People v. Albea

• Decision Date: 17 March 1954
• Docket Number: No. 33020,33020
• Citation: 2 Ill.2d 317,118 N.E.2d 277
• Parties: , 41 A.L.R.2d 895 PEOPLE v. ALBEA
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 277

118 N.E.2d 277

2 Ill.2d 317, 41 A.L.R.2d 895

PEOPLE v. ALBEA

No. 33020.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

March 17, 1954.

Howard T. Savage, Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

Latham Castle, Atty. Gen., and John Gutknecht, State's Atty., Chicago (John T. Gallagher, Rudolph L. Janega, and Arthur F. Manning, and Robert Cooney, Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

FULTON, Justice.

Plaintiff in error, Alex Albea, was indicted in the criminal court of Cook County in an indictment containing two counts. Count 1 charged him with the unlawful sale of narcotics to Ora Lee Vaughn and count 2 charged him with the unlawful dispensation of narcotics to Ora Lee Vaughn. In apt time, prior to a hearing on the merits, Alex Albea filed a motion to suppress evidence on the ground that the same was obtained as the result of an unlawful search and seizure in violation of his constitutional guarantees as provided in the fourth amendment to the constitution of the United States of America and in section 6 of article II of the constitution of the State of Illinois. The petition specifically sought to suppress evidence which consisted of three capsules of heroin and also the evidence obtained from Ora Lee Vaughn who was discovered and arrested as the result of a search without a warrant. On January 15, 1953, the trial court entered an order sustaining the petition. Subsequently the cause was tried before the court without a jury, and on February 20, 1953, the court adjudged Alex Albea guilty of unlawful sale of narcotic drugs and sentenced him to the penitentiary for a term of not less than two years and not more than three years. Plaintiff in error prosecutes this writ of error for a review of the judgment of conviction.

On the trial the judge limited the proof to only those events which occurred prior to the time the police officers gained admission into plaintiff in error's residence. The evidence in chief introduced by the People consisted of the testimony of three witnesses, namely, Ora Lee Vaughn and two of the three police officers of the city of Chicago who were present at the time of the arrest.

The testimony elicited from Ora Lee Vaughn, over objection of plaintiff in error, was that prior to her arrest on September 19, 1952, she had been a narcotic addict for two or three years. During that time she had used about two or three hundred capsules of heroin and just prior to her arrest she was using four to six and sometimes eight per day. She was then twenty-two years of age and was presently in police custody. She testified that she saw the defendant every day for three or four months prior to September 19, 1952. On September 19, 1952, she went to plaintiff in error's apartment at about 12:00 noon. She told him she wanted 'ten things' which meant ten capsules of heroin in layman's language. Plaintiff in error said the stuff he had was not 'dynamite' but if she could loan him some money he could make a connection where he could get better stuff. Ora Lee Vaughn testified she only had enough money with her for the purchase she wanted to make. She paid him $12.50 and plaintiff in error started to hand her the capsules which she said, based upon her previous experience as a drug addict, were capsules of heroin. He had handed her three of them when there came a knock on the door and a voice said 'Western Union.' At this point the court refused to permit her to continue on the theory that anything which happened after the officers entered the apartment was inadmissible since that evidence had been suppressed.

On cross-examination she said the capsules were red; that she did not remove their contents and did not inject any of the contents into her veins; that she was arrested that day and was presently under arrest but did not know the charges against her. On redirect examination she testified that nine out of ten times that she visited plaintiff in error's apartment she had used certain hypodermic needles which were kept on the kitchen table. She also stated that plaintiff in error put seven capsules in his mouth.

Two officers called on behalf of the People testified merely that they were present on the day in question and arrested Ora Lee Vaughn and plaintiff in error. One of them also testified that at the detective bureau plaintiff in error seemed to be nauseated and was making faces and when asked what was the matter, stated that he had swallowed seven capsules of heroin.

It is clearly apparent that the State's case must stand or fall on the testimony of Ora Lee Vaughn. Her competency as a witness, therefore, is the first issue for this court to determine. Plaintiff in error contends, among other things, that since this witness was discovered as the result of an illegal search, she should not have been permitted to testify. He cites but one authority in support of that contention, the case of People v. Martin, 382 Ill. 192, 46 N.E.2d 997. In that case the trial court sustained a motion to suppress papers, records and documents unlawfully seized, but permitted witnesses to testify whose names were discovered from the suppressed evidence. This court, analyzing the situation there presented, which was apparently without precedent in Illinois, concluded that the witnesses so discovered should not have been allowed to testify, on the ground that it would impair the constitutional safeguard to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure to permit the illegal action of officers of the law to redound to their advantage.

The question presented here, whether or not a witness discovered as the result of an illegal search may be permitted to testify, also seems to be one of first impression in this State. Independent search by this court has disclosed no authorities covering the identical situation, and the People have cited no cases by way of contradiction. The argument advanced by the People is superficial, namely, that the name of the witness was not discovered through the seizure of any record kept on the premises of plaintiff in error; that the matters and things to which she testified were antecedent to the coming of the police and that the defendant cannot claim privilege which may rest solely in a third person. The question...