People v. Mahdi

412 N.E.2d 669, 89 Ill. App. 3d 947, 45 Ill. Dec. 318, 1980 Ill. App. LEXIS 3851
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedOctober 30, 1980
Docket79-707
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 412 N.E.2d 669 (People v. Mahdi) 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. Mahdi, 412 N.E.2d 669, 89 Ill. App. 3d 947, 45 Ill. Dec. 318, 1980 Ill. App. LEXIS 3851 (Ill. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE ROMITI

delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant was convicted of murder, aggravated assault and attempted murder and was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. He appeals contending that (1) the court erred in refusing to allow defendant to add to his list of witnesses the day before jury selection began; (2) the court erred in failing to hold a hearing on his motion to suppress identification; (3) the court erred in ruling that certain photographs shown to witnesses were not unduly suggestive. We find that while the court did err in refusing to allow the additional witnesses, the error was not prejudicial; that the trial court was entitled to draw its own conclusions as to the suggestiveness of the photographs, and that since the photographs were not included in the record, we cannot review the correctness of the trial court’s determination.

In October 1975, the defendant, Saoud Mahdi, was charged with the murder of William Smith and the attempted murder and aggravated assault of Donald Miller which occurred on September 3, 1975. His attorney at that time (who is not present counsel) filed an answer to the State’s motion for discovery stating he intended to call Shaly Jiwadt, Ali Moustafa and Napil Salama as witnesses. While defendant did not indicate in his answer to discovery that he intended to rely on an alibi defense, it is clear from the State’s arguments made on the motion to amend this answer that it was aware that defendant intended to rely on an alibi defense. The defendant also filed a motion to quash the arrest and suppress the identification. The motion to suppress was based on the fact that the identification by the witnesses through the use of photographs was induced by the action of the police and that defendant’s picture was the only one of an Arab included in the six photographs shown to the witnesses.

On June 29,1978, the defendant changed attorneys. On July 20,1978, the new defense counsel attempted to file an amended answer to the discovery motion. The answer listed as additional witnesses “any and all personnel of Evans Funeral Home, of Evergreen Cemetery and Mausoleum, of the major television stations and of Tabernacle Hospital.” He explained to the court that there were certain accounts of the events of September 3, 1975, which might become relevant, that he had made a diligent search for those accounts and had someone working on it “at this moment” and the reporters were searching their files. The State objected to the adding of 20 or so new witnesses “at the twelfth hour” and indicated that the alibi defense was that the defendant was driving to Toledo and he had three or four witnesses who would so testify.

On July 21, defense counsel came back into court and indicated that he might want to add to the list of witnesses the names of two persons whom he believed were still living in the Cleveland area. He explained that he had known from the time he became involved in the case that defendant had stayed in Ohio but defendant could not remember the exact names of the witnesses. His investigation had been continuing to the present date. There were some language barriers and communication barriers and he still did not have the exact names of the witnesses. He was awaiting a phone call to get this information. If he did locate the witnesses and call them, he would make them available the day before for the State to interview. The court indicated that it did not believe that allowing the witnesses would put the State at a disadvantage and that it would allow them to be called if counsel could secure them in time for the State to interview them.

On July 24, 1978, defense counsel informed the court that the name of the Cleveland witness was Nageeb Afaneh. He was flying to Chicago, would arrive late that night and would be presented to the State first thing the next morning to be interviewed. At the arguments on the post-trial motion it was asserted that the witness had been flown in and had been available to testify.

On July 26, after it had rested its case, the State for the first time indicated it had a statement from two of the three defense witnesses originally listed in the defendant’s answer to discovery; that these witnesses stated that the defendant’s brother’s funeral was a week prior to the shooting and that at the time of the shooting he was not in Chicago, he was enroute to Cleveland or in Cleveland. While the state’s attorney claimed this information had been given to the original defense attorney, both present and prior defense counsel filed affidavits stating that the first time they received this information was on July 26. These affidavits were not contradicted by the State. The court then ruled that, except for the defendant or those witnesses on the previous list, it would not allow defense counsel to call anyone who would testify differently from what those witnesses indicated they would testify to. In other words, defense counsel could not call any new witnesses, such as personnel of the funeral home, who would testify the funeral took place on September 3.

On July 27, 1978, after the defense concluded its case, defense counsel made the following offer of proof:

“The list of witnesses which I amended contained a number of individuals and businesses, that was the Evans Funeral Home, located at 59 and Western and the offer of proof would be that if called, the director, if the director had been called to testify, he would testify that in fact the funeral of Mafti Mahdi was scheduled for September 3, 1975. He would testify to the size of the procession to the time that the funeral was scheduled to arrive at the cemetery and confirm the fact that the funeral was on September 3, 1975 as the Defendant, as a witness testified to.
The persons of Evergreen Cemetery would testify they had a funeral scheduled and interment scheduled for 1:00 o’clock that afternoon as was testified by the defense witnesses.
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Mr. Nageeb Afaneh, who was the gentleman in Cleveland would have testified to the fact that the second man going who was in fact his cousin, he had a conversation with Jaweet who indicated to him he wished to take Mr. Mahdi to Cleveland. Mr. Mahdi was quite upset and stayed with him for a few days.
Mr. Afaneh did in fact come here the first time he had ever seen Mr. Mahdi was previously at the funeral, that he thereupon left to Cleveland after having made the arrangements to stay at his home and sometime that evening, shortly after he had arrived home and Mr. Mahdi and several other gentlemen arrived with them in Cleveland, Ohio, he remained there for several days or weeks and returned back to the State of Illinois.”

He further informed the court that the news media did not have the information he had thought they had.

On July 20, 1978, the court also considered the motion to quash the arrest and suppress identification. There was some testimony that an arrest warrant had been issued, and the court ruled that it would deny that portion of the motion if the warrant was produced. Apparently this was done off the record. No appeal has been taken from this ruling.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
412 N.E.2d 669, 89 Ill. App. 3d 947, 45 Ill. Dec. 318, 1980 Ill. App. LEXIS 3851, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-mahdi-illappct-1980.