People v. Canity

426 N.E.2d 591, 100 Ill. App. 3d 135, 55 Ill. Dec. 445, 1981 Ill. App. LEXIS 3303
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedSeptember 15, 1981
Docket80-274
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 426 N.E.2d 591 (People v. Canity) 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. Canity, 426 N.E.2d 591, 100 Ill. App. 3d 135, 55 Ill. Dec. 445, 1981 Ill. App. LEXIS 3303 (Ill. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE REINHARD

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Walter Canity, was charged in an amended information with the offenses of deviate sexual assault (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 38, par. 11 — 3(a)) and burglary (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 38, par. 19 — 1(a)) arising out of an incident which occurred on July 24, 1979. Defendant filed pretrial motions to quash the arrest, suppress statements, and suppress identification testimony, all of which were denied by the trial court. Followiiig a jury trial, defendant was found guilty of both charges; subsequently, the court vacated the judgment entered on the burglary charge. Defendant was sentenced to serve 6 years with the Department of Corrections on the deviate sexual assault conviction. Defendant now appeals, contending that: (1) the couriered in denying his motion to suppress identification testimony since it failed to determine the reliability of each witness’ identification on an individual basis; (2) the court should have suppressed all the identification testimony based upon an unnecessarily suggestive show-up; (3) the court should have quashed the arrest and suppressed the subsequent identification; (4) the court erred in admitting certain evidence; and (5) the evidence was insufficient to prove the offenses beyond a reasonable doubt.

At the hearing on the pretrial motions, defendant testified as follows. On August 14, 1979, defendant was employed as a U.S. Army recruiter, and lived with his wife in a Waukegan apartment. On that date, between approximately 11 and 12 p.m., he had occasion to be at the Smith Avenue Apartments in Knollwood, Lake Bluff, Illinois. He stated that he was driving an army automobile which had large army insignias on both doors and was wearing an army uniform, including ribbons and a name badge. He testified that he drove through the apartment complex and then parked his vehicle on a cul-de-sac at the entrance to the complex. He exited his vehicle and began walking around the apartment complex looking for the building in which he believed a friend of his lived. At trial, he testified that the individual was called Dewey. After walking by a number of different buildings, he realized that he was unable to determine if his friend lived in that complex or not, so he began to make his way back to his car. He then realized that there was another apartment complex adjacent to the Smith Avenue Apartments and decided to “check those out to see whether he was living there or not.” He went over to those buildings but, again realizing that he would be unable to locate his friend’s apartment, walked back across a field to his car.

As he began to unlock his car, he heard someone yell, “Hold it, Sarge.” Two individuals who identified themselves as deputy sheriffs approached defendant and asked him for some identification. Defendant then produced his military I.D. card and was ordered to get up against his car. After being searched, two other officers arrived, one of whom asked for defendant’s car keys. The inside of his car and the trunk were then searched. One officer said to another, “Hold him here while I go get the witnesses.”

Two men were then brought over to view defendant. Flashlights were shined in his face and he was told to turn in various positions. After the two men were taken away, the officers brought out two women who also viewed defendant in various poses as flashlights were shined in his face. The women were then taken away, but one of them returned a while later and again viewed defendant while lights were shined in his face. After she left, defendant was ordered to get in the back seat of the squad car parked nearby. Yet again, the woman who had viewed defendant twice returned to view defendant a third time while he was seated in the squad car with a light directed to his face. Defendant then was asked for additional identification, and he produced his driver’s license. Shortly thereafter, defendant was taken to the station. Defendant testified that he had the impression he was under arrest after the officers frisked him and searched his vehicle, but that an arrest warrant was never produced.

At the hearing on the pretrial motions, Detective Fratus of the Lake County Sheriff’s Department testified that on August 14, 1979, he and three other deputies, Detective Smith, Deputy Patrick Dunn, and Deputy Darus, were on a stakeout at the Smith Avenue Apartment complex in response to reports of a prowler and an assault and were “looking for a black male.” During the stakeout, the officers observed a military vehicle driving through the complex. As the driver later approached one of the apartments being staked out (because of an earlier assault on the occupant), he paused and looked in the apartment for several seconds and then continued walking. Shortly thereafter, Fratus left the apartment and waited near the army vehicle. When defendant returned to the vehicle, the officers first questioned him and then conducted a search of his person and his vehicle. When initially questioned by Fratus, defendant was unable to tell Deputy Fratus which apartment he was looking for or the name of the person he sought to see. Fratus admitted that, at that time, he did not have an arrest warrant.

Robert Wolff testified that on August 15, 1979, at approximately 12:30 a.m., he was asked to identify defendant. Defendant was standing next to his car and flashlights were shined at his face. Wolff viewed defendant from a distance of 2 to 3 feet for approximately 30 seconds. He then told the officers that defendant looked shorter than a man who he had previously seen about the apartment complex. Several minutes later, Detective Smith approached Wolff and showed him defendant’s military I.D. card. Wolff looked at the card and told Smith that the picture thereon was that of the man he had previously seen. Wolff admitted, however, that he felt pressure because he had been asked to make an identification. Also, he acknowledged that, even after making the identification of defendant, he had some doubt.

Wolff testified that on July 24, 1979, around midnight he had seen a black male, later described as being approximately 6 feet tall, 200 pounds, with a big round face, and wearing a red satin shirt and red hat, loitering near the apartment complex. He observed that individual, identified at trial as defendant, from an approximate distance of 7 to 10 feet and spoke with him for IY2 to 2 minutes. He asked the man what he was doing there, and he replied that “he was looking for a black man and a white lady in the area * * *.” Wolff then told the man to leave the apartment complex. Several minutes later, however, Wolff again saw that individual at a different location within the apartment complex. He spoke with him for 3 to 4% minutes and never got closer to him than 15 feet. This time, the man said that his car wouldn’t start and he needed a ride.

The victim, Mary Duke Harlan, testified that she was brought to the scene of the stop by Detective Smith and viewed defendant, first, while he was seated in the squad car and, then, when he stepped out of the vehicle. She viewed defendant from a distance of several feet while flashlights were used to illuminate him.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
426 N.E.2d 591, 100 Ill. App. 3d 135, 55 Ill. Dec. 445, 1981 Ill. App. LEXIS 3303, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-canity-illappct-1981.