People v. Walker

279 N.E.2d 23, 2 Ill. App. 3d 1026
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided November 17, 1971·No. 54138·Published·Cited by 18 cases

Opinion

2 Ill. App.3d 1026 (1971)
279 N.E.2d 23

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
CLARENCE W. WALKER, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 54138.

Illinois Appellate Court — First District.

November 17, 1971.

*1027 *1028 Gerald W. Getty, Public Defender, of Chicago, (George L. Lincoln and James J. Doherty, Assistant Public Defenders, of counsel,) for appellant.

*1029 Edward V. Hanrahan, State's Attorney, of Chicago, (Robert A. Novelle and Michael J. Goldstein, Assistant State's Attorneys, of counsel,) for the People.

Judgment affirmed.

Mr. PRESIDING JUSTICE ADESKO delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Clarence W. Walker, was charged with the crimes of rape, armed robbery, and attempt murder. He was convicted of each offense in a bench trial and was sentenced to serve consecutive terms of 100 to 150 years for rape, 100 to 150 years for armed robbery, and 19 to 20 years for attempt murder. Defendant appeals his convictions and presents the following issues for our review.

"(1) Whether the State withheld evidence favorable to the accused;
(2) Whether the State introduced statements in violation of defendant's Fifth Amendment rights;
(3) Whether the State obtained evidence by an illegal search and seizure;
(4) Whether the defendant received effective assistance of counsel; and
(5) Whether the defendant could lawfully be required to serve consecutive sentences."

The evidence in this case indicates that on the morning of July 1, 1966, the complaining witness, Mrs. Lora Gibson, was at Chicago Police Headquarters to file a complaint against her estranged husband. When Mrs. Gibson was informed that she would have to file her action at a district police station, located on the south side of Chicago, the defendant approached her, accompanied by Vanessa Harper, and offered to drive her to the south side. Mrs. Gibson accepted and after dropping off Vanessa Harper, the defendant continued with Mrs. Gibson to the south side station but was unable to find a judge there. The defendant then told Mrs. Gibson that he knew a judge in Skokie, Illinois and volunteered to drive her there so that she could get the warrant for the arrest of her husband. Mrs. Gibson agreed to make the trip.

Once they had entered the suburbs, however, the defendant drove to a forest preserve area and pulled off the road. The complainant testified that defendant told her to get out of the car, grabbed her wrist, pulled her from the vehicle and dragged her into the woods. Placing his arm around the complainant's neck and his hand over her mouth, defendant told Mrs. Gibson that he was a maniac. Defendant then pulled off Mrs. Gibson's skirt and undergarments and forced her to submit to an act of sexual intercourse, threatening to kill her, "* * * and to leave (her) body out there to rot * * *" if she did not obey.

*1030 Mrs. Gibson further testified that after completing the act of intercourse, the defendant kicked her and struck her on the side of the head with a Coca Cola bottle, knocking her unconscious. When she regained consciousness, the defendant was raping her again. When he had finished, he took a razor blade and slit the complainant's throat from ear to ear. He also slashed her abdomen with the blade. The defendant then pulled off a ring from the complainant's finger and pulled her watch from her wrist. Defendant took these articles along with a ten-dollar bill from the complainant's shoe and left the scene.

After crawling through the woods for three days and two nights, Mrs. Gibson was finally found beside a road adjacent to the wooded area, by Officer James Dutton of the Hoffman Estates Police Department. Mrs. Gibson was hospitalized and recovered from her wounds.

On September 20, 1966, the complainant was walking on the south side of Chicago when she noticed the defendant crossing a street. The complainant recognized him as her assailant and summoned the police who arrested the defendant.

Lora Gibson's testimony concerning her injuries was corroborated by the medical evidence of two physicians who testified that her neck and windpipe had been cut and that she had multiple lacerations about the face, neck, abdomen and lower legs as well as a laceration of the vagina which would have to have been made by an entry into the vagina.

Vannessa Harper testified that on the date in question the defendant met Mrs. Gibson at Police Headquarters. The three then drove to the south side where the defendant dropped Vanessa Harper off and proceeded on alone with Mrs. Gibson.

The arresting officers, Breckenridge, Lett and Jones, each testified that during questioning, the defendant denied any knowledge of the complainant. He also denied driving the auto which the complainant described. When he was told that the complainant had identified him as her assailant, however, the defendant admitted meeting Mrs. Gibson and he also admitted possessing an auto of the type described by the complainant.

In support of an alibi defense, defendant's wife testified she was with the defendant in Toledo, Ohio from June 29th to July 5th. She also testified that she and defendant were stopped by an Officer Hunt for a traffic offense in Toledo, Ohio and that she knew Officer Hunt personally.

Defendant testified on his own behalf that he and his wife had been in Toledo, Ohio during the time Mrs. Gibson had been attacked. He related, however, that his wife had lied about the date that the police officer had stopped them, stating that the incident occurred on July 2nd or 3rd.

*1031 The State in rebuttal introduced a Cook County Hospital referral slip which established that on July 3rd, when defendant's wife was supposedly in Ohio with the defendant, she was in fact receiving treatment in Chicago. The State also presented Officer Charles Hunt of the Toledo Police Department who stated that he did not know either the defendant or his wife; that he did not recall ever stopping them for a traffic violation and that he could find no record of such an incident in either his files or those of the Toledo Police Department.

• 1 Defendant's first contention on appeal is that he was improperly denied access to a police report containing complainant's initial statement to the police. It appears the complainant had initially given a different account of how she had come to be with the defendant in his auto than what she later testified to and the defense desired this for impeachment purposes. The defense is entitled to the production of substantially verbatim statements by witnesses for impeachment purposes where no privilege exists and where the relevancy and competency of a statement or report has been established. (People v. Wolff, 19 Ill.2d 318.) This rule includes use of statements by witnesses as recorded in police reports People v. Moses, 11 Ill.2d 84; People v. Green, (Ill. App.), 272 N.E.2d 721.

• 2 The State argued here that they were not bound to produce any such statement as the defense had failed to prove that the police had even written down complainant's statement, let alone that it was a substantially verbatim account. An examination of the record, however, reveals that at trial the State never denied the existence of such a sta

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People v. Walker, 279 N.E.2d 23, 2 Ill. App. 3d 1026 (Ill. Ct. App. 1971).

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