People v. Maas

2019 IL App (2d) 160766
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided June 5, 2019·No. 2-16-0766·Unpublished·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

No. 2-16-0766

Opinion filed June 5, 2019

IN THE

APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS

SECOND DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE ) Appeal from the Circuit Court OF ILLINOIS, ) of Lake County.

)

Plaintiff-Appellee, )

)

v. ) No. 14-CF-3239 )

RONALD Q. MAAS, ) Honorable ) George D. Strickland,

Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, Presiding.

JUSTICE BURKE delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

Presiding Justice Birkett and Justice Zenoff concurred in the judgment and opinion.

OPINION

¶1 Police initiated a traffic stop of defendant, Ronald Q. Maas, who was 18 years old and driving a Ford Fusion, with his 15-year-old girlfriend, Elizabeth Zoph, as a passenger. Defendant sped away, and the car crashed and rolled over. The couple fled on foot and stole a Ford F-350 pickup truck. Defendant rammed the vehicle through a police roadblock and was shot in the face by an officer. Defendant sped away and police followed, but the chase ended when defendant crossed into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with a subcompact car, seriously injuring its two occupants, Helen Pecoraro and Richard Clark. The pickup rolled over and caught fire. Defendant abandoned Zoph, who was injured and unconscious, and hid behind a barn of a nearby residence.

¶2 Police discovered defendant behind the barn, attempting to drive away in a Ford F-550 dump truck. Defendant was arrested and transported to a hospital, where he tested positive for cocaine and heroin and had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.13. ¶3 After a jury trial, defendant was convicted of aggravated possession of a stolen motor vehicle (aggravated PSMV) (625 ILCS 5/4-103.2(a)(7)(A) (West 2014)), aggravated driving with an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more (aggravated DUI) (625 ILCS 5/11-501(d)(1)(C) (West 2014)), failure to report a motor vehicle accident involving personal injury (625 ILCS 5/11-401(b) (West 2014)), attempted theft (720 ILCS 5/8-4(a), 16-1(a)(1)(C) (West 2014)), two counts of aggravated assault (720 ILCS 5/12-2(c)(8) (West 2014)), and criminal damage to government supported property (720 ILCS 5/21-1.01(a)(1) (West 2014)). The trial court imposed an aggregate sentence of 22 years’ imprisonment. ¶4 On direct appeal, defendant argues that (1) he was not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of failing to report a motor vehicle accident involving personal injury, (2) the trial court erroneously admitted the hospital’s chemical test results as records of emergency medical treatment under section 11-501.4 of the Illinois Vehicle Code (Vehicle Code) (625 ILCS 5/11- 501.4 (West 2014)), (3) the convictions of both aggravated DUI and aggravated PSMV violate the one-act, one-crime rule; and (4) the trial court erred in imposing consecutive sentences for aggravated DUI and aggravated PSMV. We affirm. ¶5 I. BACKGROUND ¶6 A. The Traffic Stop ¶7 At trial, Round Lake police officer Rick Tinsley testified that he observed the Fusion drive past him at a high rate of speed at 10:45 p.m. on November 13, 2014. Officer Tinsley tried to pull over the car. Defendant stopped but refused orders to exit the car and then sped away.

Officer Tinsley was eventually directed to stop his pursuit of defendant. Eric Anderson testified that he owned the Fusion and that the car had been stolen. ¶8 Round Lake police officer Kurtis Schultz corroborated Officer Tinsley’s testimony regarding defendant’s fleeing the traffic stop. After pursuing defendant for awhile, Officer Schultz was ordered to stop the pursuit. Soon thereafter, Officer Schultz learned that the Fusion had been reported stolen and that it had crashed. ¶9 Officer Schultz was notified via radio that another vehicle, the F-350 pickup, had been reported stolen near the site of the crash of the Fusion. Elzbieta Jakubiak testified that her husband, Roman, owned the F-350 pickup. She observed someone stealing the pickup around 11:30 p.m. on November 13, 2014, and woke Roman, who corroborated his wife’s testimony at trial. ¶ 10 Officer Schultz went to the crash site, saw the F-350 pickup, and reported it to dispatch. Officer Schultz activated his emergency lights and siren and attempted to stop the pickup, but defendant sped away. Officer Schultz deactivated his emergency lights and siren, according to department policy not to engage in high speed chases relating to property thefts. ¶ 11 Officer Schultz continued to follow the F-350 pickup, which doubled back and almost struck his patrol car. The officer reactivated his lights and siren but deactivated them again after defendant failed to stop. The pickup cut across a lawn. ¶ 12 B. The Roadblock ¶ 13 The jury saw a video recording of part of the pursuit of the F-350 pickup, including as it approached the police roadblock at an intersection. The police vehicles had their lights activated, and the officers were on foot. Officer Schultz testified that he saw defendant back up near

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People v. Maas, 2019 IL App (2d) 160766 (Ill. Ct. App. 2019).

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