People v. Thrasher

890 N.E.2d 715, 383 Ill. App. 3d 363, 321 Ill. Dec. 993, 2008 Ill. App. LEXIS 660
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 27, 2008
Docket4-07-0563
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 890 N.E.2d 715 (People v. Thrasher) 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. Thrasher, 890 N.E.2d 715, 383 Ill. App. 3d 363, 321 Ill. Dec. 993, 2008 Ill. App. LEXIS 660 (Ill. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinions

JUSTICE MYERSCOUGH

delivered the opinion of the court:

On July 21, 2006, a jury found defendant, Ronald W. Thrasher, guilty of unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon (720 ILCS 5/24 — 1.1(a) (West 2006)). In September 2006, the trial court sentenced defendant to 11 years’ imprisonment. Defendant appeals, arguing that the trial court (1) committed reversible error when it instructed the jury that the State did not need to prove that the charged offense occurred on the date specified in the information; and (2) abused its discretion in fashioning an 11-year sentence. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

On March 10, 2006, the State charged defendant with unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The information stated in pertinent part:

“[0]n or about [the] [ ]9th day of March[ ] 2006[,] at Bloomington, *** [defendant] committed the offense of unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in that he, or one for whose conduct he was legally responsible, knowingly and while on mandatory supervised release, possessed a handgun on or about his person after having previously [been convicted of a felony].”

The information did not name the specific location where the alleged offense occurred other than simply, “at Bloomington.” However, this case came to the State’s attention following a dispute in the parking lot outside Winner’s Lounge in Bloomington, Illinois, during the late-night hours of March 8, and the early-morning hours of March 9, 2006 (hereinafter the Lounge incident). On this night, defendant was at the Lounge with several friends: Jennifer Bains Talamantez (defendant’s girlfriend at the time), Erron Gilmer, and two other women who were friends of Talamantez.

The State later filed an indictment charging defendant in the same terms as the information, which was later amended by interlineation.

In opening argument, the State laid out its theory of the case. The State would attempt to prove that, on the night of the Lounge incident, Gilmer got into a dispute at the Lounge. Bouncers at the Lounge asked defendant’s group to leave. Defendant and Gilmer then went back to defendant’s apartment to retrieve defendant’s gun, while the women waited in the car. The group then drove back to a gas station near the Lounge. Defendant kept his gun on his person until defendant and Gilmer exited the car at the gas station near the Lounge. Defendant then gave the gun to Gilmer, who performed the shooting.

The State believed Talamantez would testify that when defendant and Gilmer returned from defendant’s apartment, Talamantez saw defendant’s gun tucked in defendant’s waistband, the same gun she had seen in defendant’s apartment on previous occasions. The State believed that defendant’s neighbor, Heather Jenkins, would testify that she too had seen defendant keep a gun in his apartment, a gun which matched the physical description of the gun used in the Lounge incident.

At trial, Talamantez testified to the circumstances under which the Lounge incident arose. Apparently, two women who were part of another group at the Lounge approached Gilmer and accused him of sexually assaulting one of their friends. In response, Gilmer turned to Talamantez and said, “[I]f something happen[s,] do you have my back?” Talamantez told Gilmer that she would support him. A man then approached Gilmer and challenged him regarding the alleged sexual assault. Gilmer punched the man, and a fight ensued. Defendant tried to break up the fight. Defendant’s group then left the bar, but other customers followed the group and began to throw bottles at Talamantez’s car. Defendant’s group got in the car and drove away.

According to Talamantez, defendant then turned to Gilmer and asked him what he wanted to do. Gilmer responded in an upset and angry manner, “You know what I want to do.” The group went to defendant’s apartment. Defendant and Gilmer went inside defendant’s apartment while Talamantez and the other two women waited outside. When defendant and Gilmer returned to the car, they told Talamantez to drive back to the Lounge. Contrary to what the State indicated Talamantez’s testimony would be, Talamantez testified that she did not see either man with a gun. Talamantez dropped defendant and Gilmer off at Huck’s gas station near the Lounge. Defendant gave Talamantez his cell phone so that they could maintain contact and directed her to drive the other two women home and then come back to Huck’s. When Talamantez returned to Huck’s, she saw police cars in the Lounge parking lot. She quickly learned that a man shot a gun during a dispute. Gilmer was the likely shooter.

During cross-examination, Talamantez admitted that she had previously told police that she saw that defendant had a gun in his waistband when she dropped him off at Huck’s. Also during cross-examination, Talamantez admitted discussing the shooting at the scene with witnesses from the Lounge, whom she told that she had cleaned defendant’s gun in the past. However, Talamantez claimed that both her two videotaped and audiotaped statements to police and her statements to witnesses at the scene regarding her knowledge that defendant owned the gun that had been used in the shooting had been lies. She claimed the police pressured her into making her statements on the videotape. She had no explanation for her statements about the gun to witnesses at the scene. The two audiotaped statements were admitted into evidence and shown to the jury.

The State later called defendant’s neighbor, Heather Jenkins, to corroborate Talamantez’s initial version of events. Jenkins testified that she had been in defendant’s apartment on several occasions during February and March 2006. On one of those occasions, Jenkins saw defendant with a gun while defendant was sitting on his couch. Defendant was not touching the gun; the gun was merely next to defendant on the couch. Jenkins was able to describe the gun, noting that it was black with a brown handle. However, Jenkins did not provide, nor did the State ask her to provide, the exact date that she saw defendant with the gun.

Defendant testified on his own behalf, disputing the State’s theory that he retrieved the gun from his apartment before giving it to Gilmer and returning to the Lounge. According to defendant, Gilmer went into the apartment to gather some personal belongings because Gilmer had decided against spending the night as originally planned. Defendant took some cocaine, which he planned to sell at Buck’s in a drug deal he had just recently arranged. Talamantez dropped off defendant and Gilmore at Huck’s for the drug deal. Once at Buck’s, Gilmer seemed as though he still wanted revenge against the man at the Lounge and began walking toward the Lounge. Defendant followed after him. Defendant saw Gilmer pull a gun out of his waistband. At that point, defendant threw his hands up in the air and said, “What are you going to do, shoot somebody?” Defendant did not want to be involved in a shooting, so he turned around and began walking back to Huck’s. As he was walking back to Huck’s, he heard two gunshots. Defendant then called Talamantez on her cell phone and asked her to come and pick him up.

Defendant testified that he did not know Gilmer had a gun until Gilmer pulled it out of his waistband on the way back to the Lounge.

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People v. Thrasher
890 N.E.2d 715 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2008)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
890 N.E.2d 715, 383 Ill. App. 3d 363, 321 Ill. Dec. 993, 2008 Ill. App. LEXIS 660, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-thrasher-illappct-2008.