People v. Brooks

559 N.E.2d 859, 202 Ill. App. 3d 164, 147 Ill. Dec. 519, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 1206
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedAugust 13, 1990
Docket1-87-2274
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 559 N.E.2d 859 (People v. Brooks) 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. Brooks, 559 N.E.2d 859, 202 Ill. App. 3d 164, 147 Ill. Dec. 519, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 1206 (Ill. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE BUCKLEY

delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a bench trial, Toronto Brooks (defendant) was found guilty of theft and robbery (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, pars. 16—1, 18—1). The trial court entered judgment on the robbery and sentenced defendant to 10 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Defendant appeals his conviction and sentence, contending that the State failed to prove him guilty of robbery beyond a reasonable doubt, that the trial court erred in sentencing him as a Class X offender under the Illinois enhanced sentencing provision (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 1005—5—3(c)8)), and that the trial court improperly considered defendant’s prior convictions in aggravation to increase his sentence within the Class X felony range. Defendant also raises a further issue in his reply brief, to which the State has submitted a brief in response pursuant to this court’s order, of whether the fifth amendment’s double jeopardy clause would bar resentencing defendant as a Class X offender in the event of a remand for resentencing. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm defendant’s robbery conviction, vacate his 10-year imprisonment sentence, and remand the case to the trial court for a sentencing hearing on defendant’s Class X offender status.

At trial, Daluta Kotelon testified that on December 6, 1986, at approximately 2:30 p.m., she and her friend, Malgorzata Kurowski, were seated on a CTA bus in Chicago, each with a young child on her lap. Kotelon observed a man across the aisle, whom she later identified as defendant, move to the seat directly behind her. While her purse was on her left arm, Kotelon felt “something like someone took — not took, but opened” her purse. After checking her purse and discovering that her wallet, containing $168, was missing, she turned around and saw her wallet in the hands of defendant, who was seated directly behind her. Kotelon then demanded the return of her wallet, but defendant “just push [sic]” her left shoulder and ran away from the bus, located at that point at Damen and Chicago Avenues.

Jose Arzuaga testified that on December 6, 1986, at approximately 3:30 p.m., while he was working on his automobile in the driveway behind his house, located at 2016 West Superior Street, he noticed defendant running very fast. Defendant jumped over a guard railing, stumbled, and dropped money from a brown wallet that he was carrying. Defendant then picked up the money and tossed the brown wallet into a nearby garage. Arzuaga observed defendant’s entire face as he exchanged words with him. Defendant continued running.

Arzuaga told a police officer the direction in which defendant ran. He then joined the officer in the squad car and showed him the location of the garage. Arzuaga observed the officer return from the garage with the brown wallet he had previously observed defendant drop.

Chicago police officer Frank Higgins testified that, after receiving a radio dispatch concerning the robbery at approximately 3:30 p.m., he observed defendant walking eastbound on Erie Street, who he believed fit the offender’s description of a black male, in his 20’s, wearing a black jacket and blue jeans. Defendant, breathing hard and panting, was holding a CTA bus transfer about three blocks from the robbery scene. Higgins escorted defendant to the robbery scene. Before reaching their destination, they were met by Kotelon and Kurowski, both of whom identified defendant as the person who absconded with Kotelon’s wallet. Higgins then searched defendant and found $168 in cash in the pocket of his pants.

Following defendant’s waiver of his Miranda rights at the 13th district police station, defendant told Higgins that he had just exited the bus at Damen and Erie Streets and that he had received the $168 from his friend, Frieda Almond. After subsequently speaking with Almond, Higgins again spoke with defendant, who then stated that he had received the $168 from his mother.

Defendant did not testify at trial.

Addressing defendant’s first contention on appeal, he argues that he was not proven guilty of robbery beyond a reasonable doubt because the State failed to prove the essential element of force or the threat of imminent force by defendant in taking the property. Specifically, defendant argues that Kotelon’s testimony is insufficient because it demonstrates that no force was used in the actual removal of the wallet and that the “push” did not occur in the context of a struggle for possession of the wallet. The State, relying on People v. Enoch (1988), 122 Ill. 2d 176, 522 N.E.2d 1124, maintains that defendant has waived this issue by failing to make a post-trial motion. Because the issue here involves the sufficiency of the evidence, it is reviewable despite defendant’s failure to file a post-trial motion. Enoch, 122 Ill. 2d at 190, 522 N.E.2d at 1131-32.

The offense of robbery requires the “use of force” or “threatening the imminent use of force.” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 18—1.) Without such, there is no robbery, although the act may constitute a theft. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 16 —1.) In seeking to differentiate between these two offenses, our supreme court has stated that generally a simple snatching or sudden taking of property from an unsuspecting person will be insufficient force to constitute robbery, though the act may be robbery where a struggle ensues, the victim is injured in the taking, or the property is so attached to the victim’s person or clothing as to create resistance to the taking. People v. Patton (1979), 76 Ill. 2d 45, 51-52, 389 N.E.2d 1174, 1175.

Where force sufficient to constitute robbery is found from the taking of an article attached to the victim’s person or clothing, it is said that a perpetrator could not have taken the item without use of force to overcome the physical resistance created by the attachment, as distinguished from “the mere physical effort” which must occur whenever any item, not attached to the person or clothing of the owner, is transferred from the owner to the taker. (People v. Taylor (1989), 129 Ill. 2d 80, 84, 541 N.E.2d 677, 679.) Such is not the situation here. Unlike Taylor, where our supreme court found that defendant had to use force sufficient to overcome the resistance created by the attachment of a necklace to the victim’s person, the wallet here, located in a purse on the victim’s arm, was not so attached to the victim’s person as to create a resistance requiring, in order to effectuate the taking, the use of force to overcome the resistance.

Where an item is not so attached to the owner, the taker must use more than the mere physical effort of transferring an item from the owner to himself to constitute robbery. (Taylor, 129 Ill. 2d at 84, 541 N.E.2d at 679.) As the supreme court in Hall v. People (1898), 171 Ill. 540, 49 N.E. 495, explained:

“[W]here it appear[s] that the article was taken without any sensible or material violence to the person, as snatching a hat from the head or a cane or umbrella from the hand of the wearer,— rather by sleight of hand and adroitness than by open violence, and without any struggle on his part, — it is merely larceny from the person.” (Hall, 171 Ill. at 542-43, 49 N.E. at 496.)

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
559 N.E.2d 859, 202 Ill. App. 3d 164, 147 Ill. Dec. 519, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 1206, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-brooks-illappct-1990.