People v. Wilson

306 N.E.2d 626, 16 Ill. App. 3d 473, 1973 Ill. App. LEXIS 1555
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided November 19, 1973·No. 57579·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE EGAN

delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant, David Wilson, was jointly indicted with Louis Haggans for murder, robbeiy and burglary. The defendant’s motions to suppress his confessions and certain physical evidence were denied. After the jury had been selected, Haggans was severed, his case was nolle pressed, and he testified for the State. Wilson was found guilty by a jury of all the offenses charged and sentenced to concurrent terms of 50 to 100 years for murder, 10 to 20 years for burglary and 10 to 20 years for robbery.

The deceased, Joseph Martin Ellis, was 68 years old and had worked for the 12th Street Store in Chicago for 39 years. On August 24, 1970, he began work as a watchman at 11:30 P.M. He was wearing a uniform with a bádge and was armed with a .38 caliber revolver. When, employees were unable to enter the store the following morning, Isadore Shalowitz, the president of the store, was called, and he found the deceased ‘lying in a lake of blood.” A pair of gold ribbed pants and a pair of work gloves were found near an open window at the rear of the store. Both the pants and the gloves were heavily stained with blood. A bent table knife was on a table in an area adjacent to the body. The déceased’s wallet containing a registration certificate for the ,38 caliber revolver was lying in an aisle. There was a ladder that led up to a window 11 feet from the floor. The outside screening around that window had been pulled away, and below it was a garbage can that had been turned upside down. Filing cabinets and the cash register were open. Two small portable television sets, a pair of green pants, and the deceased’s revolver were missing. The pathological examination disclosed innumerable bruises extending from the pubic area upward, hemorrhaging in various parts of the body, fractures of the breastbone, three ribs and the skull, and various lacerations, including one of the brain. The cause of death was given as shock caused by severe trauma, most significantly, the trauma which caused the skull fracture and laceration of the brain. In the pathologist’s opinion some of the bruises could have been caused by a hand or foot, but the appearance of the scalp and the left arm indicated that a “relatively narrow, heavy, long object had been used” on those portions of .the body, and “that instrumentality was chiefly the cause of the death.”

The defendant was taken into custody in the evening of August 25 on the comer of Roosevelt and Loomis when he could not produce an identification card. He was questioned at the Maxwell Street Station about the killing of Ellis, under circumstances to be discussed later, denied any knowledge of it, and was released at approximately 8:00 A.M. the following day, August 26. Two hours later he was again picked up by the police and taken to the Maxwell Street Station. He was questioned periodically and, after denying any knowledge of the crime from time to time, told the police officers he had stolen articles from the store and had taken them to his aunt’s home. Later he made a statement, which he subsequently signed, to an Assistant State’s Attorney in the presence of a shorthand reporter at 7:30 A.M., August 28. In that statement the defendant said that Haggans told him that he would like to “pick up a little stuff at the 12th Street Store”; they didn’t know a guard was there when they pried the bars open with a 2 by 4; the defendant stood on a garbage can, and both entered the store through the window and were crawling around when they saw the guard; he grabbed the guard, and Haggans “stomped him”; at the time the defendant was wearing tennis shoes and Haggans was wearing “hard shoes”; Haggans stomped the man in the head a couple of times and Wilson kicked him once; he noticed that he had blood all over his yellow corduroy pants, .and he-replaced them with a pair from the store; they took two television sets and the pair of pants he was wearing, but he never took or saw a gun that night; he sold one television set to “James,” whose last name he did not know, and brought the other to his aunt’s home; he committed the crime to get money for his narcotics habit.

Before this statement was made: to the Assistant State’s Attorney, the police went to the home of the defendant’s aunt and recovered one of the stolen television sets, a pair of blood stained gym shoes, and a pair of green wash pants. In the statement the defendant identified the shoes as his and the television set as one that he had taken.

The defendant first contends that all statements, written and oral, should have been suppressed, and, consequently, so should the articles recovered from his aunt’s home.

At the hearing on the motion to suppress, the defendant, who suffered from epilepsy, testified as follows:

He was 24 years old, had gone to 10th grade in school, and had just gotten out of jail. He had been in the penitentiary. He was arrested by three plainclothes policemen at the corner of Roosevelt and Loomis on Tuesday evening, August 25, and taken to the Maxwell Street Police Station when he was unable to show any identification. He was questioned about the murder by a short, “baldy” plainclothes policeman who smoked big cigars and whose name he did not know. After he told the officer he knew nothing about the crime, the officer threw him a gun and said he was going, to shoot him for trying to grab his weapon. He started beating Wilson on the left shoulder and kicking him “between [his] legs.” He was questioned until about 11:00 P.M. Then he remained alone until 8 o’clock the following morning when he asked another plainclothes officer if he could go home; he was told that he could, and he left. When he asked the short officer if he could make a phone call, there was no answer. At no time was he given anything to eat. When he got to his aunt’s home he had his arm bandaged and then went to the Public Aid Office where he was picked up by Officer Denson and taken back to the Maxwell Street Station.

He sat in a small room with a Captain and Officer Finnelly, who tried to stick some electric wires in his mouth. Finnelly said he was going to give Wilson some kind of “truth serum shock” and that it would electrocute him if he told a lie. While Finnelly was trying to put the device in his mouth, some more policemen came in and tried to hold him. Later he was questioned by Brodersen and Finnelly, who refused to let him use a phone. From then until the morning of August 28 he was questioned by relays of police officers, who beat and kicked him. At one point he was suspended from a window by handcuffs for about an hour and a half. He continued to deny any part in the murder. Haggans was brought in and beaten, and the defendant was told Haggans had made a statement to the effect that he and the defendant had committed the murder. During all the time he was at the police station, he never had a chance to sleep and was given nothing to eat. He told them he might have gotten some of the goods from the store, but he was not guilty of killing the man. After his cousin, Jessie Lee Taylor, was brought to the station, they beat him and sent him in to tell the defendant to sign a statement. They said they were going to get his grandmother and brother and beat them too. He asked Brodersen to leave his family alone, but Brodersen said he would have to sign a statement. When the Assistant State’s Attorney came in with Brodersen, the defendant begged the Assistant State’s Attorney to talk to him alone.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

People v. Wilson, 306 N.E.2d 626, 16 Ill. App. 3d 473, 1973 Ill. App. LEXIS 1555 (Ill. Ct. App. 1973).

306 N.E.2d 626 (People v. Wilson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

People v. Patterson
488 N.E.2d 1283 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1986)
People v. Rhodes
457 N.E.2d 1300 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1983)
People v. Holmes
354 N.E.2d 611 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1976)
People v. Wilson
326 N.E.2d 378 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1975)