People v. Boose

382 N.E.2d 532, 65 Ill. App. 3d 127, 22 Ill. Dec. 212, 1978 Ill. App. LEXIS 3453
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedOctober 19, 1978
Docket76-608
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 382 N.E.2d 532 (People v. Boose) 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. Boose, 382 N.E.2d 532, 65 Ill. App. 3d 127, 22 Ill. Dec. 212, 1978 Ill. App. LEXIS 3453 (Ill. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE LINN

delivered the opinion of the court:

At the conclusion of a jury trial in the circuit court of Cook County, defendant, Jeffrey Boose, was found guilty of armed robbery (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 38, par. 18 — 2) and was sentenced to a term of 4 to 12 years imprisonment. On appeal, defendant contends the trial court erred in its instructions to the jury on the legal concepts of accountability and circumstantial evidence.

We affirm the trial court.

On December 10, 1973, at approximately 4:25 p.m., two men entered the Allstate Insurance Company sales office, at 9133 Stony Island Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. Therese Davis, an employee of Allstate, testified that she approached the taller of the two men and asked, “Sir, can I help you?” When the taller man responded, “Where do you make your payments?” Ms. Davis directed him and his companion to the desk of her co-worker, Roseanne Monocchio.

As the two men made their way toward Ms. Monocchio’s desk, Ms. Davis turned away, returned to her own desk, and resumed a telephone conversation with an insurance agent whom she had placed on “hold.” Upon concluding the telephone conversation, Ms. Davis looked up and saw Ms. Monocchio trying to mouth to her, “It was a robbery.”

Ms. Davis yelled, “robbery”; ran toward Ms. Monocchio and at that point, she saw three men run out of the entry and exit door of the office. It was later learned that the third man Ms. Davis saw run from the building was Chicago Police Officer Clifford Doyle.

On May 1, 1974, Ms. Davis viewed a lineup and at that time positively identified the defendant, Jeffrey Boose, as the man she had spoken to in the Allstate sales office immediately before the robbery. However, at trial, Ms. Davis could not identify the defendant as either the man she had seen in the Allstate office or as the man she had picked from the May 1974 lineup. Ms. Davis did testify that at the time of the lineup, she was certain the man she identified was the same man she talked to in the Allstate office immediately before the robbery.

Roseanne Monocchio testified that on December 10, 1973, she was employed by Allstate in its Stony Island Avenue sales office. Ms. Monocchio stated that on that day at approximately 4:25 p.m., she was working at her desk when a brown paper bag was thrown in front of her. As she looked up, she saw two men standing near her. One of the men held a revolver which he “sort of [hid] behind” Ms. Monocchio’s double-stacked in-out box. He demanded that Ms. Monocchio give them “the money.” Ms. Monocchio asserted that as she removed $266 from her desk drawer the money was snatched from her hand. The two men then rushed out of the office.

During the incident, Ms. Monocchio was looking primarily at the revolver and the face of the man holding it. She testified that she had only a “glimpse” of the-second man involved in the robbery and could not identify him. She further said that the defendant was not the man who had held the gun during the robbery.

Chicago Police Officer Clifford Doyle testified that in the late afternoon of December 10,1973, he was sitting in the reception room of the Allstate Insurance Company building, at 9133 Stony Island Avenue, waiting to make a personal claim. Officer Doyle explained that he was off duty at the time and was dressed in civilian clothes.

The reception room, in which Officer Doyle was sitting, was separated from the company’s sales office by a full glass door. At approximately 4:25 p.m., Officer Doyle asserted that he saw the defendant, Jeffrey Boose, enter the sales office with another man, shorter in height, at his side. Officer Doyle testified that he had seen the defendant in the surrounding neighborhood several times prior to December 10 and knew the defendant as “Jeffrey.”

A few minutes after the defendant and the shorter man entered the building, Officer Doyle heard the “rustle of feet.” When he looked up, Officer Doyle saw the defendant and the shorter man “trotting” out of the sales office at a very hurried rate. At about the same time, Officer Doyle heard Therese Davis yell, “robbery.”

Officer Doyle ran out of the building and chased the two men northbound on Stony Island Avenue. As the two men reached the comer of 91st Place, Officer Doyle shouted that he was a police officer and ordered them to stop. The two men did not respond but turned the comer and ran east on 91st Place until they reached a white Pontiac automobile. A third man was already sitting in the driver’s seat of the automobile and had the engine mnning.

As the defendant entered the automobile, the shorter man turned and fired at Officer Doyle. Officer Doyle dove to the ground and returned two shots both of which missed. After firing a second shot at Officer Doyle, the shorter man jumped into the back seat of the Pontiac and the automobile sped off.

While patrolling his beat in a marked squad car on May 1,1974, Officer Doyle spotted the defendant driving southbound on Stony Island Avenue near 88th Street. The officer stopped the automobile and arrested the defendant.

Officer Doyle testified further that the defendant’s physical appearance, on May 1, 1974, the day of the lineup, was similar to his physical appearance when the officer had last seen him on December 10, 1973 in the Allstate sales office. Officer Doyle added that, at the time of trial, the defendant was approximately 20 to 30 pounds slimmer, had longer hair and “a greater growth of whiskers on his chin.”

Following the close of the State’s case, the defense called as a witness, Terry Alan Stratton. Stratton testified that on December 10, 1973, at approximately 4:30 p.m., he was seated in his car parked on 91st Place facing east. Stratton stated that he was waiting for his father and girlfriend both of whom worked around the corner on Stony Island Avenue at the Allstate sales office.

In his rear view mirror, Stratton saw three men dash around the comer and run east on 91st Place in the direction of his car. Stratton asserted that these three men ran a couple of hundred feet past his car to a white Pontiac in which a fourth man was already sitting. After the three men entered the Pontiac, it sped off.

Stratton stated that, about this same time, another man came running around the corner and stopped in the street near the driver’s side of his car. The man, later identified as Officer Doyle, fired a shot at the white Pontiac. Stratton dove to the floor of his car and heard approximately three more shots being fired. Stratton testified that he did not see the faces of the three men well enough to identify them.

Louis P. Dodd testified that he was an Allstate insurance agent who had written insurance policies for the defendant’s family. Dodd stated that the Allstate office closest to the defendant’s home was as 9133 Stony Island Avenue and that payments could be made at that office.

The defendant took the stand and testified in his own behalf. The defendant stated that he did not know where he was on December 10, 1973, although he knew he never set foot in the Allstate sales office on Stony Island Avenue on that date.

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Bluebook (online)
382 N.E.2d 532, 65 Ill. App. 3d 127, 22 Ill. Dec. 212, 1978 Ill. App. LEXIS 3453, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-boose-illappct-1978.