People v. DuPree

Procedural entryThis page is a short order in People v. DuPree. Read the opinion of the Court — 353 Ill. App. 3d 1037
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided November 16, 2004·No. 5-03-0355 Rel·Published

Opinion

Rule 23 order filed NO. 5-03-0355

October 28, 2004;

Motion to publish granted IN THE

November 16, 2004.

APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS

FIFTH DISTRICT

___________________________________________________________________________

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, )  Appeal from the

)  Circuit Court of

    Plaintiff-Appellee, )  Jackson County.  

)

v. )  No. 02-CF-251

ANTHONY DuPREE, )  Honorable

)  E. Dan Kimmel,

    Defendant-Appellant. )  Judge, presiding.  

___________________________________________________________________________

JUSTICE HOPKINS delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a jury trial, the defendant, Anthony DuPree, was convicted of burglary (720 ILCS 5/19-1(a) (West 2002)) and theft under $300 (subsequent offense) (720 ILCS 5/16-1(a)(1)(A) (West 2002)).  He was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for the burglary and 5 years' imprisonment for the theft, with sentences to run concurrently.  On appeal, the defendant contends that (1) he was denied a fair trial because he was required to wear a stun belt during the trial, (2) the circuit court erred in sentencing him to an extended term of imprisonment for theft, and (3) he is entitled to additional credit against his sentences for time served in confinement prior to sentencing.

BACKGROUND

Viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution (see People v. Cooper , 194 Ill. 2d 419, 430-31, 743 N.E.2d 32, 40 (2000)), the evidence presented at the trial of the defendant's guilt was overwhelming.

Testimony at the defendant's March 10 and 11, 2003, trial established that about 11:30 a.m. on March 21, 2002, Kathleen Bailey sat with her employer in a Chevrolet Suburban in the handicapped parking space near the front door of the Office Max store in Carbondale.  She noticed a tall, "really skinny" black man standing by the doors of the Office Max.  He wore no coat, was shivering from the cold, and was "acting funny," prompting Bailey to continue to watch him carefully.  The man, whom Bailey unequivocally identified at the trial as the defendant, walked over to the Suburban and peered into the tinted windows of her vehicle.  Bailey observed the defendant's face from a distance of about two feet.  He was not wearing eyeglasses.  The defendant walked behind the Suburban, continuing to peer into the car, and then walked over to a vehicle that had pulled into the parking lot.  The defendant opened the door of the car, put his head into the vehicle, pulled what appeared to be a black handbag from the car, and ran across the highway and then behind an area where some doctors' offices were located.  A woman leapt from the vehicle into which the defendant had reached, and she began to scream.  When she was shown a photo lineup by the police, Bailey identified the defendant as the person she had seen at the crime scene.  She was "98 percent certain" of the correctness of her identification.

Joyce Farag pulled into the parking lot of the Office Max about 11:30 a.m. on March 21, 2002, parked, and noticed a coatless, gloveless, "very tall, very thin man" standing near the building.  He was shivering in the cold wind.  She was reaching to pick up her purse from the front passenger's seat when the man, whom she identified at the trial as the defendant, opened the passenger's door of her car.  He leaned down into the car and asked her what time it was.  His face was 18 inches to two feet from Farag's face.  She looked very carefully at his face because she was unsure if she knew him.  Farag told him that it was "11:30" and observed that he wore a large, round-faced watch on his wrist that showed the proper time.  The defendant closed the door, walked a few steps from the car, returned, jerked the door open, and snatched her purse, saying, "I'll take this."  The defendant ran across the street in the direction of the Veach Oil station as Farag leapt from the car and yelled, "That man stole my purse!"  She went into the Office Max and cried out that her purse had been stolen, and an employee called the police.  When Farag looked at the photo lineup, she picked the defendant's photograph up without hesitation and kept it in front of her on the table as she viewed the other pictures "just to be sure."  There was no doubt in her mind at the time of her trial testimony that the defendant was the person who had taken her purse on March 21, 2002.

Lucinda Vinson, a Beck Bus Company driver, was en route to drop off some passengers about 11:30 a.m. on March 21, 2002, when she passed near the doctors' office complex near the Office Max.  She saw a man whom she later identified in court as the defendant run from the Office Max area, run across Walnut Street, and pass directly in front of her bus a very short distance from the vehicle.  He was running awkwardly as he attempted to push what appeared to be a dark purse with a strap up under his shirt.  Vinson looked back toward the Office Max and saw a woman go "running and screaming into the Office Max."  She dropped off her passengers, returned the bus to base, and drove her personal vehicle back to the area of the Office Max about 15 minutes after the incident.  She saw the defendant, now carrying a jacket and wearing eyeglasses, on the street.  Vinson turned her vehicle around in an attempt to see where the defendant was going, but by the time she did so, he was no longer on the street.  She assumed that he had entered the apartment complex on Rendleman.  Vinson went to the police station and reported what she had seen earlier and upon her return to the area.  When she was shown a photo lineup, Vinson pointed to the defendant's photo and told the police that she recognized the defendant as the person involved in the crime.  

The defendant came to Stacey Clark's house between noon and 1 p.m. on March 21, 2002.  He telephoned his girlfriend and she came to pick him up.  The defendant spoke to Clark of the instant crime after that point in time and told Clark that Farag had lied when she said that her purse had been snatched from her presence.  He asserted that after he had observed her go into the Office Max without her purse, he went to her unlocked car, took the purse from the vehicle, and proceeded to Roderick Rowe's house.  Once there, he entered the bathroom, took money from the purse, and put the purse in the bathroom wastebasket.  He did not want to retain the purse because the police were in the area.  Rowe discovered the purse and made the defendant take it out of his house to dispose of it.  The defendant was angry with Rowe because he believed that Rowe had called the police and reported him.  The defendant asked Clark to tell the police that he was at Clark's house at the time of the crime.  About a week after the incident, the police questioned Clark, who could not recall the date on which the defendant came to his house.  He later recalled that it was the date that Rachel Johnson had picked him up at Clark's house.  Clark admitted that he was upset with the defendant because the defendant had given the police Clark's name, rather than his own, when he was picked up on a traffic offense in Saline County.  Clark testified that the defendant sometimes, but not always, wore eyeglasses.

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