People v. Carr

99 N.E. 357, 255 Ill. 203
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJune 21, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 99 N.E. 357 (People v. Carr) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Carr, 99 N.E. 357, 255 Ill. 203 (Ill. 1912).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Parmer

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a writ of error to reverse a judgment of the criminal court of Cook county entered against plaintiff in error upon a plea of guilty and sentencing him to imprisonment in the penitentiary.

At the February term, 1906, of the criminal court of Cook county the grand jury returned an indictment against the plaintiff in error, containing six counts. Two of them charged him with receiving stolen property alleged to be the goods and chattels of Elizabeth Scharf. The other four counts were for burglary, some of them charging the plaintiff in error with forcibly breaking and entering “the certain building, to-wit, room of Elizabeth Scharf in the Morrison Hotel there -situate, with intent the personal goods, chattels, money and property of the said Elizabeth Scharf in the said certain building, to-wit, room in the Morrison Hotel then and there being, then and there feloniously and burglariously to steal, take and carry away.”' Three comits alleged he entered said room and building without force, feloniously and burglariously to take, steal and carry away the property of Elizabeth Scharf. Each of the counts alleged plaintiff in error stole, took and carried away from said room in the Morrison Hotel one coat of the value of $90, one umbrella of the value of $8 and one bracelet of the value of $8, the property of said Elizabeth Scharf. One count of the indictment is under the Habitual Criminal act, and sets out the previous indictment, conviction and sentence of plaintiff in error for the crime of burglary.

Upon being arraigned plaintiff in error pleaded not guilty. Subsequently, by leave of court, he withdrew his plea of not guilty, and, as shown by the record, entered a plea of guilty in manner and form as charged in the indictment. The record shows he was fully advised by the court of the effect of his plea of guilty, and, still persisting therein, the court accepted and entered the plea of record. The court heard evidence before rendering judgment on the plea but the testimony is not preserved in the record. By the judgment entered upon the plea of guilty plaintiff in error was “sentenced to the penitentiary of this State at Joliet for the crime of burglary, etc., whereof he stands convicted,” there to be confined until discharged by the State Board of Pardons in the manner authorized by law, “provided such term of imprisonment in said penitentiary shall not exceed the maximum term for the crime for which said defendant was convicted and sentenced.”

The first point made by plaintiff in error is, that the indictment does not charge the crime of burglary because it contains no description of any building or premises enumerated in section 36 of the Criminal Code. It is insisted the “room of Elizabeth Scharf in the Morrison Hotel” is not within any class of premises enumerated in the statute, the entering of which with the intent to commit larceny constitutes the crime of burglary.

Section 36 of the Criminal Code reads: “Whoever willfully and maliciously and forcibly breaks and enters, or willfully and maliciously, without force (the doors or a indows being open,) enters into any dwelling house, kitch :n, office, shop, store house, ware house, malt house, sí: ling house, mill, pottery, factory, wharfboat, steamboat, or other water craft, freight or passenger railroad car, church, meeting house, school house, or other building, with intent to commit murder, robbery, rape, mayhem, or other felony or larceny, shall be deemed guilty of burglary, and be imprisoned in the penitentiary for a term not less than one year nor more than twenty years.”

The indictment charges plaintiff in error with burglariously entering “the certain building, to-wit, room of Elizabeth Scharf in the Morrison Hotel there situate,” etc. The charge is not that he entered with burglarious intent the Morrison Hotel, but that he entered the certain building, to-wit, room of Elizabeth Scharf situate in said hotel, and it is insisted that as there is no mention of a room in a hotel in the statute the indictment does not charge the crime of burglary. It is argued that to sustain the indictment it must be held that a room in a hotel is a “dwelling house” or “other building;” that these are the only premises mentioned in the statute which could by any- possibility be claimed to embrace a room in a hotel, and that they clearly do not embrace any such -description of premises. It is the usual and safe practice in such cases to use the words of the statute in describing the premises, but it has been held a description of premises plainly included in the statutory designation is sufficient. Where the statute used the word “barn,” an indictment describing the premises as a tobacco house was held good. (Ray v. Commonwealth, 12 Bush, [Ky.] ’397.) In Orrell v. People, 94 Ill. 456, the indictment charged the defendant broke and entered a stable. There is no such designation of premises in the statute and it was contended the indictment was bad. The court held a stable was included in the designation “other building.” In Bruen v. People, 206 Ill. 417, the indictment charged defendant with entering a hotel, and it was contended the State did not prove the hotel was a building. The court said it had no doubt the hotel was a building within the meaning of the words “other building” used in the statute. Other cases similar to the one last referred to might be cited from this and other courts, and while it may be said they are not entirely in point, they are to the effect that it is not always essential to describe the premises in the precise language of the statute.

Burglary, at common law, was an offense against the habitation - of man, and it was early decided in England (and the decisions were followed in this country) that where the offense was committed against the chamber of a guest at an inn, the indictment should allege the inn was the dwelling house of the inn-keeper and not of the guest. The reason given in support of the rule was that the guest had no interest in the room but occupied it only temporarily,- and it could not therefore be' considered his habitation or dwelling house. It is well known that in these days many people reside in hotels, where they have rooms which they occupy permanently, and it has been held that one holding a room in a hotel under lease for a definite period of time and making it his home is correctly laid as owner of the room. (State v. Johnson, 4 Wash. 593.) Subsequently the same court held in State v. Burton, 67 Pac. Rep. 1097, that an information charging burglary of certain rooms in a hotel, describing them as the dwelling house of the occupant, was sufficient without alleging the leasing of the rooms by the occupant for a definite period.

Plaintiff in error cites with some confidence Thomas v. State, 97 Ala. 4. In that case the indictment charged that the defendant broke and entered a sample room in a hotel named. The room was not alleged, to be the room of any person, and the name by which it was described precludes any inference that it was the habitation or dwelling house of any one. The indictment was held defective in the statement of the crime, but in the course of the opinion the court said a hotel might or might not be a dwelling house, according to the facts as to its occupancy and habitation, and that each separate room in a hotel might be a dwelling house within the provisions of the statute. In Ullman v. State, 1 Tex. App.

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Bluebook (online)
99 N.E. 357, 255 Ill. 203, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-carr-ill-1912.