo. The policemen stopped their car, and as they were exiting their vehicle, they were spotted by the three men. Defendant immediately threw the gun under a car and fled north up a nearby alley with the second man.

Officer Molloy testified that they did not chase the two men immediately because they knew who the defendant was and also knew where he lived. Officer Molloy recovered the gun while Officer Farrell went over to speak to Razo and placed him in the car.

They proceeded by car towards the direction of the defendant’s home and when they sighted defendant coming out of a gangway, Officer Molloy got out of the car and attempted to arrest him. Following a struggle, defendant escaped and ran a short distance until Officer Farrell drove the car in front of him, got out of the car, pulled out a gun and ordered him to stop. Defendant was placed under arrest.

The preliminary hearing testimony of Salvador Razo, which had originally been given in Spanish, was read to the jury. When translated by a court interpreter it consisted of essentially the following:

On May 28, 1978, at approximately 12:05 a.m., Razo was walking near the corner of 18th and Racine when two men “attacked me and tried to rob me.” He then made an in-court identification of defendant as being one of the men who had attacked him.

Razo further testified that defendant stopped him with a gun in his hand and asked for his money, but that when the two officers arrived defendant dropped the gun and started running.

Defendant testified on his own behalf that on the night in question, he was walking home from a friend’s house when two Mexicans across the street called out to him in Spanish, “Hey, brother, come here for a moment.”

He stated that the taller man asked him if he was interested in buying a gun, explaining that the immigration authorities had contacted him for deportation back to Mexico and he didn’t want to be caught by them with a gun.

Prior to the commencement of the trial, the State presented a motion to allow the use at trial of Razo’s testimony at the preliminary hearing and the following pertinent evidence was adduced at the hearing on the State’s motion.

Assistant State’s Attorney John Feely testified that on March 29,1979, he issued a subpoena for Salvador Razo, who responded to the subpoena and was interviewed by Feely on three occasions.

Razo informed him that he could be reached by telephone at the home of his brother, Anselmo Razo. Assistant State’s Attorney Edward Vienuzis testified that he called Anselmo Razo’s residence and spoke to Josephine Razo, Salvador Razo’s niece. She informed him that her uncle Salvador was in Mexico and she did not know how he could be contacted.

Richard C. Larson, an investigator for the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department testified that sometime in April 1980, he was instructed by Feely to find Salvador Razo. Larson went to Razo’s last known address and spoke to several of the neighbors, who told him they had never heard of Razo.

Subsequently, a second investigator contacted Anselmo Razo at his place of employment. Anselmo stated that his brother had returned to Mexico to get married and was living in south-central Mexico with his fiancee’s family, and that he did not know where or how his brother could be contacted.

The selection of the jury at the commencement of trial was conducted entirely by the trial court. The voir dire examination included questions concerning the veniremen’s relationship with any State’s Attorneys or police officers and whether the fact that many of the witnesses and the defendant were Mexican-Americans would affect their ability to be impartial jurors, in addition to general individual questions concerning the prospective jurors’ family and background.

During voir dire, defense counsel stated that the court had not asked individual jurors certain questions submitted by defense counsel, and moved for a mistrial. The written questions in issue are not included in the record on appeal.

Opinion

We first address defendant’s contention that he was denied a fair trial by the admission of Salvador Razo’s preliminary hearing testimony at trial. He argues that the State failed to establish reasonable diligence in attempting to locate Razo for appearance at trial.

Citing People v. Burton (1972), 6 Ill. App. 3d 879, 286 N.E.2d 792, cert. denied (1973), 411 U.S. 937, 36 L. Ed. 2d 399, 93 S. Ct. 1917, defendant correctly asserts that the State has a three-pronged duty to fulfill before the preliminary hearing testimony of an absent witness may be admitted as substantive evidence against an accused at trial. The State must establish (1) that the witness is unavailable at the time of trial, (2) that the State has made a reasonably diligent good faith effort to procure his attendance at trial, and (3) that the accused had an adequate opportunity to cross-examine him at the preliminary hearing.

Defendant contends that the State has failed to meet its threshold burden of establishing the unavailability of its witness, and specifically argues that the State had not shown by competent evidence that Razo had indeed moved to a foreign country.

We agree that testimony elicited at a preliminary hearing is admissible at trial in only certain limited situations, which include cases where a witness is not available to testify and there has been an ample opportunity to cross-examine. (People v. Morgan (1977), 69 Ill. 2d 200, 370 N.E.2d 1063.) In such cases, the testifying witness must be either dead or unavailable despite a good faith effort by the State to produce him. People v. Brown (1977), 47 Ill. App.

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Bluebook (online)
437 N.E.2d 905, 107 Ill. App. 3d 672, 63 Ill. Dec. 256, 1982 Ill. App. LEXIS 2041, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-aldaco-illappct-1982.