People v. Stephens

130 N.E. 459, 297 Ill. 91
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 15, 1921
DocketNo. 13518
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 130 N.E. 459 (People v. Stephens) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Stephens, 130 N.E. 459, 297 Ill. 91 (Ill. 1921).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Carter

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff in error, Walter Stephens, was tried and convicted in the circuit court of Kane county on an indictment charging that he and William VonGundy assaulted Lester Wedemeier by shooting with a revolver, with intent to murder him. VonGundy was not tried and seems not to have been apprehended. Motions for new trial and in arrest of judgment were made and overruled, and the case has been brought here by writ of error.

The record shows substantially as follows as to the alleged crime: Shortly after midnight on October 29, 1918, Daniel M. Drake, a police officer of Aurora, went into the Broadway Cafe to have some lunch. He testified that shortly thereafter two men" entered, one wearing a dark velour hat and a light overcoat and the other wearing dark clothes and overcoat; that one of the men, whom officer Drake identified on the trial as Stephens, went into the toilet, where he heard him vomiting, and later Stephens came back and sat down with his associate and ordered lunch. ' The officer finished his meal shortly thereafter and left the restaurant and took down the license number (99224) upon a five-passenger Buick automobile standing outside, which, on investigation over the ’phone with police headquarters, he found was issued for a Ford automobile in Chicago to William VonGundy, of that city. This Buick car appears to have been the one in which Stephens and his associate drove up before the restaurant. Drake further testified that being himself at the time on crutches on account of a previous injury, he summoned, among others, police officers Olin and Wedemeier. While these officers were examining the automobile, Stephens and his associate, who was afterwards recognized by pictures by some of the witnesses on the trial as VonGundy, emerged from the restaurant. There is testimony of Harry Paulos, who had been in the restaurant at the time Stephens, VonGundy and the officer were there, that after the officer left there was a dispute between Stephens and the waiter over the amount of sugar furnished and that Stephens used violent language, the remarks being what Paulos called unendurable and immodest. When Stephens and his companion left the restaurant officer Olin asked them where they were from and where they were going, and Stephens replied that they were from Dundee and oh their way to Chicago. Olin told them to get into the automobile and drive to the police station, and Stephens asked if that was on account of the dispute over the sugar, and Olin replied, “Yes; and we want to look you over.” It appears from the testimony that the two men got into the front seat of the automobile, VonGundy driving and Stephens on the right, while the two officers, Olin and Wedemeier, occupied the rear seat, Olin on the left side; that thereupon, without any further discussion, the car was turned about and was driven westward over the bridge crossing Fox river toward the police station in the city hall a short distance, and when the car reached the city hall Stephens quickly turned in his seat in front, saying, "Turn here?” and immediately fired two shots from a revolver at officer Olin, who exclaimed, “They got me!” that officer Wedemeier then jumped up and grabbed the revolver in Stephens’ hand and as he did so was shot by Stephens through the shoulder and also shot in the side, which compelled him to let loose of the revolver; that he was then pushed from the automobile by Stephens and his companion, the fall breaking the revolver in his hip pocket and making it impossible to use it; that while crawling on the pavement he was shot at again by Stephens, and again as he raised himself to his feet by the aid of a pillar at the east end of the bridge, at which place he tried to make the revolver work.

The testimony shows that the occupants of the automobile pushed the wounded officer, Olin, from the car and drove rapidly westward; that shortly thereafter a dark velour hat was picked up in the street where they passed which resembled the one worn by Stephens. The testimony shows that officer Olin died the next afternoon, but Wedemeier, though seriously wounded, recovered and appeared as a witness on the trial. Not long after the shooting an automobile stopped for a few minutes near a farm about twelve miles west of Aurora and then drove on, and the next morning a cap was found in the field near where the machine stopped; that early in the morning of October 29 a Buiclc automobile was found damaged and abandoned in the road near the home of John Oleson, in Kendall county, there being in the car two Ohio license plates, the numbers corresponding with those on a circular post-card sent to police stations with reference to the automobile theretofore stolen in Ohio, and also some cartridges, a number of which had been used; that this automobile was turned over to the city police department and later to the insurance company as belonging to a man in Columbus, Ohio. . The farmer, Oleson, testified that shortly after the finding of the automobile he discovered that some straw in his barn loft had been arranged so as to make a bed or nest. The Fox and Illinois Union Electric railway runs near Oleson’s farm on the line between Aurora and Morris, and Charles Clayton, a conductor in the employ of the company, testified that he had been warned to look out for strangers after the abandoned automobile was found, and on that morning he noticed two men board his car, both wet and muddy, about half a mile from Oleson’s house, one wearing a hat and the other a cap; that he did not at once report the matter to the police because he thought he recognized the men as painters from Morris who had traveled on his car before. The record shows, and it is conceded by counsel, that Stephens was before this trial tried for the murder of Olin and acquitted, and that shortly before this first trial the conductor, Clayton, was shown a police circular containing pictures of Stephens and VonGundy and recognized them as the men who boarded his car.

Plaintiff in error’s defense was, in effect, an alibi, that on July 23, 1918, he was shot in Chicago by a police officer named Russell, who, according to the plaintiff in error, jumped upon the running-board of the car and for some reason Stephens did not know shot him twice in the right leg; that the result of this shooting was a fracture of the bone; that his leg was kept in splints for some weeks and treated and in September was put in a plaster cast, which was not removed until November 8, 1918, when he was able for the first time to limp about with a cane; that after his injury he went first to his brother’s house in Chicago and afterwards to his own home; that on November 13 he had an X-ray picture taken showing the fractured bone, which photograph was introduced in evidence as Exhibit A. Plaintiff in error denied positively all participation in the crime for which he was tried, and testified that on account of the injury to his leg he was unable to be out of his house until some time after this crime was committed. He also introduced in his behalf the testimony of several witnesses to the effect that they saw him in bed at his home at different times during August, September, October and November, 1918, although most of them testified they were not able to say that they saw the leg itself, as it was wrapped up. Some of these witnesses occupied rented rooms in the home of the plaintiff in error and lived there during these months and saw him frequently, and testified that he was apparently disabled and helpless during these months in Chicago. One witness, Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
130 N.E. 459, 297 Ill. 91, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-stephens-ill-1921.