People v. Henderson

596 N.E.2d 837, 232 Ill. App. 3d 230, 173 Ill. Dec. 213, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 1152
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJuly 15, 1992
Docket5-90-0496
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 596 N.E.2d 837 (People v. Henderson) 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. Henderson, 596 N.E.2d 837, 232 Ill. App. 3d 230, 173 Ill. Dec. 213, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 1152 (Ill. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH

delivered the opinion of the court:

After a jury trial, defendant, Larry Henderson, was found guilty of theft over $300 in violation of section 16 — 1(a)(1) of the Criminal Code of 1961 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 38, par. 16 — 1(a)(1)). The circuit court of St. Clair County sentenced defendant to two years’ probation and ordered defendant to pay $1,510 to reimburse the public defender and $990 in fines, to be taken from the $2,500 cash bond defendant posted. Defendant appeals from the judgment, contending: (1) that the State failed to prove defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; and (2) that the trial court erred in ordering defendant to reimburse the public defender in the amount of $1,510 and in imposing a $990 fine where there was no determination of defendant’s ability to pay.

On April 29, 1989, at approximately 8:30 p.m., two black males entered Stuarts II, a retail clothing store in St. Clair Square, a shopping mall located in Fairview Heights. Regina Massey-Middlebrook, the store’s assistant manager, was working that evening when she noticed one of the men looking in her direction and acting suspicious. As she approached the man, he walked toward his companion standing several feet away. The first man rolled up some clothing, put it into a plastic bag he was carrying, and started to leave the store. Middle-brook told another employee to call the police and pursued the men herself. She caught up with the one holding the merchandise just outside the store entrance and grabbed his right arm. He then dropped the bag containing the clothing and ran out of the mall. Middlebrook decided not to pursue the second man and returned to Stuarts II to call the police. She described the shoplifters to the police dispatcher as two black males, one very dark complected with a white sweatsuit and the other one wearing a red, white and black jogging suit. Shortly thereafter, mall security guards Darin Clifton and Kevin Weis-sert arrived and obtained a different description of the two men from Middlebrook. She reported that there were two black males involved in the theft, the first one standing approximately 6 feet 3 inches tall, wearing black jeans and a sweatshirt, and the second man standing approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall, wearing a red and white sweatsuit. Weissert and Clifton immediately began searching the area and were directed by three unidentified females to an unoccupied brown Cadillac owned by defendant. The security guards observed defendant and his three children enter the car and leave the parking lot. The security guards determined that defendant closely resembled Middle-brook’s description of one of the shoplifters, and they notified Fair-view Heights police as to what they had seen. Officer Jeffrey Blair of the Fairview Heights police department responded to Middlebrook’s call and went to Stuarts II to obtain information about the incident. Middlebrook described the shoplifters as two black males, one standing approximately 6 feet tall, weighing 170 pounds with a slim build, wearing a white jogging outfit with a red baseball cap. The other man was described as 5 feet 5 inches tall, wearing a white, red and black shirt or jacket and a baseball cap. During his conversation with Middlebrook, Officer Blair received information from the radio dispatcher that security guards Clifton and Weissert reported seeing a brown Cadillac in the parking lot containing two men who closely resembled the shoplifters Middlebrook described. At that time, Blair located and pursued defendant through the mall parking lot, followed defendant’s car out of the lot, and pulled him over in a White Castle parking lot. Sergeant Gary Reimann arrived at the scene to assist Blair. Defendant was handcuffed and put into the back seat of Reimann’s car while Blair went back to the mall to get Middlebrook. Blair brought Middlebrook and Andrea Dennison, another Stuarts II employee, to Reimann’s car. Middlebrook identified defendant as one of the shoplifters, and he was taken into custody.

On May 2, 1989, defendant was charged by criminal complaint with theft over $300. On May 4, 1989, defendant posted $1,000 bond and retained private counsel to enter his first appearance. Defendant’s private counsel withdrew on September 15, 1989, and a public defender was appointed. Subsequently, the public defender filed a motion to withdraw, stating that since defendant had posted $1,000 bond, defendant was not indigent and the public defender’s office could not represent him. The public defender’s motion was heard on October 16, 1989. At the hearing, defendant stated that he had not posted the bond money himself and he was not authorized to use the money for attorney fees. Defendant further stated that he would rather proceed pro se than to take a chance that the bond would be used to reimburse the public defender. Defendant explained that he was unemployed with no source of income and no assets, and he would be unable to pay his mother back if the bail money was not returned to her. Despite defendant’s protestations, however, the court denied the public defender’s motion to withdraw and told him to keep track of his time for possible reimbursement of fees. A jury trial commenced March 15, 1990, and a mistrial was declared when the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Defendant’s bond was increased on April 27, 1990, and defendant posted an additional $1,500. Defendant’s second trial began June 19, 1990, at which time defendant and two of his children testified. Defendant stated that on the evening of April 29, 1989, he went to St. Clair Square Shopping Mall with his three children, Larry, Jr., Eric, and Mica. He testified that he was wearing a dark denim jacket, dark denim pants and a white T-shirt, and Larry, Jr., was wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Once inside the mall, defendant and his children started playing a game of tag, which consisted of Eric and Mica tagging defendant and Larry, Jr., and then running from them. Defendant testified that he and Larry, Jr., were separated from Eric and Mica for just a short time before they all left. Defendant stated that he never entered Stuarts II on April 29, 1989. Larry, Jr., corroborated defendant’s testimony that the Hendersons were at the mall on April 29, 1989, that they played tag, that he was never separated from his father while they were at the mall, and that neither he nor his father stole any merchandise from Stuarts II. The jury found defendant guilty of theft over $300, based solely on the eyewitness testimony of Regina Massey-Middle-brook.

In this appeal, defendant first contends that the State failed to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Defendant argues that the only evidence linking him with the theft is Middlebrook’s testimony, and her identification of defendant is not credible because her descriptions of the shoplifters on the night of the theft were inconsistent and none of the differing descriptions closely matched defendant’s appearance that evening. The State argues that Middlebrook’s identification of defendant was credible because she had an opportunity to see defendant at close range when she followed him out of the store and grabbed his arm. The State further argues that Middle-brook’s descriptions were, in fact, consistent and clear.

The testimony of a single witness may be sufficient to support a conviction, but the identification must be positive and credible. (People v. Hefner (1979), 70 Ill. App. 3d 693, 388 N.E.2d 1059.) In Neil v.

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Bluebook (online)
596 N.E.2d 837, 232 Ill. App. 3d 230, 173 Ill. Dec. 213, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 1152, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-henderson-illappct-1992.