People v. Baltimore

885 N.E.2d 1096, 381 Ill. App. 3d 115
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 17, 2008
Docket2—06—0689, 2—06—0690 cons.
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 885 N.E.2d 1096 (People v. Baltimore) 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. Baltimore, 885 N.E.2d 1096, 381 Ill. App. 3d 115 (Ill. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

JUSTICE BOWMAN

delivered the opinion of the court:

On February 1, 2006, defendant, Marcus Y. Baltimore, was charged with the December 2005 burglary of One Stop, a convenience store. Prior to trial, an adverse ruling by the trial court led the State to file a certificate of impairment pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 604(a)(1) (210 Ill. 2d R. 604(a)(1)) and to pursue an interlocutory appeal to this court. The trial court’s decision not to allow a videotape and various photographs to be introduced at trial forms the basis of the State’s appeal. The State also moved to continue the detention of defendant pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 604(a)(3) (210 Ill. 2d R. 604(a)(3)) during the pendency of its appeal. Although the trial court did not find compelling reasons to keep defendant detained, it did order defendant to report to court services on a weekly basis until the appeal was resolved. Defendant appeals this decision by the trial court. On this court’s motion, the appeals were consolidated. For the following reasons, we dismiss both appeals for lack of jurisdiction.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Admissibility of Photographs and Videotape

The burglary at One Stop occurred after business hours on December 20, 2005. Although there was no eyewitness to the incident, One Stop’s “multiplex” surveillance system captured the offender in the store. Later that day, Aurora police officer Chad Kubis and others viewed the recorded images of the burglary.

On June 8, 2006, defendant filed a motion in limine requesting that the court prohibit Officer Kubis from testifying about what he observed on the surveillance tape. The grand jury testimony indicated that Officer Kubis stopped defendant about six hours after the burglary because defendant’s appearance and jacket looked similar to the offender’s. Because Officer Kubis did not observe the crime while it was being recorded on the surveillance system, however, defendant argued that the best-evidence rule barred his testimony about the contents of the surveillance tape. Instead, defendant argued, the best-evidence rule required that the surveillance tape itself be authenticated and admitted into evidence.

The same day, the State filed a motion in limine to admit photographs as authenticated under the “silent witness” theory. In its motion, the State explained that One Stop employed a “multiple surveillance system used to capture multiple still images from multiple cameras.” Although recorded images of the incident were captured on a “VHS tape” (videotape), the recorded images could not be viewed on a traditional VCR and a television. Rather, “multiplex equipment” was required to view the recorded images. As a result, the State hired a private company to record “five 1 of the captured photographs on a digital format” that was then used to print “photographs on paper.” The photographs extracted from the surveillance tape depicted the offender in a striped jacket. The State sought to introduce the photographs under the “silent witness” theory, which allows the admission of such evidence without testimony of a witness if there is sufficient proof of the reliability of the process that produced the evidence.

At the hearing on the motions, the State explained that the recorded images from One Stop’s multiplex system were not captured on a surveillance tape that could be played on a traditional VCR. Defense counsel disagreed, stating that the surveillance tape could be played on a traditional VCR, although the images would appear at a rapid rate. Defense counsel argued that there was the possibility of slowing down the images on the surveillance tape so that they could be viewed clearly. The court reserved its ruling, subject to the State’s ability to lay a proper foundation for the photographs and/or the videotape.

On June 12, defendant filed a second motion in limine to bar the State from introducing the photographs. The motion stated that, contrary to the State’s position, the surveillance tape was not “still images from multiple cameras” or “captured photographs.” Instead, the surveillance tape was “live-action video in broken up sequences that in continuous action depict[ed] the offender’s actions in the store at the time” of the incident. Defendant stated that, in one of the sequences, the offender could be seen moving about the lottery ticket area and then heading toward the exit. According to defendant, the “five frozen images” chosen by the State did not depict the entire sequence of events or the offender’s general build and physical characteristics. Defendant argued that presenting only a few images, rather than the “entire recorded sequence,” would be prejudicial and misleading because the jury would not be allowed to make its own determination regarding the characteristics of the offender. Defendant maintained that the best-evidence rule and the completeness doctrine required the State to present the surveillance tape rather than the photographs. Defendant took the position that the State had the capability of either using multiplex equipment to play the tape or converting the tape into another format capable of being viewed on a computer monitor.

The court conducted a hearing on defendant’s motion that day. The court noted that the photographs the State sought to introduce were recorded beginning at 2:44:56 a.m. and ending at 2:45:13 a.m. Both parties agreed that the incident occurred during that window of time. Defendant argued that identity was an issue at trial and that the surveillance tape itself was the best evidence because it showed the offender moving. The State responded that defendant’s concern was supported not by the best-evidence rule but by the completeness doctrine, and the State conceded that it selected certain frames from which to derive the photographs. The State explained that all of the photographs came from the camera behind the counter at One Stop:

The court noted the various times of the photographs: photograph one at 2:44:56 a.m.; photograph two at 2:44:57 a.m.; photograph three at 2:44:59 a.m.; photograph four at 2:45 a.m.; photograph five at 2:45:02 a.m.; and photograph six at 2:45:13 a.m. It observed that there were time intervals without corresponding photographs between photographs two and three and between photographs four, five, and six. However, the surveillance tape contained images for every moment during the relevant time frame. According to the court, the State could not select “just a portion” of the photographs from the entire surveillance tape. Under the completeness doctrine, the jury had a right to see the entire surveillance tape before the State could introduce the six photographs. The State’s options were either to obtain the proper equipment to watch the surveillance tape or to create photographs for every image recorded between 2:44:56 a.m. and 2:45:13 a.m.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
885 N.E.2d 1096, 381 Ill. App. 3d 115, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-baltimore-illappct-2008.