Hauser v. People

• Decision Date: 23 June 1904
• Citation: 210 Ill. 253,71 N.E. 416
• Parties: HAUSER et al. v. PEOPLE.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

210 Ill. 253

71 N.E. 416

HAUSER et al.

v.PEOPLE.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 23, 1904.

Error to Circuit Court, Grundy County; Saml. C. Staugh, Judge.

Edward Hauser and others were convicted of burglary, and bring error. Affirmed.E. L. Clover, for plaintiffs in error.

H. J. Hamlin, Atty. Gen., and C. F. Hanson, State's Atty. (Geo. B. Gillespie, Asst. Atty. Gen., of counsel), for the People.

BOGGS, J.

The grand jury in and for the county of Grundy returned into the circuit court of that county, at its March term, 1903, an indictment charging Samuel J. Ritchie (alias Sam Ritchie), Edward Howell (alias Edward Hauser, alias Los Angeles Whitey), John Freeland (alias William Edwards, alias William Foley), and Charles Mitchell with the crime of burglary. The accused were at that time confined in the common jail of the county under the charge of having committed the offense preferred in the indictment, and were placed on trial at said March term of the said court. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty as to the defendant Ritchie, and a verdict of guilty as to each of the other defendants. Motions for new trials and in arrest of judgment were entered and overruled, and sentence was pronounced on each of the defendants so found guilty, in accordance with the verdict of the jury. This is a writ of error sued out by the plaintiffs in error, who were so convicted, to reverse the judgments entered against them.

During the night of the 28th and 29th of October, 1902, the Exchange Bank of Gardner, known locally as ‘Allison's Bank,’ in the village of Gardner, in Grundy county, Ill., was broken into by burglars, who by the use of drills and other tools opened the doors of the vault, and by the use of some kind of explosives blew open the safe and stole therefrom the sum of $3,200. The bank was entered shortly after midnight on the morning of October 29th, and the burglars were engaged in the work of breaking the door of the vault, and in blowing open the safe, for some three hours. The village of Gardner is a station on the Chicago & Alton Railroad, about 75miles southwest of Chicago. The indictment charged the plaintiffs in error with the commission of this crime.

The testimony introduced in behalf of the people was sufficient, standing by itself, to justify the verdict returned by the jury.

The defense sought to be interposed in behalf of the defendant indicted under the name of John Freeland (alias William Edwards, alias William Foley) was that of an alibi, and the defense was sufficiently supported by testimony produced upon the hearing, unless the jury were unwilling to regard the witnesses as entitled to belief, or regarded them as in error as to time or day when, according to their testimony, they saw the plaintiff in error at another place than where the crime was committed. It appeared from the testimony of these witnesses that they knew the defendant indicted as Freeland (alias Edwards) as William or Billy Edwards; that he resided on West Madison street, in the city of Chicago; that at about the hour of 10 o'clock in the evening of the 28th day of October, 1902, the defendant Freeland (or Edwards) came into a saloon kept by one Miller at the corner of Washington boulevard and Sangamon street, in said city of Chicago; that the saloon was kept open during the entire night, and that Freeland (or Edward) was in the saloon until some time after the hour of 1 o'clock on the morning of October 29, 1902; and that his wife brought him to his home on West Madison street at about the hour of 2 o'clock on that morning. The burglars entered the bank at Gardner shortly after the hour of 1 o'clock on the morning of October 29th, and remained in the bank for about three hours. These witnesses fixed the time at which Freeland (alias Edwards) was in the saloon in Chicago by reference to a ball which had been given at Bricklayers' Hall, in the city of Chicago, on the night of the 27th of October, 1902.

