People v. Hammers

341 N.E.2d 471, 35 Ill. App. 3d 498, 1976 Ill. App. LEXIS 1893
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 29, 1976
Docket12592
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 341 N.E.2d 471 (People v. Hammers) 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. Hammers, 341 N.E.2d 471, 35 Ill. App. 3d 498, 1976 Ill. App. LEXIS 1893 (Ill. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE GREEN

delivered the opinion of the court:

In a trial by jury before the Circuit Court of Morgan County defendant Martin L. Hammers, Jr., was found guilty of the murder of Rose Ann Charapata. He was subsequently sentenced to a term of 50 to 150 years’ imprisonment. Upon appeal he contends that the court erred in denying his motion to suppress a search warrant and the evidence seized pursuant thereto, that the court erred in giving and refusing certain instructions, and that he was not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The substance of defendant’s motion to suppress was that the verified complaint upon which the warrant was issued was insufficient to show probable cause that defendant committed the murder or possessed the .38-caliber pistol sought to be seized. The People maintain that the denial of the motion would have been proper even if the complaint was insufficient because the defendant put on no evidence in support of his motion. “Probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant must be found in the complaint for the warrant.” (People v. George, 49 Ill.2d 372, 377, 274 N.E.2d 26, 29.) Since the complaint was before the court, defendant did not need to put on any evidence to support his motion. People v. Considine, 107 Ill.App.2d 389, 246 N.E.2d 81.

The language of the affiant in the complaint upon which the search warrant was issued stated in pertinent part:

“That on or about the 10th day of July, 1973, at about the hour of 4:00 a.m., he verily believes that the offense of murder was committed, and affiant states (set forth facts sufficient to show probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant): that he has probable cause to believe that a .38 caliber pistol is within the premises of 1129 Illinois Avenue, Jacksonville, Illinois, because at approximately the time above mentioned Rose Ann Charapata was killed with a .38 caliber pistol on Johnson Street. In talking with an eyewitness to the shooting, it was told that the person who shot the victim was riding a bicycle with the victim seated behind him: Today, the affiant interviewed a person who talked with Martin Hammers for about one hour between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. on the night just mentioned at a location five blocks from the murder scene, at which time Martin Hammers asked the person if she was afraid to be shot.
During the conversation Hammers tried to get into her house but she would not allow it. While these two persons stood on the porch On Railroad Street, the victim walked past the house twice, and Hammers asked who the girl walking was. After the victim passed the house on foot the second time the informant told me that Hammers got on his bicycle and left her house.
The informant says that she went into her house, looked out a window and saw Martin Hammers on his bicycle alongside the victim proceeding together over the railroad tracks at the comer of Howe Street and Railroad Street, six blocks from the murder scene. The affiant has never received information in the past from this informant, but he considers her to be reliable since time elements, description, location and the fact that the murderer was on a bicycle all coincide with this investigation.
The fact about the bicycle has not been published nor did this affiant tell the informant that the murderer was on a bicycle. Martin Hammers resides at 1129 Illinois Avenue, Jacksonville, Illinois, wherein I believe a .38 caliber pistol will be found and asks that the Judge may issue a Search Warrant for the seizure of the following: a .38 caliber pistol,
and ask that said Warrant shall issue for the search of the following particularly described place or person or both:
A white one-story wood frame house and outdoor toilet structure and a yellow 1969 Pontiac GTO automobile located at 1129 Illinois Avenue, Jacksonville, Illinois.”

The affiant appears to be a police investigator or officer. The complaint consists mostly of his hearsay assertions of conversations he had with two unnamed informants. In United States v. Harris, 403 U.S. 573, 579, 29 L.Ed.2d 723, 731, 91 S.Ct. 2075, 2080, the plurality opinion stated: “A policemans affidavit ‘should not be judged as an entry in an essay contest’” (citing Fortas, J., dissenting in Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 438, 21 L.Ed.2d 637, 657, 89 S.Ct. 584, 600), “but, rather, must be judged by the facts it contains.” The affidavit must, however, meet certain requirements as the court stated in People v. Morrison, 13 Ill.App.3d 652, 654, 300 N.E.2d 325, 327:

“The rules of Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723, and Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637, state that when probable cause is based solely or partially upon an informant’s information, there must be a detailing of the underlying circumstances showing why the informant’s conclusions are believable, and why the informant is credible or reliable.”

The plurality opinion in Harris stated, and the dissent agreed, that if affiant’s informants are shown to be- eyewitnesses, the judicial officer to whom the complaint is presented may determine that the informants’ conclusions are believable. In the instant case, both informants are shown to be eyewitnesses "to the matters about which they reported. The issuing judge, thus, had ample grounds to find their conclusions believable. The question of the sufficiency of the complaint to show facts and circumstances from which he would find the informants to be reliable is more difficult.'

•The People contend that the affidavit meets this test because the statements of the informants corroborate each other. Each states that he or she saw the victim within a. six-block area in the City of Jacksonvüle within an hour’s time of each other. Each says that he or she saw the victim at this time in the presence of a person who had a bicycle at a time of night or early morning when few people would be on the street and fewer stiE would be there with- a bicycle. One informant said that the person accompanying the victim shot her. The other informant said that the defendant was the person she saw with the victim and that prior to joining the victim, the defendant had asked that informant if she was afraid to die. The weight to be given to the corroboration is strengthened by the affiant’s statement that the information about the presence of the bicycle had not been published nor had affiant given this information to informants.

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Bluebook (online)
341 N.E.2d 471, 35 Ill. App. 3d 498, 1976 Ill. App. LEXIS 1893, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-hammers-illappct-1976.