People v. Hope

318 N.E.2d 128, 22 Ill. App. 3d 721, 1974 Ill. App. LEXIS 2089
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedSeptember 19, 1974
Docket59093
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 318 N.E.2d 128 (People v. Hope) 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. Hope, 318 N.E.2d 128, 22 Ill. App. 3d 721, 1974 Ill. App. LEXIS 2089 (Ill. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE DEMPSEY

delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant, Gene Hope, was convicted at a jury trial of robbery and was sentenced to a term of not less than IVz and not more than 4% years. He appeals the conviction on the grounds that: he was not proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; he was denied a fair trial because of the closing argument of the prosecutor; a jury instruction on show-up identification was improperly denied, and a mistrial was not granted after the admission of prejudicial evidence.

The victim of the robbery, Earl Barefield, testified that on March 21, 1971, at about 8:30 A.M., he left the Dawes Center at 12 South Peoria Street, Chicago, where he lived and began to walk to the Northwestern train station. He stopped on the comer of Peoria Street and Madison Street to rest. Across the street on the opposite corner, he saw Hope with some women and another man. Hope walked across the street and brushed past Barefield touching Barefield’s left pocket which contained a coin purse. Hope looked back at him and Barefield stared at Hope.

Barefield became apprehensive and he decided to return to the Dawes Center. Hope foHowed him. As he reached the door of the Center, Hope seized him, forced him to the ground and took the coin purse which contained $20.25 from his pocket. Hope then ran diagonally across Peoria Street toward the corner of Madison.

Leonard Kelly was approaching the Dawes Center and saw Barefield and Hope walking toward the Center from the opposite direction. He proceeded up the stairs inside the Center but stopped and looked through the open front door when he heard noises outside. He saw Barefield on the ground and saw Hope taking something from Barefield’s pocket. Kelly ran after Hope; he stopped running when he reached the corner of Madison and Peoria, but watched Hope until he turned north on Green Street.

Kelly stood on the comer for several minutes. Then he saw a man, dressed as the robber had been, board an eastbound bus at the southwest comer of Madison and Halsted Streets.

A few minutes later, Kelly saw a police car and flagged it down. He told police officer John Murray about the robbery and about the man he saw board a bus. Murray drove to the Dawes Center, picked up Barefield and drove along the Madison Street bus route. Barefield described the robber to Murray as having hair combed straight up in front and wearing a light brown corduroy coat. Kelly described the robber as a black man about 6 feet tall between the ages of 20 and 25 years, wearing light blue pants and a brown corduroy jacket. When they overtook the bus, Murray drove his car with its blue lights flashing, to the front of the bus and stopped it. Murray boarded the bus and arrested Hope. He was wearing a brown corduroy coat and light blue pants. Kelly was waiting outside the bus and identified him as the robber. Murray then took Hope to the police car where Barefield also identified him. Murray searched him and found only $3 in change in his pockets. Murray went back to the bus and checked the area outside the bus, and inside around the defendant’s seat looking for the stolen purse and money but he found nothing.

Murray drove Hope, Barefield and Kelly to the police station. KeHy was allowed to testify over defense objections that Hope asked him about the missing $30 before anyone had told him it had not been found.

The defendant testified that he was on his way to his sister’s home when he was arrested. He said that he left home about 7 A.M., took a Halsted bus to Madison Street and got off to transfer to a Madison Street bus. Between buses, he had something to eat at a restaurant on Halsted Street Then he boarded the Madison bus on which he was later arrested. He denied asking Kelly about the missing money. He said that he was employed at the time of the robbery putting dies in a punchpressing machine at the Regal Manufacturing Company at 917 West 21st Place.

Officer Murray was called in rebuttal. He testified that the Regal Manufacturing Company manufactured dinette tables and bar stools; that it did not employ anyone to handle dies and did not employ Gene Hope. The defense objected to Murray’s testimony as hearsay. The court said the testimony that Hope was not employed at the Regal Company would be stricken and the jury was instructed to disregard that testimony.

The defendant offered, but was refused, the following instruction:

“Where one accused of a crime is brought alone before the witness for the purpose of identification, such identification is not entitled to the same weight and credibility as where the witness picks out the accused from a number of persons brought before the witness.”

The defendant’s contention that he was not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is based on the identifications made by Barefield and Kelly. He asserts that neither of these was credible and that the identification made by Barefield was unfairly influenced by Kelly’s prior identification.

The procedure used by Murray was proper investigative conduct. Murray had a duty to determine as quickly as possible whether the victim of the crime could identify the person arrested, and the prompt confrontation between the victim and the suspect enabled him to determine whether the latter should remain in custody or be released. (People v. Prignano (1971), 2 Ill.App.3d 1063, 278 N.E.2d 128, cert. denied, 409 U.S. 851 (1972).) Barefield had had a sufficient opportunity to view Hope before and during the crime to offset any suggestion caused by Kelly’s identification. A prior independent origin of a witness’ identification can furnish insulation against a subsequent suggestive confrontation. People v. Ashford (1974), 17 Ill.App.3d 592, 308 N.E.2d 271.

The adequacy of both Barefield’s and Kelly’s identification was a question of credibility for the trier of fact and a reviewing court will not reverse the verdict of a jury unless the testimony is so unsatisfactory that it creates a reasonable doubt of the defendant’s guilt. (People v. Knowles (1970), 130 Ill.App.2d 78, 264 N.E.2d 716, cert. denied, 404 U.S. 965 (1971).) Barefield saw Hope from across the street before the robbery, saw him when he came over and walked past him, and saw him during the robbery. Kelly saw Hope before the robbery, saw him during the daylight robbery, saw him running away and saw him during the chase. Both men viewed him long enough to enable them to make positive identifications, and the short time that elapsed between the crime and the identifications enhances their credibility.

It is contended that all of Murray’s testimony concerning Hope’s employment at the Regal Manufacturing Company was hearsay, that its reception into evidence was prejudicial and that a mistrial should have been granted after its admission. It is further contended that the rebuttal testimony, which was not disclosed prior to trial, violated the spirit of Supreme Court Rule 412. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 110A, par.

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Bluebook (online)
318 N.E.2d 128, 22 Ill. App. 3d 721, 1974 Ill. App. LEXIS 2089, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-hope-illappct-1974.