People v. Allen

815 N.E.2d 426, 351 Ill. App. 3d 599, 287 Ill. Dec. 23, 2004 Ill. App. LEXIS 950
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided August 11, 2004·No. 4-02-0950·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinions

JUSTICE APPLETON

delivered the opinion of the court:

In March 2002, a grand jury charged defendant, Jackie A. Allen, with burglary (720 ILCS 5/19 — 1(a) (West 2000) (text of section effective June 1, 2001)). The day of his September 2002 trial, he sought to plead guilty to a lesser charge under a proposed plea agreement with the State. Upon ascertaining that the State had not yet drafted the charge, the trial court refused to consider the plea agreement. The trial proceeded, and the jury found defendant guilty as charged. At a joint October 2002 hearing, the court denied defendant’s posttrial motion and sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment.

Defendant appeals, contending (1) the court abused its discretion by refusing to consider the plea agreement, (2) the State committed reversible error by misstating the evidence in its closing argument, and (3) the court’s 15-year sentence is excessive. Because we agree with the first contention, we reverse and remand.

I. BACKGROUND

The grand jury’s indictment alleged that on December 18, 2001, defendant committed burglary in that he, “or one for whose conduct he was legally responsible, knowingly and without authority, entered a building of Eagle Head Enterprises [(Eagle Head)], *** at 130 E. Main, Tolono, Illinois, with the intent to commit therein a theft.”

On September 11, 2002, the scheduled day of trial, the court asked defense counsel, before voir dire, if defendant “still persisted] in his plea of not guilty” to the burglary charge. Defense counsel replied: “[T]here has been an offer made by the State’s Attorney. [Defendant has] decided to accept that offer if the [j]udge will entertain it.” The court then asked defense counsel:

“THE COURT: Is that to the charge that I’ve just read to him?
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Yes, it is — well, no, Your Honor, it would be to a lesser charge.
THE COURT: We have jurors here at this time ready to proceed. I don’t have any lesser charges here.
What is the situation at this time as far as the People are concerned, [prosecutor]?
[PROSECUTOR]: Judge, I can say that the State is ready for trial. We are prepared to proceed today.
I have previously tendered an offer to [defense counsel]. I know that she’s been speaking with the [defendant on numerous occasions.
I don’t think that the offer or the potential plea is necessarily inconsistent with the ends of justice or a bad plea or however one wants to say that.
So, [defense counsel] just asked me if he could still accept that, and I would be prepared to still offer that if the [c]ourt would accept that, but I — obviously, it’s in the discretion of the [c]ourt at this point.
THE COURT: Well, what type of situation are you talking about? What is the plea? There are no other charges here, so the only charge I have is to the burglary. Has anything else been filed?
[PROSECUTOR]: [Nothing else has] been filed, [j]udge. It was believed that another charge would be filed if he would accept the plea.
THE COURT: Do you have those papers?
[PROSECUTOR]: I do not have those prepared now.
THE COURT: Then, no, we have people waiting. I am not going to wait for the State and have the jurors sit and wait for the State to prepare paperwork.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Your Honor, I would just like the record to reflect that my client was in the Department of Corrections. We had several conversations through letter only. I was unable to talk to him about his case or about the plea agreement until last night. Yesterday afternoon after court. He was not brought until Monday, approximately 1 o’clock. And because of trial call, I was unable to make it to the jail. So, I wasn’t able to converse with him in person except for yesterday.”

The parties selected the jury, and trial on the burglary charge began. A safe was stolen from Eagle Head on December 18, 2001. Suzan and Christina Lambert testified to seeing defendant’s nephew, Timothy Burnett, pulling on the door of Eagle Head the evening of the burglary. A police officer, Everett Harper, testified to having a telephone conversation with defendant, in which defendant admitted helping Burnett plan the crime. Defendant even told Harper where he could find the safe, and Harper later found it half-submerged in a pond, just where defendant said it would be. In a voluntary interview at the police station, defendant told Harper he and Burnett had driven to Tolono, loaded up the safe, and taken it to his home in Urbana to cut it open. Defendant also told Harper the safe contained only documents and no money (something he could have known, of course, only if he had looked inside the safe). In his own case in chief, defendant presented alibi witnesses and then took the stand and denied making the incriminating statements to Harper or helping with the crime. The jury found defendant guilty of burglary.

In his posttrial motion, defendant alleged:

“The [cjourt erred in not allowing the [defendant to accept a negotiated plea to a lesser felony charge on the date of trial because the new charge had not been filed, the paperwork was not available in court[,] and a jury was waiting. The State was willing to proceed with the negotiated plea. The negotiated plea would have been to a [t]heft with a prior, Class 4 felony, for four years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Later[,] after jury selection[,] the [cjourt asserted that it would accept a plea to the charge of [b]urglary only.”

In the October 2002 hearing on the motion and sentencing, the court stated:

“As to [the] request that the [defendant plead to lesser charges, one, there were no lesser charges. The jury was here. The matter was ready to proceed for trial. If there are no lesser charges on file, the [defendant cannot plead to them. He was charged with the burglary.
And after the jury was picked, the [c]ourt did advise that there was no sense in wasting anybody’s time in anything aside from the burglary at that point, because that’s the only charge we had. That’s what we were dealing with. And that’s what the jury was there for.
[The] State wasn’t dismissing the burglary. Since [it] didn’t dismiss, that was the only charge there for him to be tried on.
So, there was no reason, no showing, or anything that there was any lesser charge, and the [c]ourt wasn’t going to give a continuance at that point, so I don’t see any error there.”

The court then denied defendant’s posttrial motion and, after a sentencing hearing, sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment.

This appeal followed.

II. ANALYSIS

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People v. Allen, 815 N.E.2d 426, 351 Ill. App. 3d 599, 287 Ill. Dec. 23, 2004 Ill. App. LEXIS 950 (Ill. Ct. App. 2004).

815 N.E.2d 426 (People v. Allen) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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People v. Allen
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