People v. Gomez

603 N.E.2d 702, 236 Ill. App. 3d 283, 177 Ill. Dec. 632, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 1583
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedSeptember 30, 1992
Docket1-90-3196
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 603 N.E.2d 702 (People v. Gomez) 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. Gomez, 603 N.E.2d 702, 236 Ill. App. 3d 283, 177 Ill. Dec. 632, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 1583 (Ill. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE JIGANTI

delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a jury trial, the defendant, Daniel Gomez, appeals from his convictions for possession of cannabis and possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. We consider (1) whether the trial court erred in failing to conduct an evidentiary hearing pursuant to Franks v. Delaware (1978), 438 U.S. 154, 57 L. Ed. 2d 667, 98 S. Ct. 2674, to determine whether the search warrant was based on a false affidavit; (2) whether the defendant was denied due process of law when the trial court denied a pretrial discovery motion, restricted the cross-examination of a State witness, and did not allow the jury to view certain defense exhibits during their deliberations; (3) whether the defendant was proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; and (4) whether the defendant’s 30-year sentence was excessive.

Officer Charles Bartucci prepared a complaint for a search warrant of the defendant’s apartment based upon the information given to him by a confidential informant. In the affidavit supporting the complaint, Bartucci stated that in the previous two months, the informant gave him information on two occasions which resulted in one arrest. Bartucci stated that on December 22, 1988, the informant went to the first-floor rear apartment at 3004 West Addison Street and was allowed entry into the apartment by a white male known as “David.” David asked the informant how many one-sixteenths of cocaine he wanted to purchase for $100. The informant told David that he just wanted one and gave David $100. David retrieved one clear plastic bag containing white powder from a metal box in the living room, and the informant observed at least 30 more clear plastic bags with white powder in the same metal box. The informant snorted some of the cocaine and told Bartucci that he received a “good high” from it. David asked the informant to go with him to the second-floor rear apartment. David opened the door to the second-floor apartment with a key that he had in his pocket. David showed the informant a large clear plastic bag which contained about 200 clear plastic bags of crushed white powder. David bragged that once sold, this would serve as his vacation money. David told the informant to come around anytime because he always had a good supply on hand.

The trial judge issued a warrant to search the defendant’s second-floor rear apartment which was executed on December 22, 1988. The police recovered cocaine, cannabis, and $13,980 in cash. The defendant was arrested and charged with possession of cannabis and possession of cocaine with intent to deliver.

The defendant moved to quash the search warrant and argued that the affidavit supporting the warrant contained false statements and requested an evidentiary hearing pursuant to Franks. The defendant’s motion was supported by 11 additional search warrant complaints which were sworn to by Officer Bartucci. The complaints illustrated that in nine cases, Bartucci used language which was very similar to that in the defendant’s complaint when describing what the alleged subjects stated to the informants. The motion was also supported by the defendant’s affidavit which stated that he lived in the second-floor rear apartment but had never been in the first-floor apartment, did not have a key to the first-floor apartment, that he was never known by the name of David, that no one had a key to his apartment other than his landlord, and he never gave a key to his apartment to anyone named David. Also included was the affidavit of Visut Voratanitkitkul, who stated that he is the owner of the building at 3004 West Addison, was the defendant’s landlord, that the defendant was the tenant in the second-floor rear apartment until his arrest on December 22, 1988, that Salvador Tinajero was the tenant in the first-floor rear apartment until he moved out two weeks before the defendant’s arrest, that no one occupied the first-floor rear apartment, that no one named David occupied that apartment, that no one had keys to the first-floor apartment, that no one other than the defendant was given keys to the second-floor apartment, and that on December 22, 1988, the police caused much damage to the basement and the first- and second-floor rear apartments in his building.

The trial judge held that the defendant had failed to make a sufficient preliminary showing to warrant an evidentiary hearing and denied the motion.

The defendant also filed a discovery motion in which he requested all of the police reports written by Officer Bartucci in 1988, 1989, and 1990 to determine whether the language which Bartucci used to describe the events in other cases involving the purchase of narcotics by undercover agents was identical to the language Bartucci used in the instant case. The trial judge denied the defendant’s discovery request as he found it to be overly broad and overly burdensome.

At trial, Visut Voratanitkitkul testified that in June 1988, he leased the second-floor rear apartment to the defendant. The defendant paid his rent only once and never asked Visut to make any repairs in his apartment between June and December of 1988. The first-floor rear apartment had been rented to another tenant who moved out in November 1988.

Police officers Bartucci and Mazur testified that at 11 p.m. on December 22, 1988, they executed a search warrant for the second-floor rear apartment at 3004 West Addison. They were accompanied by Officers Garcia, Gonzales, Brown, Newman, Nelson, and Burn, who assisted in securing the building and executing the warrant. Bartucci knocked on the door of the second-floor apartment three times and announced that they were the police and they had a warrant. The officers did not hear a response and Bartucci used a sledgehammer to open the door. Bartucci saw a light on in the kitchen, and when he entered the room, the defendant and Hernandez, a codefendant whose trial was severed from the instant case, were seated at the kitchen table. The officers saw four plastic bags containing white powder and American currency on the table in front of the defendant. The defendant and Hernandez were arrested. Officer Mazur recovered four plastic bags containing crushed green plants and an electronic scale from the floor near the table. Officers Newman and Nelson also entered the apartment and searched the remainder of the apartment, recovering no other drugs or currency. The substances were taken from the apartment, inventoried at police headquarters, and delivered to the crime lab.

Gwendolyn Brister, a chemical analysis expert, testified that on December 28, 1988, she was assigned to analyze seven plastic bags of white powder and five plastic bags of alleged marijuana. Brister analyzed one bag of white powder, weighing 1,003.7 grams, and indicated that in her opinion, the substance was cocaine. Brister stated that since the “highest sentencing weight is 900 grams for all practical purposes,” she only did preliminary tests on the white powder in the other bags and all of these tests indicated that they also contained cocaine. Brister also analyzed and confirmed that the other bags contained cannabis. The plastic bags were turned over to the fingerprint department.

Officer Godina, an expert in laser testing, tested the bags for fingerprints using a laser methodology and found no fingerprints.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
603 N.E.2d 702, 236 Ill. App. 3d 283, 177 Ill. Dec. 632, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 1583, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-gomez-illappct-1992.