People v. Sherman

409 N.E.2d 486, 87 Ill. App. 3d 937, 42 Ill. Dec. 871, 1980 Ill. App. LEXIS 3509
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedAugust 28, 1980
Docket79-827
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 409 N.E.2d 486 (People v. Sherman) 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. Sherman, 409 N.E.2d 486, 87 Ill. App. 3d 937, 42 Ill. Dec. 871, 1980 Ill. App. LEXIS 3509 (Ill. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE BARRY

delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant, Gerald A. Sherman, was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court of Tazewell County of robbery (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 38, par. 18 — 1(a)) and theft (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 38, par. 16 — 1(a)). He was subsequently sentenced to the Department of Corrections to serve two concurrent terms of 5 years, and in addition forfeited a $2,500 bail bond as restitution. The defendant now appeals from his conviction.

The record reveals that at approximately 10:30 a.m. on August 17, 1978, Mrs. Evelyn Blankenship, a co-owner of Pete and Mary’s Tavern in East Peoria, was entering the tavern by the back door after having obtained $10,000 in cash from the East Peoria First National Bank. She was carrying the $10,000 in a locked money bag which she held in her hand. Suddenly, a man later identified as Scott Koch came around the side of the building, shoved Mrs. Blankenship into a nearby garage while grabbing the money bag, and ran off through a parking lot. Mrs. Blankenship gave chase, but Koch escaped.

Koch, who testified for the State, implicated the defendant in the robbery. Koch testified that five days before the robbery he was approached by the defendant and Steve Kennedy, who told him “they had a job they wanted to do ° ° 0 [but] they couldn’t do it themselves because Mrs. Blankenship knew them both too well and they needed somebody that she didn’t know.” This first discussion took place in Kennedy’s Ranchero. A number of subsequent conversations between Koch, Sherman and Kennedy concerning the robbery took place at Sherman’s apartment in Creve Coeur.

Koch testified that the night before the robbery the defendant cut a hole in a fence located near the embankment of the Cedar Street extension, a raised overpass with a pedestrian tunnel running underneath. The defendant cut the hole using bolt cutters he obtained from Jeff Anderson, an employee of Fogler’s Variety Clearing House in Creve Coeur. The next morning, the defendant and Kennedy drove Koch to the tavern where the robbery was to occur. Koch stated that after taking the money bag from Mrs. Blankenship, he eventually ran through the pedestrian tunnel, through the hole in the fence the defendant had cut the night before, and up the embankment to the westbound lane of the Cedar Street extension. He was subsequently picked up by Kennedy and Sherman at a place marked with a stick, and the three men drove to Peoria. After staying at a tavern for 45 minutes to an hour, the three split up the money and went their separate ways. The money bag, a wig, and the clothes Koch was wearing were burned under a railroad trestle near the Peoria Speedway.

Koch’s testimony was partially corroborated by Mark Cornelison, a teenager who lived near the tavern. Cornelison testified that a few days before the robbery he saw Koch and two other men he was unable to identify “messing around with the fence” near the Cedar Street overpass. He also saw them placing sticks near the bridge. Cornelison identified Kennedy’s brown Ranchero as the vehicle the three men used that day.

Koch’s testimony was, however, contradicted not only by defense witnesses but by the State’s witnesses as well. Contrary to Koch’s statement that neither Sherman nor Kennedy wanted to rob Mrs. Blankenship because she knew them, Mrs. Blankenship testified that she had never seen the defendant before the robbery. In fact, asked if she had ever seen him, she responded, “Not that I can recall.” Jeff Anderson testified that, contrary to Koch’s story, he did not give any bolt cutters to the defendant, nor did the defendant ever ask him for the bolt cutters. The only one who asked him about bolt cutters was Koch. Anderson also testified that prior to taking the stand he was stopped in the hall of the courthouse by Koch and told to testify that he gave the bolt cutters to the defendant.

The defendant attacked Koch’s credibility in a number of ways. Koch’s assertion that he lacked familiarity with drugs was contradicted by the testimony of William Block and Lyle Block. They testified that Koch had told them he had been involved in drug transactions in California and Florida. Lyle Block also testified that on one occasion he caught Koch trying to steal tranquilizers that had been prescribed for one of Block’s dogs. In addition, both of the Blocks testified that Koch’s reputation in the community for truthfulness was bad. As evidence of Koch’s animosity and hostility toward the defendant, Pam Richards testified that she heard Koch threaten to kill Sherman in April of 1979 while they were in a tavern shooting pool. The defendant also introduced evidence suggesting that Koch had made a deal with the State in exchange for his testimony against the defendant, but this directly conflicted with the testimony of a police officer and an assistant state’s attorney who stated that no such deal had been made.

Several alibi witnesses testified on the defendant’s behalf. Donald Gregory testified that at 8:30 a.m. the day of the robbery he drove Sherman to the home of Elaine Bryant, Sherman’s girlfriend. Bryant then testified that Sherman was with her from 9 a.m. until 2 or 2:30 p.m. Her testimony was partially corroborated by Pamela Stewart, who stated she was at Ms. Bryant’s home until 11:30 a.m. the day of the robbery and Sherman was there at that time. Finally, Sherman himself took the stand and denied any involvement in the crime.

The first contention of the defendant on appeal is that his convictions for robbery and theft must be reversed because they rest upon the essentially uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice, Scott Koch, whose credibility was severely impaired by the testimony of Jeff Anderson. “Ordinarily the credibility of a witness’ testimony is a matter to be determined by the trier of fact. Although the testimony of an accomplice ° * e is competent and sufficient standing alone to support a conviction, it should be viewed with caution and suspicion.” (People v. Kiel (1979), 75 Ill. App. 3d 1030, 1035, 394 N.E.2d 883, 887.) Even if we view Koch’s testimony with circumspection, however, it is not so unreasonable, improbable, or unsatisfactory that a reasonable doubt of Sherman’s guilt is raised. It is true that Anderson’s testimony regarding the bolt cutters and his conversation with Koch in the hall of the courthouse was damaging to Koch’s credibility. However, it is apparent that the jury simply did not believe Anderson, who himself was on a deferred prosecution program in Tazewell County. The jury also apparently rejected, or gave little weight to, the Blocks’ testimony regarding Koch’s familiarity with drugs and his bad reputation for truth and veracity in the community, Pam Richard’s testimony regarding Koch’s threat to Sherman, and the testimony of the defendant’s alibi witnesses. In addition, the evidence of a deal between Koch and the State for Koch’s testimony against Sherman was, at best, conflicting. We decline to substitute our judgment for that of the jury which heard the evidence and had the opportunity to observe the demeanor of the witnesses, something which we are unable to do with a cold record (People v. Novotny (1968), 41 Ill. 2d 401, 244 N.E.2d 182; People v. Ellis (1978), 74 Ill. 2d 489, 384 N.E.2d 331; People v. Hobson (1979), 77 Ill.

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Bluebook (online)
409 N.E.2d 486, 87 Ill. App. 3d 937, 42 Ill. Dec. 871, 1980 Ill. App. LEXIS 3509, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-sherman-illappct-1980.