People v. Patterson

667 N.E.2d 1360, 282 Ill. App. 3d 219, 217 Ill. Dec. 784, 1996 Ill. App. LEXIS 500
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 28, 1996
Docket1-94-3363
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 667 N.E.2d 1360 (People v. Patterson) 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. Patterson, 667 N.E.2d 1360, 282 Ill. App. 3d 219, 217 Ill. Dec. 784, 1996 Ill. App. LEXIS 500 (Ill. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE HARTMAN

delivered the opinion of the court:

On February 28, 1992, Chicago fireman Woody Woods was shot and killed as he sat in his truck parked at an outdoor bank automated teller machine. Defendant, Ellis Patterson, was indicted for Woods’ murder in the first degree. Following a jury trial, defendant was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He appeals, raising as issues for review whether (1) the circuit court erred in denying his motion to quash arrest and suppress statements; (2) his conviction was based upon inadmissible hearsay; (3) the State improperly cross-examined a witness regarding an inculpatory statement without providing notice during discovery of the statement’s existence; (4) the State failed to perfect impeachment on a noncollateral matter; and (5) the State improperly used defendant’s silence following arrest against him in violation of Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 49 L. Ed. 2d 91, 96 S. Ct. 2240 (1976). For reasons which follow, we affirm.

Defendant filed a motion to quash arrest. At the hearing on the motion, defendant testified that on October 15, 1992, he was 15 years old, a sophomore at Corliss High School, and lived with his aunt, Gloria Jackson, at 121st and South Michigan. He was in school when Chicago police officers handcuffed him and took him to a police station, where he was handcuffed to a bench. The police officers did not inform him they had a warrant for his arrest. He did not talk to any adult family members at the police station. On cross-examination, defendant acknowledged he was wearing a beeper in violation of law and that he had been arrested previously in school for wearing a beeper. See Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 122, par. 10 — 21.10 (now 105 ILCS 5/10 — 21.10 (West 1994)).

Chicago police detective Anthony Lowery testified at the quash arrest motion hearing that on October 15, 1992, he went to Corliss High School and arrested defendant, believed to have been involved in a homicide at 1000 East 111th Street. He did not have an arrest warrant nor did he know of any outstanding warrants for his arrest. Prior to the arrest, Lowery and his partner met with a confidential informant (later identified as defendant’s uncle), who told the detectives of a conversation the informant overheard between defendant and Freddie Jackson, Jr. (later revealed as another of the informant’s nephews), in which the two discussed how defendant had shot the victim in the bank parking lot. The two were concerned because the weapon used in the shooting had been recovered subsequently from Jackson, Jr., by the police. The informant told the detectives the approximate ages of the two as well as their addresses.

Detective Lowery possessed other information prior to arrest indicating that the offenders were African-American males who were in their teens or early twenties. Lowery confirmed that Jackson, Jr., an African-American male in his early twenties, recently had been arrested on a gun charge and a weapon had been recovered from him. Lowery verified that the addresses given by the informant were correct and that defendant was an African-American male teenager. Lowery also discovered that defendant and Jackson, Jr., had given the same home address on a previous arrest. The lab results indicated a strong probability that the weapon recovered from Jackson, Jr., was used in the February 28, 1992, shooting; it had the same characteristics as the bullet recovered from the victim. Only two weapons manufacturers in the United States make handguns with the characteristics possessed by the weapon involved here. Lowery could not confirm, however, whether the weapon recovered from Jackson, Jr., was the same one used in the February 28, 1992, shooting.

Defendant’s motion to quash the arrest was denied, the circuit court finding that the detectives had corroborated sufficiently the informant’s statements. 1

At trial, evidence was adduced from which the jury could believe the following information.

On February 28, 1992, at 9:45 p.m. the body of the victim was found in the driver’s seat of his red truck, parked at a Heritage Pullman Bank automated teller machine located at 111th Street and the Calumet Expressway. The driver’s side window was shattered. An autopsy revealed that the victim died of multiple gunshot wounds, one gunshot wound at the back of his head on the left side and a through-and-through gunshot wound on the back of his left shoulder. There was no evidence of close-range firing.

Chicago police detective John McMurray testified that when he arrived at the scene he found the victim seated in the driver’s seat with two payroll checks in his left hand. The victim’s right hand held a ballpoint pen and was propped up against the vehicle’s gear shift, which was in second gear. A cash station card and a deposit envelope also were present. There was blood on the floor of the truck, but no shells were found inside the truck. Some glass from the driver’s side window was located on the ground next to the truck, indicating that the vehicle had not been moved after the shooting. McMurray found the key in the ignition in the "on” position, the radio in the "on” position, and the headlights "on.”

John Woodruff and his girlfriend, Ethel Cook, went to the Heritage Pullman Bank at approximately 9:30 p.m. Woodruff noticed three people inside a Blazer or Bronco-type vehicle parked in front of him. He drove around the vehicle to an automated teller machine; after three minutes, he left the area. Ethel Cook saw a dark-colored Bronco-type vehicle, without lights, parked near the curb at the Heritage Pullman Bank with three men in it. The people in the truck were between 16 and 17 years of age; one was wearing a Starter jacket and another was wearing a baseball cap.

Dorothy Turner went to an automated teller machine at the Heritage Pullman Bank at 9:35 p.m. and noticed two males sitting in a truck parked at the curb. The driver was wearing a baseball cap and turned his back when she drove past. Turner drove around the truck, proceeded to an automated machine and, after transacting her business, left.

Retired Chicago police detective Michael O’Connor testified that he and his partner, Detective Lowery, spoke with Charles Jackson, one of defendant’s uncles, on October 12, 1992. On October 15, 1992, the detectives looked for defendant at his home address. He was not present and they left their card, asking that he call them upon his return. The detectives then went to Corliss High School, where they found defendant and placed him under arrest. Lowery read defendant his Miranda rights. They informed him they were investigating the February 28, 1992, shooting at the Heritage Pullman Bank. Defendant then hit his head against the chair and grimaced; he was taken to the police station and placed in an interview room.

Detective O’Connor testified that they were preparing to go to Freddie Jackson, Jr.’s (Jackson, Jr.) home when Freddie Jackson, Sr. (Jackson, Sr.), another of defendant’s uncles, telephoned and informed them he was bringing his son to the station. Upon arrival, Jackson, Jr., was taken into an interview room and questioned about the case after being given his Miranda warnings.

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Bluebook (online)
667 N.E.2d 1360, 282 Ill. App. 3d 219, 217 Ill. Dec. 784, 1996 Ill. App. LEXIS 500, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-patterson-illappct-1996.