The defendant indicted under the name of Edward Howell (alias Edward Hauser) and the defendant indicted under the name of Charles Mitchell, the latter of whom testified his name was Thomas Clark, but who admitted that he told the officers who arrested him that his name was Charles Mitchell, also sought to establish an alibi. Mitchell (alias Clark) testified he came to Louisville, Ky., from Paducah, on a freight train arriving there on the morning of the 27th day of October, 1902, and Hauser testified that he arrived in said city of Louisville from Knoxville, Tenn., on the same morning, and both testified that they had been acquainted before, but met at a restaurant in Louisville on that morning without any previous arrangement. They both testified that on the afternoon of October 27th they engaged lodging for a week at a rooming house kept by Mrs. Dolly Hayden at 809 Market street, in that city; that they slept together in that room on the night of October 27th, and that during the morning and afternoon of the 28th they visited many different saloons in Louisville and indulged in intoxicating drinks, and at about the hour of 11 o'clock on the night of the 28th they returned in an intoxicated condition to the room in the lodging house on Market street; that after they were in the room Hauser indulged in singing, and Mrs. Hayden came to the room and ordered them to be quiet; that a controversy followed, and she threatened to call the police and have them ejected, and that they left her lodging house; that, after visiting many saloons, finally at about the hour of 4 o'clock in the morning of October 29th they went to a lodging house at 531 West Market street, Louisville, called ‘The New Oakwood,’ registered their names as lodgers there, engaged rooms, and slept there during the remainder of the night. Mrs. Hayden, the keeper of the lodging house at 809 Market street, and Joseph Edwards, the night clerk of the New Oakwood lodging house, testified as witnesses in corroboration of the testimony of Hauser and Mitchell, and the book purporting to be the register of the New Oakwood lodging house was also produced in evidence. J. H. Hagar, who had been connected with the police department of the city of Louisville for 14 years, during the latter part of his service having been chief of police, testified that the general reputation of Mrs. Dolly Hayden for truth and veracity was bad.

The burden of establishing the defense of an alibi is on the defendant, and, to maintain it, it is incumbent upon him to prove facts and circumstances which, when considered in connection with all the evidence relied upon to establish his guilt of the crime charged, is sufficient to create in the minds of the jury a reasonable doubt of the truth of the charge. Carlton v. People, 150 Ill. 181, 37 N. E. 244,41 Am. St. Rep. 346. We are unable to say that the jury should have acquitted either of the plaintiffs in error upon the ground the testimony relied on to maintain the defense of an alibi should have created a reasonable doubt of his guilt, in the face of the evidence produced by the prosecution to establish the truth of the charge against him. A brief reference to the testimony produced by the prosecution demonstrates the strength of the case made by the people.

Eddie Larson, a boy aged 14 years, and Thomas Mulvey, of about the age of 16 years, both residents of Gardner, testified that they saw a man, whom they identified to be the defendant John Freeland (alias Billy Edwards), in Gardner at about the hour of 8 o'clock on the evening of the second Sunday previous to the burglary; that they first saw him at a bonfire in the street in front of the post office, warming himself; that he came to where they were and engaged in conversation with them, and asked them where the town marshal stayed at night, and that they told him in the fire engine house; that he looked in at the window of Peck's jewelry store and saw a safe that was there, and asked them some questions about the jewelry store and the bank having money in their safes; that they showed him the engine house, and that he went down near a small house in which the railroad men kept their tools, situated about [210 Ill. 258]10 or 15 feet from the engine house; that the boys walked down there, and he asked them what was in the small house (meaning the toolhouse), and they told him it was where they kept the tools the railroad men worked with; that he told them he was going to get on a train that had just come in; that he met two other men coming down the railroad track, and that Freeland (or Edwards) stopped and talked with the men and asked what car they were in, and asked the boys to show the men the way to a lunchroom, and that they saw no more of him until after he was arrested.

Nels Edmundson, night marshal of the village of Gardner, testified that he went on duty as such marshal at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of each day, and remained on duty until 3 o'clock in the morning of the following day; that the fire engine house was used as a place for the night marshal to stay between rounds; that three lanterns were kept lighted in the engine house; that he lighted them at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon of October 28, 1902; that he moved around the business part of the village from the engine house, and came back to it a few minutes before 1 o'clock, in the morning of October 29, 1902, went inside, locked the door, took off his overcoat and sat down, and was smoking his pipe when some one rapped at the door; that he opened the door and saw the defendant Hauser standing at the door, the defendant Mitchell standing by him, and the defendant Freeland (or Edwards) a little behind them, and that he saw other men whom he did not recognize; that Freeland (alias Edwards) had a gun and tapped him on the head with it, and that Hauser and Mitchell grabbed him, swung him around, and pulled his cap down over his eyes; that they took his billy and pistol from him, tied his hands behind his back,...