The People v. Wetherington

180 N.E. 843, 348 Ill. 310
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedApril 23, 1932
DocketNo. 20869. Judgment affirmed.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 180 N.E. 843 (The People v. Wetherington) 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. Wetherington, 180 N.E. 843, 348 Ill. 310 (Ill. 1932).

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Stone

delivered the opinion of the court:

This cause is here on writ of error to review the judgment of the circuit court of Massac county entered against plaintiff in error on an indictment charging a second violation of the Prohibition act. He was sentenced to the penitentiary. He brings the cause here, assigning as error the refusal of the court to quash a search warrant and suppress certain exhibits offered as evidence and errors in ruling on admissibility of evidence and instructions to the jury.

The undisputed evidence in the record is that on September 10, 1930, the sheriff, Fred Risinger, received information causing him to believe that plaintiff in error would on that evening go to a place known as “The Pond,” on the Unionville road, for the purpose of securing a quantity of whisky. The sheriff thereupon signed and swore to a complaint for a search warrant before justice of the peace I. A. Sturgis. The warrant was issued, and the sheriff, together with George Krueger, a deputy sheriff, started out looking for plaintiff in error at about 7:3o in the evening. They went to the Unionville road at the point of its intersection with the Brookport road and after waiting a few minutes saw plaintiff in error coming down the Union-ville road. He turned onto the Brookport road, driving a small cár at about thirty-five or forty miles per hour. The officers pursued and overtook him. They found in the car a paper-board carton containing twelve half-gallon fruit jars of “white mule corn whisky,” and on the floor of the car, in front of the seat, three more half-gallon fruit jars of this liquor. The latter were in a “tow-sack.” On the seat of the automobile was a .45 automatic loaded pistol and defendant had in his possession an extra magazine of cartridges. He was arrested and taken to the justice of the peace, Sturgis, where a complaint was filed against him.

The facts in dispute concern the conversation which took place between these officers and plaintiff in error at the time of and after his arrest. Both Risinger and Krueger testified that when they overtook plaintiff in error they told him to stop; that the sheriff informed him that he had a search warrant for his car and would give him a copy of it or read it to him, and that defendant replied: “You don’t need any search warrant; go ahead and search; I have some whisky in the car.” They testified that the automobile in which plaintiff in error was riding was a model “T” Ford coupe; that when the officers stopped him he got out, leaving the door open, and that the liquor could be readily seen. The officers testified that plaintiff in error told them he was not an officer but that he had a right to haul the whisky, and that he would not tell them who gave him permission to do so, where he got the whisky or where he was taking it. Plaintiff in error testified as to this matter that the sheriff told him: “ T have a search warrant for your car,’ and I said, ‘That’s all right; if you have, go ahead and search the car,’ and he said, ‘I’ve got it all right,’ and I said, ‘Go ahead and search it,’ and furthermore said, ‘If liquor is what you are looking for, (and I suppose it is,) look there in the front seat and you will find the liquor; at least that is what I take it to be — liquor.’ ” He also testified that he told the officers where he got the whisky, and that when asked what right he had to have it, he told them that he was deputized by Covington, a constable, and sent up there to locate a still. He further testified that when taken to Metropolis he was first taken to the State’s attorney’s house and then to the office of Sturgis, the justice of the peace. Pie testified that the State’s attorney asked him what right he had to have the liquor, and that he told him he was not an officer but that he was deputized and sent up there. In this he is contradicted by Risinger, Krueger and Sturgis, all of whom testified that he did not state in their presence where he got the whisky nor to whom he was taking it, and that Covington’s name was not mentioned.

There was offered on behalf of the defense the testimony of one Charles Bridges, who testified that on the night of September 10 he was awakened by hearing voices outside his house, and that he saw Ivy Covington and another man whom he did not know. On objection of the People the court refused to permit the witness to testify to conversations which occurred between him and these men, and counsel for plaintiff in error offered, out of the hearing of the jury, to prove by that witness that he asked Covington if he was looking for Dewey Wetherington, and Covington told him that he was, and that the witness replied that the sheriff of Massac county had arrested him and taken him in custody. The objection to this offer was sustained.

G. I. Covington testified that he was a constable in Mas-sac county; that he met plaintiff in error on September 10, 1930, about 4:30 in the afternoon; that he had a conversation with him. On objection the court refused to permit the conversation to go into the record, and counsel for plaintiff in error, out of the hearing of the jury, offered to prove by Covington that he had a conversation with plaintiff in error in relation to enforcing the Prohibition act, and that later that night he had another conversation with him and instructed him to go to the east part of the county and make a search for evidence of stills and other evidence of violators of the Illinois Prohibition act, with directions to report what, if anything, he had found. This offer was, on objection of the State, denied. Covington was asked whether plaintiff in error had assisted him in any of the raids conducted by the witness and whether he had ever deputized plaintiff in error to assist in such raids. Objection to this testimony was sustained.

The defense called one Jesse Anderson, also a constable of Massac county, who testified that he met Covington on September 10, 1930, about 5 :oo o’clock in the afternoon and later about 8 :oo or 8:3o, and that they went to plaintiff in error’s house and stayed there about two hours. They were asked why they left, and objection to that question was sustained. He testified they went to Wetherington’s house to get him.

One L. T. Jackson testified that he saw Covington and Anderson on the 10th of September at plaintiff in error’s house. Over objection he was permitted to testify that they went over to Wetherington’s house because they were going down “in the bottoms,” and if plaintiff in error had located anything they were going after it.

Plaintiff in error also testified that when he reached the neighborhood of “The Pond” he saw two men standing by a small car; that he did not recognize them, as they were about 150 or 200 yards from him; that they drove away, and he arriving at that point found the whisky there, picked it up and put it in his car; that while he was not an officer he was going to turn the whisky over to the constable, Covington. This in substance is the testimony in the case.

Prior to the taking of evidence plaintiff in error’s counsel moved the court to quash the search warrant and to suppress the evidence seized and return it to plaintiff in error. The ground of this motion was that no facts were set up in the complaint for the warrant on which probable cause could reasonably be based and that the warrant was issued wholly upon information and belief.

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180 N.E. 843, 348 Ill. 310, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-people-v-wetherington-ill-1932.