People v. King

321 N.E.2d 407, 24 Ill. App. 3d 686, 1974 Ill. App. LEXIS 1764
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided November 27, 1974·No. No. 59287·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE HALLETT.

delivered the opinion of the court:

On March 2, 1972, the defendant, Carlos King, entered a plea of guilty to a charge of robbery and was sentenced to 5 years’ probation. Pursuant to the State’s petition to revoke this probation, a hearing was held on April 6, 1973, which resulted in the revocation of the probation and the imposition of a sentence of 15 to 20 years in the penitentiary. From this, the defendant appeals.

The issues presented are (1) whether the State proved a violation of probation by a preponderance of the evidence; (2) whether the court must admonish the defendant in accordance with Supreme Court Rule 402 in revocation of probation proceedings when the grounds are stipulated and consist of a subsequent conviction; and (3) whether the sentence imposed is excessive. '

We affirm, but reduce the minimum sentence so as to conform with the Unified Code of Corrections.

■The probation, which was revoked in this case, was imposed upon the defendant on March 2, 1972, after he had pleaded guilty to a‘ charge of robbery. At that time, he was already on an earlier probation given him in a robbery case by Judge Hechinger. On March 6, 1973, a probation violation warrant was issued on the grounds that the defendant had failed to report to his probation officer, and that on January 22, 1973, he had pleaded guilty to armed robbery in Rockford, Illinois, where the court denied probation and incarcerated him pending sentencing. As a result of this Rockford conviction, the defendant was sentenced to a 2- to 6-year prison term. On March 16, 1973, the State filed a petition requesting that the defendant’s probation be revoked. The grounds alleged in the petition for revocation were that the defendant had been convicted of armed robbery in case #1901 in Rockford, Illinois, and had been sentenced to a term of two to six years in the penitentiary, and that the defendant had previously been convicted of robbery and criminal trespass upon a guilty plea on January 27, 1970, for which he was granted a 3-year probation. The petition further stated that these allegations constituted a violation of the conditions of probation under section 5 — 6—3 of the Unified Code of Corrections (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 38, par. 1005 — 6—-3.)

At the hearing on the rule to show cause’ why the probation should not be terminated, the witness for the State, an officer from the Adult Probation Department of Cook County, testified; apparently from the petition for revocation, repeating the allegations set forth therein. No ’ objection was made to this testimony. Counsel for the defendant stipulated that the defendant-probationer had been convicted and sentenced in Rockford, as stated in the petition, but asked leave of court for time to vacate the Rockford conviction, “[b]ecause he (the defendant) tells me he was led to believe that upon entering his guilty plea, he would receive three to five years from this Court on his probation violation.” (Record at 4.) The court denied defendant’s motion, and proceeded to hear matters in mitigation which the defense had to present. At this point, the defendant testified as to his marital and employment status. The defendant stated that when he entered a plea of guilty to the offense for which he was convicted in Rockford, the State’s Attorney in Rockford had given assurances to him that the court here would only impose a sentence of 3 to 5 years for the violation of his probation. The court stated for the record that no such representations had been made by the court to the State’s Attorney in Rockford or to the State’s Attorney in Cook County. Other than this assertion by the defendant and tire statement of defense counsel made earlier at the hearing, there is no indication in the record before us that any such promises were relied upon by defendant in entering his plea in the Rockford case. At the conclusion of the hearing in mitigation, the trial court revoked defendant’s probation and imposed a 15- to 20-year sentence to run concurrently with the sentence imposed by the Rockford court.

On appeal, the defendant contends that the State failed to prove a violation of probation by a preponderance of the evidence. In support of this contention, the defendant points out that the State did not produce any evidence tending to show when the offense, resulting in the Rockford conviction, occurred. According to the defendant, there was therefore no evidence that the act, upon which the Rockford conviction is based, was committed subsequent to his being placed on probation. It is self-evident that a subsequent conviction, in and of itself, is not a violation of probation. Rather, the State must prove that a criminal statute was violated after the probation has been granted. The defendant argues that in the absence of proof as to when the criminal conduct for which the defendant was convicted occurred, the State did not prove a violation of probation.

In addition, the defense contends that the testimony of the probation officer consisted of hearsay and that such evidence, which was the only evidence introduced by the State, is not sufficient to warrant a finding by the court of a probation violation. Thus, the defendant argues, the State did not prove a violation of probation by a preponderance of the evidence.

We find this argument to be without merit. We first note that this court has held in People v. Collins (1973), 14 Ill.App.3d 446, 302 N.E.2d 709, that a probation violation may be proved only by competent evidence. (People v. Collins (1973), 14 Ill.App.3d 446, 448, 302 N.E.2d 709; People v. Dotson (1969), 111 Ill.App.2d 306, 310, 250 N.E.2d 174.) In People v. Collins, the State’s evidence consisted of the testimony of the probation officer who was permitted to read the contents of a report prepared by another officer. This testimony was received over defendant’s objection in Collins. This court agreed with the defendant’s contention that the report should not have been admitted over defendant’s objection. However, in the present case, there was no objection by the defense to the witness’ testimony. Hence, the defense failed to preserve the hearsay issue for review in this case.

Assuming arguendo that the State’s evidence was incompetent as hearsay, we affirm the holding in People v. Collins (supra), that the error became moot when the defendant himself admitted the conviction and by his own testimony produced evidence that the conviction constituted a probation violation. The defendant testified, as stated above, that he had pleaded guilty to the Rockford charge of armed robbery in the hope of receiving lenient treatment on this probation violation. On the basis of this testimony, the trial judge was fully warranted in finding that the crime for which the defendant was convicted in Rockford had been committed by the defendant during the time he was on probation. In light of the stipulation of defense counsel to the conviction coupled with the defendant’s statement that he had violated probation, we find that the probation revocation was proven by competent evidence, and that the State sustained its burden of proving a probation violation by a preponderance of the evidence. People v. Collins (1973), 14 Ill.App.3d 446, 302 N.E.2d 709; People v.

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People v. King, 321 N.E.2d 407, 24 Ill. App. 3d 686, 1974 Ill. App. LEXIS 1764 (Ill. Ct. App. 1974).

321 N.E.2d 407 (People v. King) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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