The People v. Doyle

1 N.E.2d 1011, 363 Ill. 307
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedApril 24, 1936
DocketNo. 23435. Judgment affirmed.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1 N.E.2d 1011 (The People v. Doyle) 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
The People v. Doyle, 1 N.E.2d 1011, 363 Ill. 307 (Ill. 1936).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Wilson

delivered the opinion of the court:

John Doyle, otherwise called John Burke, was indicted in the criminal court of Cook county. The first count of the indictment charged robbery while the accused was armed with a dangerous weapon, and the second count charged robbery, with no allegation as to a weapon. The defendant entered a plea of not guilty, and was tried by a jury which did not agree upon a verdict. A second jury trial resulted in a verdict of guilty and the defendant was sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of one year to life for the crime as charged in the first count of the indictment. He has sued out this writ of error.

The evidence shows that on the morning of Monday, November 19, 1934, at about 4:15 o’clock, two armed men wearing rose colored automobile glasses, entered the office of Ruehl J. Siegel, in a restaurant owned and operated by himself and wife, Bessie Siegel, at Eighty-third street and South Chicago avenue in the city of Chicago. Siegel and his wife were present at their respective desks when the robbers entered and two porters in the restaurant were brought into the office; one of the robbers then gave the command, “Hold up your hands and keep your eyes on the floor. This is a hold-up.” One of the robbers told Mrs. Siegel to place her hands on the top of her desk and to keep her eyes on the floor or on the desk, and the other told Siegel to keep his eyes on the floor and his hands up. Siegel, who apparently was then standing, was directed to sit down and his chair was swung around by one of the robbers to face a filing cabinet. One of the robbers, described as “stout,” then proceeded to the safe and took therefrom $2138. The money thus taken was the receipts from three restaurants owned by and operated under the direction of Siegel and his wife as partners. In addition to the money the robbers took a German Luger revolver, an express messenger rifle and a Winchester rifle. The robbers were in the office ten or fifteen minutes during the time of the robbery. Siegel testified that he did not see the robbers as they entered, but as the command was given he faced them momentarily and again saw them by a side glance while he had his head down.

Owing to the recent appearance of counterfeit bills, Siegel had directed the managers of the branch restaurants to place a stamp mark on all the bills of five-dollar denomination or over which went' to the main office. The figures on the bills designated the particular restaurant from which they came. One of the branches was at Sixty-seventh street and Western avenue and tire other at 232 West Garfield boulevard, and it could thus be ascertained from which of the restaurants the money came. Ten five-dollar bills were introduced in evidence and they bore the rubber-stamp mark indicating that they, came from the branch restaurant at Sixty-seventlr street and Western avenue. Other money in the safe on the night of the robbery bore the same stamp mark, but the exact amount was not known by Siegel.

During the robbery the man described as “stout” said, “I hate to do this but things are pretty tough.” Siegel identified the man making that statement as the defendant. The next time Siegel saw the defendant was about 1 :oo or 1:3o o’clock the next morning at the detective bureau of the central police station in Chicago. In response to a telephone call Siegel went to the detective bureau, and was told by police officers that four men were under arrest, and he was asked to ascertain whether he could identify money which had been found in the coat of the defendant in the room occupied by him. From a line-up of about nine men on a platform he picked the man in the fifth position in the line as one of the robbers. It was Doyle, the defendant. When he was identified the defendant told Siegel he was mistaken, but Siegel said he did not think so. The defendant asked where Siegel’s place was and Siegel replied, “You know where it is at.” The defendant said he did not know. Siegel also identified the defendant by his voice and identified the stamp marks on the money. He also pointed out Albert Burke, a brother of the defendant, as the one who resembled the cross-eyed man. Leo Isaacs, the manager of the restaurant at Sixty-seventh street and Western avenue, stated that he had a stamp made to order and that he made the stamp marks on the money which was exhibited at the trial. Siegel was shown colored glasses which had been taken by the police officers from the premises where the defendant roomed. Siegel stated they were of the same type but were not rose colored glasses similar to those worn by the robbers at the time of the commission of the crime.

Bessie Siegel testified that one of the robbers was cross-eyed and was the one who told her to keep her hands and eyes on the desk where she sat; that she was nervous and frightened and obeyed. The cross-eyed one kept a revolver pointed at her. The other robber told her husband to hold his hands up. She did not identify the defendant.

Warren Ross, a police officer, testified that he received an anonymous telephone call at the detective bureau on November 20, 1934, and he and three or four other police officers went to the room where the defendant lived at about 11:00 or 11:15 o’clock at night, and on inquiry was directed by one of the defendant’s brothers to the room occupied by the defendant. They made a search of the house and from the pocket of a coat hanging on the wall back of the bed on which the defendant was lying the officers found and removed a roll of bills. The defendant was placed under arrest and was told that he was wanted for the “Siegel stick-up.” The defendant was asked where he obtained the money found in the coat pocket and replied that he could not tell, and upon being asked why, stated, “Well, it would be too bad for me.” At the trial officer Ross was shown the bills which had been introduced in evidence and stated that he had seen them with other bills at the time of the defendant’s arrest. The amount found was $270, $250 being taken from the defendant’s coat pocket; $20 was in one-dollar bills, obtained from a dresser drawer in the same room. The defendant said that the latter amount belonged to his brother. The officer marked the twenty one-dollar bills with an “X” and on the top bill placed the name “Edward,” and put a clip on the bills. That money was kept separate from the amount taken from the coat pocket. The larger bills showed the stamp mark “67” and were the same ones taken from the defendant at the time of his arrest. No guns were found in the place where the defendant and his brothers roomed. The age of the defendant was twenty-eight years.

The defense was that of an alibi, and in support of it the defendant, his three brothers, Albert, James and Edward Burke (or Doyle), a Mrs. Boals, the owner of the house at 242 West Fifty-ninth place where the defendant roomed, and a visitor there named McGinley, testified to the defendant’s presence in his room throughout the night of November 18 and the morning of the 19th. The defendant and his brothers occupied a large room containing two beds. The testimony is that Albert and McGinley slept in one bed, James and Edward in another bed and that the defendant slept in a Morris chair. James first testified that he slept alone, but afterward changed his testimony. The defendant stated that he reached his room at about 5 :oo o’clock in the evening and remained until 7:30 o’clock the next morning.

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1 N.E.2d 1011, 363 Ill. 307, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-people-v-doyle-ill-1936.