People v. Hammond

Decision Date31 May 1991
Docket NumberNo. 3-90-0397,3-90-0397
Citation157 Ill.Dec. 907,573 N.E.2d 325,214 Ill.App.3d 125
CourtUnited States Appellate Court of Illinois
Parties, 157 Ill.Dec. 907 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ronald HAMMOND, Defendant-Appellant. Third District

Josette Skelnik (argued), Robinson & Skelnik, Elgin, for Ronald Hammond.

Judith Z. Kelly (argued), States' Attys. Appellate Prosecutor, Ottawa, Gary L. Spencer, State's Atty. of Whiteside County, Morrison, for People.

Justice GORMAN delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant Ronald Hammond was charged with making a false report of a theft, disorderly conduct and fraud on an insurance company. Tried before a jury, the defendant was found not guilty of falsely reporting a theft and disorderly conduct but guilty of fraud on an insurance company. Defendant was sentenced to probation conditioned upon serving 90 days of work release, ordered to make restitution and pay a fine and costs. Defendant appeals. We reverse.

The defendant was charged by indictment with three offenses. Count I charged that on July 19, 1989, the defendant committed the offense of fraud on an insurance company by falsely representing that he had suffered a loss by reason of a theft during the course of a burglary and, in so doing, had falsely obtained from the insurance company a sum of money in excess of $25.00. Count II charged that on July 2, 1989, the defendant had committed the offense of making a false report of a theft by knowingly making a false report of a theft to the police with the intent to defraud an insurer. Count III charged that on July 2, 1989, the defendant had committed the offense of disorderly conduct by knowingly transmitting to a police officer a false report that the offense of burglary had been committed. The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges and demanded a jury trial.

At trial it was undisputed that the defendant's son, Michael Hammond, together with Michael's roommates Chris Buikema and Steve Prins, had engaged in a scheme to defraud Michael's insurance company by staging a burglary at the house the three men shared and then submitting a false claim for property allegedly stolen in the burglary. It was also undisputed that as a result of his claim to the insurance company, Michael received a check from the insurance company of $5,381.65.

The defendant was not named as an insured on the policy and no evidence was presented that he sought or obtained any proceeds of the insurance money. The defendant was prosecuted on a theory of accountability, with the prosecution contending that he was aware of the scheme to defraud the insurance company from the outset and had assisted in planning and executing that scheme.

A police officer testified that on July 2, 1989, he received a call of a burglary at 1101 Avenue I in Sterling. Upon arriving at the address, he met with the defendant who indicated that he had been watching the house while his son and his son's roommates were in Wisconsin. The defendant told the officer that when he came to the house, he observed a window on the storm door broken out. When he unlocked the door and entered the residence, he found that it had been ransacked and called the police. The defendant took the officer through the house, pointing out items that were missing. The defendant estimated the value of the items missing at over $2,000. While examining the house, the officer observed that the door leading into the house from the garage had been kicked open and the lock on it was broken. After speaking to the defendant, the officer reported that a burglary to the residence had occurred.

Cara Nelson, a claims investigator for Ohio Casualty Insurance Company, testified that she received a loss report relating to the burglary and contacted the insured, Michael Hammond, to investigate the claim. Michael had taken out a one-year renter's insurance policy in April, 1989. After receiving the loss report, Nelson met with Michael at his home, inspected the premises and took a signed statement from him on July 12, 1989. Michael also provided Nelson with a list of items he claimed were either lost or damaged because of the burglary and photographs of some items he claimed were missing, including a photograph of a large television. Nelson further testified that on July 19, 1989, she drafted and delivered to Michael a check in the amount of $5,381.65 to cover the claimed loss. Michael and Chris Buikema were present at the house when she delivered the check, and the defendant arrived shortly thereafter.

