People v. Hahn

350 N.E.2d 839, 39 Ill. App. 3d 969, 1976 Ill. App. LEXIS 2690
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJuly 1, 1976
Docket12994
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 350 N.E.2d 839 (People v. Hahn) 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. Hahn, 350 N.E.2d 839, 39 Ill. App. 3d 969, 1976 Ill. App. LEXIS 2690 (Ill. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

Mr. PRESIDING JUSTICE STOUDER

delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant, Jerry Dean Hahn, was indicted for the offense of burglary and convicted after a jury trial in the circuit court of Champaign County. Defendant was sentenced to the Illinois State Penitentiary for a period of 4 to 12 years.

Numerous questions are assigned as error. Defendant contends he was denied a fair trial on the grounds that: (1) the State’s identification testimony should have been suppressed, since the identification procedure was unnecessarily suggestive; (2) during the testimony of a defense witness, a spectator stated that the witness was lying; (3) a certain photograph should not have been admitted into evidence, nor sent to the jury room; (4) defendant was not permitted to introduce evidence relating to measurements taken by an engineer and photographs of the scene; (5) the court excluded evidence that a defense witness made a prior statement, immediately after the defendant’s arrest, consistent with his in-court testimony; (6) the prosecutor’s conduct during final argument was prejudicial error; and, (7) the jury was not instructed upon a vital issue. Additionally, defendant claims the evidence was insufficient to sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt, and urges remand for resentencing.

Officer Rinehart proceeded to the Second Chance Tavern in response to a burglar alarm which had been telephoned to police by a burglar alarm company. He checked doors, windows and the alley; about eight feet from the door to the furnace room of the building which housed the tavern, the door opened and he saw a man for two seconds. Officer Rinehart later identified the defendant as the man he had seen.

Officer Lynch pursued a man he saw fleeing, and later testified the defendant resembled the man he had been chasing. This identification was based on clothing similarity.

Defendant was arrested by Officer Blackman and Deputy Mumm, shortly after Rinehart and Lynch saw the man they later identified as defendant, several blocks from the Second Chance Tavern.

Defendant contends that the trial court committed error when it denied his motion to suppress the State’s identification evidence. He argues that the identification procedures used here were unnecessarily suggestive, relying on Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 18 L. Ed. 2d 1199, 87 S. Ct. 1967; People v. Lee, 44 Ill. 2d 161, 254 N.E.2d 469; People v. Blumenshine, 42 Ill. 2d 508, 250 N.E.2d 152. He claims the failure to conduct a lineup cannot be excused on the basis that there was need for prompt on-the-scene identification, and that the confrontation with Officer Rinehart at the police station affected Rinehart’s in-court identification testimony.

In Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 18 L. Ed. 2d 1199, 87 S. Ct. 1967, the Supreme Court ruled that confrontation for the purpose of identification may be so unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identification that the accused is denied due process of law. Where a defendant has presented sufficient evidence to establish the unfairness of a pretrial confrontation, an in-court identification may be admitted into evidence only if it is shown that it has an independent origin arising from the witness’ uninfluenced observation of the accused. (People v. Blumenshine, 42 Ill. 2d 508, 250 N.E.2d 152.) The State must prove the uninfluenced origin of the in-court identification by clear and convincing evidence. (People v. Holmes, 6 Ill. App. 3d 254, 285 N.E.2d 561.) It is settled that even though an identification confrontation is improper or has been suppressed, an in-court identification is nevertheless admissible if it is based on a prior independent origin, one arising from an earlier uninfluenced observation of the suspect. People v. Spencer, 7 Ill. App. 3d 1017, 288 N.E.2d 612; People v. Wright, 126 Ill. App. 2d 91, 261 N.E.2d 445.

The identification procedure complained of here occurred at the Champaign police station some 45 minutes to one hour after the crime. Officer Rinehart testified that after he returned to the Champaign Police Station on the morning of the crime, he walked into the booking room and saw the defendant in the company of Officer John Lynch. He recognized the man in the booking room as the man he had seen by the furnace room door at the Second Chance Tavern approximately 45 minutes to an hour before.

Although argument is made as to whether this confrontation was accidental, we believe, in any event, no showing was made that this identification procedure was deliberately planned by the police. The identification process here was not ideal. In Stovall, the Supreme Court stated that, “The practice of showing suspects singly to persons for the purpose of identification, and not as part of a lineup, has been widely condemned.” But not every viewing of a suspect or suspects alone will be considered a denial of due process. People v. Blumenshine, 42 Ill. 2d 508, 250 N.E.2d 152.

In this case, although Officer Rinehart saw the defendant in the doorway for approximately two seconds, the area was well lighted and the witness was standing only eight feet away. Rinehart testified that he had no difficulty in seeing the burglar’s face and features. The witness was also quite clear as to how the defendant was dressed when he encountered him near the furnace room door.

We believe the evidence clearly and convincingly demonstrates that the witness had ample opportunity to observe the defendant and to remember what he observed. The identification by Rinehart is established to have been based on the witness’ observations at the time of the crime, and therefore unaffected by the suggestive pretrial identification procedures. Significantly, when Officer Rinehart encountered the defendant in the booking room, the defendant was not dressed in the same way as he had been when Officer Rinehart had seen him at the Second Chance. The defendant was not wearing the gloves and coat worn by him at the time of the burglary. The record indicates that the defendant had been instructed to remove his outer garments by other police officers. These articles of clothing were in a pile in the booking room, but Officer Rinehart did not notice them until after he recognized the defendant.

We hold that the in-court identification had an independent origin, and the trial court properly denied the defendant’s motion to suppress the identification evidence. See People v. Hanks, 17 Ill. App. 3d 633, 307 N.E.2d 638.

Defendant also contends he was denied a fair trial on the basis of a spectator’s statement, during the testimony of a defense witness, that the witness was lying.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
350 N.E.2d 839, 39 Ill. App. 3d 969, 1976 Ill. App. LEXIS 2690, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-hahn-illappct-1976.