People v. Shutters

370 N.E.2d 1225, 56 Ill. App. 3d 184, 13 Ill. Dec. 198, 1977 Ill. App. LEXIS 3962
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 8, 1977
Docket76-520
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 370 N.E.2d 1225 (People v. Shutters) 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. Shutters, 370 N.E.2d 1225, 56 Ill. App. 3d 184, 13 Ill. Dec. 198, 1977 Ill. App. LEXIS 3962 (Ill. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE BOYLE

delivered the opinion of the court:

John Shutters, hereinafter “respondent”, then age 16, was adjudged delinquent based on a finding of the trial court that he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of burglary (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 38, par. 19 — 1(a)). After a dispositional hearing, the respondent was committed to the Department of Corrections with the mittimus stayed, conditioned upon the respondent’s abiding by the terms of the dispositional order. On appeal he contends the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his confession.

Respondent was arrested on July 9, 1976, by Arthur Walker, Deputy Sheriff of Jo Daviess County, for possession of cannabis, at approximately 10 p.m. Respondent was a passenger in David McPhillips’ automobile, which was stopped for a broken taillight and in which a plastic sack containing cannabis was found. Respondent and four other persons were told to stay in the car. However, they all emerged therefrom. Deputy Walker again asked them to return to the auto, and they all did so, except for the respondent. He kept on moving away from the car, and Patrolman Eugene Woker of the Stockton Police seized him and placed him under arrest. The four other juveniles were placed in a Stockton police car and returned to their parents. The respondent and McPhillips, however, were taken by Deputy Walker to the Galena, Illinois, sheriff’s office. Deputy Walker testified that the reason they released the other juveniles to their parents and did not release the respondent was that he believed the respondent was 17 years old and not a juvenile. Respondent was accordingly processed as an adult.

Officer Woker testified that he went to see respondent’s father, Clifford Shutters, at his home in Stockton. He advised Mr. Shutters that his son, the respondent, had been arrested, taken to Galena, and would probably need bond money to obtain his release. Mr. Shutters told Officer Woker to “lock him up, he would not bond him out.” Deputy Walker further testified that although he had known the respondent for 15 years, he also did not think of him as a juvenile that night.

At the sheriffs office in Galena, Deputy LaDon Trost expressed an interest in talking with the respondent. Deputy Walker asked the respondent if he would be willing to talk to Deputy Trost, and the respondent agreed.

Deputy Trost testified that he advised the respondent he wanted to talk to him about the cannabis found in his car at approximately 11:30 p.m. Deputy Trost then read the respondent his rights from a waiver of rights form, and the respondent advised the deputy that he would talk to him without the presence or advice of an attorney and signed the waiver of rights form at 11:31 p.m. This waiver of rights form was admitted at trial over objections as Exhibit No. 2. Deputy Trost further testified that the respondent volunteered, during his interrogation on the arrest for cannabis, that he had been involved in a burglary at Gaylo Plumbing and Heating in Stockton, Illinois. The respondent was willing to make a statement to this effect, which was started at 12:45 a.m. and completed at 1:10 a.m. The respondent signed the statement at this time, after he had read it. In the written statement the respondent again admitted that he had participated in a burglary at Gaylo’s during which *70 was stolen. Respondent’s objections to the admission of this statement as well as to another waiver of rights form, which was signed by the respondent before he gave this statement, were overruled by the trial court.

Respondent made a total of three statements during the early morning hours of July 10, 1976, during his interrogation. At the close of the interrogation, Deputy Trost took the respondent back to Stockton to look for the money pouch that had been taken from Gaylo’s.

The defense contends that the respondent’s first confession, taken at 12:45 a.m., should be excluded because he did not freely, knowingly and intelligently waive his rights. The respondent argues that his confession and waiver of rights were not voluntarily given because at the time of his confession he was in a drugged condition under the influence of marijuana, the length of his interrogation lasted until the early morning hours, and, in addition, his statutory juvenile rights were violated. The defense contends that the combination of these factors clearly demonstrates that his waiver of rights and confession were not voluntary. We disagree.

It is well settled that the voluntariness of a juvenile’s confession is to be determined by a totality of the circumstances. (In re Lamb (1975), 61 Ill. 2d 383, 336 N.E.2d 753, cert. denied (1976), 425 U.S. 938, 48 L. Ed. 2d 180, 96 S. Ct. 1672 (1976).) If counsel for the juvenile is not present when a confession or admission is obtained, the utmost care must be taken to insure that the confession was voluntary and not coerced, suggested or the end result of the juvenile’s ignorance of his rights or of his adolescent fantasy, fright or despair. In re Gault (1967), 387 U.S. 1, 18 L. Ed. 2d 527, 87 S. Ct. 1428; People v. Simmons (1975), 60 Ill. 2d 173, 326 N.E.2d 383.

Our examination of the totality of circumstances in the instant case, however, does not lead to the conclusion that the respondent’s confession was involuntary. First, careful scrutiny of the record reveals that the respondent’s confession was not a product of an all-night interrogation of a juvenile. He was arrested at approximately 10 p.m., after attempting to escape from the police, and he was immediately brought to the station at Galena, Illinois. Prior to being questioned the respondent was read his rights by Officer Trost. The respondent indicated to the officer that he was willing to talk without the advice and counsel of an attorney and signed his waiver of rights at 11:31 p.m. The respondent, while being questioned on the cannabis possession charge, volunteered a confession to the burglary without having been asked a question about such offense. The respondent then signed a second waiver of rights form at 12:45 a.m. He then gave a written statement to Officer Trost, which began at 12:45 a.m. and admitted his complicity in the burglary in question. That statement was finished at 1:10 a.m. The interrogation of the respondent continued, it is true, until some time between the hours of 3 and 6 a.m. Although we do not intend to condone the actions of the officers who continued this prolonged interrogation of a juvenile until such a late hour, it is undisputed that the respondent’s voluntary confession at issue here occurred between the hours of 12:45 and 1:10 a.m. Thus, the confession was the result of questioning which lasted a little over one hour. In addition there is no evidence that this juvenile did not knowingly or intelligently waive his rights to remain silent nor that his unsolicited confession was coerced or induced in any way. (People v. Prude (1977), 66 Ill. 2d 470, 363 N.E.2d 371.) Accordingly, we must find that the length of time in which respondent was interrogated prior to his confession does not render the confession inadmissible. United States v. Davis (7th Cir. 1976), 532 F.2d 22

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Bluebook (online)
370 N.E.2d 1225, 56 Ill. App. 3d 184, 13 Ill. Dec. 198, 1977 Ill. App. LEXIS 3962, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-shutters-illappct-1977.