Chris Buikema testified that he and Michael formulated a scheme to stage a burglary at the house and defraud the insurer. In furtherance of the scheme, Buikema rented a storage unit in Clinton, Iowa, under the name Chris Stevens where the allegedly stolen property would be stored. Buikema was the only one who had a key to the storage unit. He subsequently received the refund from the manager when he terminated the lease in August, 1989.

Buikema testified that he, Michael and Prins carried out the staged burglary on the weekend prior to July 4, 1989. On June 30, 1989, the three loaded several items of property into the defendant's van which Michael had use of, and then he and Michael took the property to the storage unit in Clinton. After unloading the property in Clinton, they returned to their residence and messed up the house to make it look as though the house had been burglarized. The following morning he, Michael, Prins, Allen Carter and Michael's cousin Bobby left for Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to go camping. The group returned to Sterling on Monday afternoon.

Buikema testified that approximately two weeks prior to the staged burglary, he awoke to find the defendant in the living room of their house. A 26"'' television and a Panasonic VCR from the defendant's house were in the spot in the living room where Michael usually kept his own television and VCR. Initially, Buikema testified that Michael and the defendant were taking photographs of the two items. He later acknowledged that he had not actually seen Michael and the defendant taking these photographs. While the defendant was present at the house, a real estate agent arrived and asked for permission to take interior and exterior photographs of the house, as it was for sale. Michael and Buikema agreed to this, and one of the photographs taken was of the living room containing the defendant's television and VCR. After the real estate agent left, he, Michael and the defendant were "all kind of glad and happy that the guy happened to show up," and the defendant, according to Buikema, told the other two that "it had proof towards the case that we had a 26"' TV and VCR in our house."

Buikema further testified to several conversations the defendant had with him, Michael and Prins. One conversation supposedly took place three to four weeks prior to the staged burglary, when the defendant told the others about the time there had been a break-in at his home and he had padded the list of stolen items in order to get a bigger check from his insurance company.

Another conversation took place two to three weeks before the staged burglary. The defendant, a minister, related the time the church burned down and the insurance company wanted to settle for $25,000. The defendant claimed to have called an independent adjuster and ended up receiving $75,000 for the loss.

A third conversation took place two weeks prior to the staged burglary. During that conversation, the defendant brought up the idea of the defendant discovering the burglary while the others were in Wisconsin rather than have them discover it after returning home. According to Buikema, the defendant stated "it would look real good having a reverend [sic] discover the robbery [sic]," that he (defendant) would just stop in and discover it accidentally and would report it, and that maybe he would bring another preacher with him as a witness.

Buikema also related another conversation which he claimed took place a few days after July 4, 1989, in which the defendant indicated that after entering the house on July 2, 1989, he put some "finishing touches" on it before he reported the burglary and took with him his camera which he discovered sitting on Michael's bed.

Buikema testified that he was present when Cara Nelson delivered the insurance check to Michael and that the defendant arrived while Nelson was there. Both Michael and the defendant left the house together and were "kind of ticked off" when they returned because the bank would not cash the full amount of the insurance check for Michael.

The insurance scam was eventually uncovered when Buikema and Prins began taking Michael's property out of the storage unit without his knowledge and selling it to their friends. Some of this property was recovered by the police, who then took statements from Buikema and Prins. Buikema testified that for his part in staging the burglary he was to receive between $500 and $700 from Michael but had only received a total of $320. He had been charged with the same offenses as the defendant and those charges were still pending.

Steve Prins testified next. He, too, had also been charged with the same offenses as the defendant. His testimony concerning the staged burglary was similar to Buikema's testimony. Prins testified that although he had talked to the defendant three or four times prior to the staged burglary, these conversations were just generalized conversations about how to get money from insurance companies because "I wasn't suppose [sic] to know he knew what was going on." Although at one point Prins indicated to the police that the defendant was not aware of what was going on, he later changed his story and informed the police that the defendant had also been involved in the scam.

At trial the state's attorney was allowed to read into evidence the entire transcript of the defendant's testimony before the grand jury. In that testimony, the...

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