People v. Clark

2024 IL 127838
Illinois Supreme Court·Decided December 19, 2024·No. 127838·Published·Cited by 21 cases

Opinion

2024 IL 127838

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS

(Docket No. 127838)

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Appellee, v. ANGELO CLARK, Appellant.

Opinion filed December 19, 2024.

JUSTICE OVERSTREET delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

Chief Justice Theis and Justices Holder White, Cunningham, Rochford, and O’Brien concurred in the judgment and opinion.

Justice Neville dissented, with opinion.

OPINION

¶1 The State, by indictment, charged defendant Angelo Clark with multiple counts of attempted first degree murder (720 ILCS 5/8-4(a), 9-1(a)(1) (West 2012)) and aggravated battery (id. § 12-3.05(e)(1)), arising out of a gang-related shooting that seriously injured two people at an outdoor gathering held on July 19, 2013. Defendant moved to quash his arrest, which was effected pursuant to an investigative alert—a computer notification to officers in the field that detectives had found probable cause for defendant’s arrest—issued by the Chicago Police Department. Following defendant’s arrest, he made an inculpatory statement. After a hearing, the circuit court denied defendant’s motion to quash arrest and suppress his statement. Defendant did not contest the denial in the circuit court.

¶2 Thereafter, following a 2017 jury trial in the circuit court of Cook County, defendant was convicted, under an accountability theory, of two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm (id.) and was initially sentenced to two consecutive terms of 23 years in prison. Upon an amended motion to reconsider his sentence, the circuit court reduced the aggregate sentence from 46 years to 32 years in prison.

¶3 Defendant appealed, and the Appellate Court, First District, affirmed defendant’s conviction and sentence. 2021 IL App (1st) 180523-U. We allowed defendant’s petition for leave to appeal (Ill. S. Ct. R. 315 (eff. Oct. 1, 2021)), and for the following reasons, we affirm the appellate court’s judgment.

¶4 BACKGROUND

¶5 On July 19, 2013, at approximately 7:30 p.m., two people attending an outdoor event, a 6-year-old girl and a 52-year-old woman, were shot and injured. Shortly after the shooting, police pulled over Cragg Hardaway a few blocks from the crime scene after his vehicle was identified as possibly having been involved. He was arrested the next day, and on the following morning, July 21, 2013, he gave a video- recorded statement. In his statement, he told detectives that, shortly after he heard gunshots on the day of the shooting, he encountered DeAndre Butler, who got in Hardaway’s car and told him that some younger men had shot at someone. Three young men—Terrence Lynom, Ladon Barker, and defendant—then ran to Hardaway’s car, got in, and told Butler they had committed the shooting and believed Lynom had successfully killed someone. Hardaway later testified to the grand jury that he encountered defendant again about a half hour later, when defendant reported to Butler that he had disposed of the guns. After Hardaway’s video-recorded statement, the detectives issued investigative alerts notifying

-2- officers that there was probable cause to arrest Lynom, Barker, and defendant. On July 22, 2013, between noon and 3:30 p.m., officers arrested defendant.

¶6 Before trial, defendant filed a motion to quash arrest, contending that he was arrested without probable cause or a valid arrest warrant. At the hearing on the motion, Lashan Clark, defendant’s mother, testified that at approximately 3 p.m. on July 22, 2013, she was in her mother’s home when two police officers arrived looking for defendant, who was not there. Ms. Clark testified that she voluntarily accompanied the officers to her sister’s South Lafayette Avenue residence, where she said defendant was living. Ms. Clark testified that, after she and the officers arrived at her sister’s residence, she told the officers to wait outside, she entered the back door, and she saw defendant sitting at the kitchen table. Ms. Clark testified that she told defendant that the police were there “about a little girl” and that it was serious and that defendant “was getting mad” because the police were there. Ms. Clark testified that, while she and defendant were talking, the officers entered the house and threatened to tase defendant. Ms. Clark testified that the officers then choked defendant, threw him against the wall, and handcuffed him. Ms. Clark testified that the officers then escorted defendant from the home.

¶7 Chicago police officer Patrick Kinney 1 testified that on July 22, 2013, he and his partner, Chicago police officer Kevin O’Neill, went to defendant’s grandmother’s house after receiving an investigative alert that there was probable cause to arrest defendant for the shooting of two victims. Officer Kinney believed that the basis for the probable cause for the investigative alert was that defendant had been “positively identified as being the shooter where two victims were shot.”

¶8 After learning that there was an investigative alert with probable cause to arrest defendant, Kinney performed a database search on defendant’s name and went to the residence of the first address that appeared. Kinney testified that, at that residence, they encountered Ms. Clark, who was “extremely” cooperative, informed them that defendant lived with her sister, and accompanied the officers to her sister’s house at South Lafayette Avenue. Kinney testified that, when they arrived at the sister’s address, Kinney approached the back of the residence, O’Neill

1 The report of proceedings in the record spells Officer Kinney’s name as “Kenny,” but the parties below, the arrest report contained in the common-law record, and the appellate court spell his name “Kinney.”

-3- approached the front, and Ms. Clark waited in the back of the police car in front of the residence.

¶9 Kinney testified that he knocked on the door and a male adult in his twenties answered it. Kinney introduced himself to the young man and explained that he was looking for defendant, whom he had probable cause to arrest. Kinney testified that, although the man did not verbally invite Kinney inside, the man opened the door, moved to the side, and pointed to a back bedroom where Kinney saw defendant. Kinney, who remained outside the residence, told defendant that there was a probable cause investigatory alert for his arrest and that the detectives wanted to speak to him, and Kinney asked defendant to accompany him to the police station. Defendant said, “Okay, let me get some clothes,” after which Kinney stepped inside the residence and defendant put on his clothes. Kinney testified that he entered into the house as defendant gathered his clothing “to have eyes on him prior” to arresting him because he did not “know what he was going to grab.” Kinney testified that defendant was very cooperative, defendant exited the home, and he placed defendant under arrest and escorted him to the police station.

¶ 10 The circuit court denied defendant’s motion. In doing so, the circuit court found that Kinney was a “believable” and “compelling” witness and that Ms. Clark’s testimony was biased and “utterly without any credibility.” The court stated that it agreed with defense counsel that the existence of an investigative alert with probable cause to arrest does not alone provide authorization for an officer to enter a home to effect an arrest. The circuit court noted, however, that Kinney’s eventual entry occurred after defendant had “already agreed to accompany” the officers and it was not “to effect arrest but to effect and facilitate his accompaniment, which [defendant] [had] already agreed to do.”

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