People v. Blakely

• Citation: 8 Ill.App.3d 78,289 N.E.2d 273
• Decision Date: 29 September 1972
• Docket Number: No. 54885,54885
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Arthur BLAKELY, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 273

289 N.E.2d 273

8 Ill.App.3d 78

PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Arthur BLAKELY, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 54885.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Fifth Division.

Sept. 29, 1972.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 16, 1972.

Gerald W. Getty, Public Defender, Chicago (Judith C. Smith, James J. Doherty, Asst. Public Defenders, Chicago, of counsel), for defendant-appellant.

Edward V. Hanrahan, State's Atty., Chicago (Elmer C. Kissane, William K. Hedrick, Asst. State's Attys., Chicago, of counsel), for plaintiff-appellee.

ENGLISH, Justice.

OFFENSE CHARGED

Armed robbery against Arthur Blakely, Joseph Blakely, Robert Norfleet and Willie Rutledge. Ill.Rev.Stat.1967, ch. 38, par. 18--2.

JUDGMENT

After a jury trial, Rutledge was found not guilty and the other three guilty. Only Arthur Blakely (hereafter 'defendant') has appealed. He was sentenced to a term of 12--18 years consecutive to a prior sentence of 10--20 years.

CONTENTIONS RAISED ON APPEAL

1. Defendant was not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt since the jury returned a compromise verdict finding defendant guilty and a co-defendant not guilty on the same evidence.

2. The admission of testimony of a prior unrelated crime prejudiced defendant in the eyes of the jury and is reversible error.

3. The court's imposition of a consecutive sentence was an abuse of discretion.

This is the third appeal to reach this court which concerns facts and circumstances which occurred during little more than one hour on the evening of October 7, 1968. The other two opinions, People v. Norfleet, 4 Ill.App.3d 758, 281 N.E.2d 761, and People v. Blakely, Ill.App., 289 N.E.2d 269, involved the first two incidents and are helpful for a complete understanding of this case. The questions surrounding the third incident are raised by this appeal.

EVIDENCE

Wieslawa Krzysiak, for the State:

She had come to the United States from Poland approximately a year before, and did not understand English. On October 7, 1968, she was working in Sophie's Tavern at 4654 South Honore in Chicago. At about 11:00 P.M., four Negro men entered the tavern and approached the bar. One man, later identified as Joseph Blakely, took a gun from his pocket, but this defendant, his brother, grabbed it from him and began to pat down the customers looking for money. The customers were then told to lie on the floor, and defendant told the witness to come from behind the bar or he would shoot her. Since she didn't understand English, she did not respond the he directed, so defendant came behind the bar and pushed her to the floor. She looked up to see him taking money from the cash register and going through various drawers. Robert Norfleet told her to turn away or he would shoot her in the head. A customer in the tavern translated what he said into Polish.

A customer came in and the defendants ran. She did not actually see them leave. About two or three hours later at the police station she picked out four defendants from a seven-man lineup. She also identified the gun used in the robbery as similar to the one introduced at trial.

Thomas Kucharzyk, for the State:

He arrived at Sophie's Tavern about 10:30 on the evening of October 7, 1968. About 45 minutes later, four Negro men entered the tavern. Defendant approached him at the bar and told him it was a stickup. When the woman bartender started to run, defendant went after her, and the witness pleaded with her in Polish to lie on the floor or they would shoot her. While he was lying on the floor, one of the defendants took $9 from his pocket. Shortly after the men left, he called the police and about two hours later identified all four defendants at a lineup in the police station.

Joe Wisz, for the State:

It was stipulated by defense and prosecution that Joe Wisz was a patron at the tavern at the time of the robbery but was unable to identify any of the defendants.

John Makar, for the State:

He is a police officer who, with his partner, Alex Pikowski, was driving south in their unmarked car in the 4400 block of Honore Street during the evening of October 7, 1968. He observed a white Cadillac approaching them in a northerly direction at a high rate of speed. The car turned east on 45th Street and they followed. At that time he heard a radio call that a robbery had just been committed by four Negroes at a nearby tavern. He chased the car for about two blocks at 45--50 miles per hour, and put in a radio call for help.

At 45th and Marshfield the car stopped and was abandoned by four male Negroes. He drove his car into the alley and put a man, later identified as defendant, in his headlights. Then he left his car and chased defendant on foot across a vacant lot. When he called out 'Police Stop,' defendant stopped and was arrested. He searched defendant was recovery two bottles of whiskey and 39 one dollar bills. He also assisted in the arrest of Joseph Blakely and recovered a CTA coin changed and a weapon from him. He knows the location of Sophie's Tavern and was only two blocks from it when he gave chase to the speeding Cadillac.

Alex Pikowski, for the State:

He is a police officer who corroborated the testimony of his partner, John Makar, concerning the arrest of defendant.

Robert Krause and Donald Carroll, for the State:

They are also Chicago police officers who assisted in the arrests of defendants Rutledge, Norfleet and Joseph Blakely after responding to Officer Makar's call for assistance. Their testimony corroborated that of Makar and Pikowski.

Clarence Mills, for the State:

He is a bus driver for the Chicago Transit Authority. At approximately 10:00 P.M. on October 7, 1968, four men boarded his bus at Fifth Avenue and Pulaski. They refused to pay the fare and, after a few minutes, attacked a uniformed security guard who was the only other passenger on the bus. They took the guard's service revolver, and one of the defendants, later identified as Joseph Blakely, threatened to kill both the driver and the security guard, but defendant intervened. Joseph Blakely then took the driver's money and coin changer and all four men left the bus at Central Park and Harrison about 15 minutes after the incident began. He identified the gun as resembling the one taken from the security guard and was able to identify his coin changer.

Marvin Woods, for the State:

It was stipulated that if he were called as a witness, he would testify that he was a supervisor in a security guard company and had issued to James Springfield, the guard involved in the bus incident, the same service revolver which was later recovered from Joseph Blakely at the time of his arrest.

Joseph Blakely, on his own behalf:

At about 7:00 P.M. on October 7, 1968, he was standing on the corner at 47th and Ashland in Chicago waiting for a bus when two police officers pulled up and told him to get in the car. When he asked why, he was sprayed in the face with mace. One of the officers was John Makar. He was taken to the police station at 35th and Lowe where he was beaten, kicked and maced by the police officers. The other defendants were brought to the police station later. Five people were put in the lineup and he was wearing a red jacket, purple pants, and a green short-sleeve jersey. He hadn't seen his half-brother, Arthur Blakely, for five or six years, and didn't even know he was in town. He had never seen any of the victims or witnesses before.

Defendant Arthur Blakely did not testify.

OPINION

Defendant claims, in effect, that he was entitled to be found not guilty because a co-defendant, Rutledge, was found not guilty. The identification testimony in this case was extremely important, and the jury might well have found the evidence against Rutledge enough weaker than that against the other three defendants to have raised a reasonable doubt. It any event, it was a jury question, resolved by the jury in favor of Rutledge, and defendant in this case is not in a position to take advantage of that fact. See People v. Rogers, 16 Ill.2d 175, 182--183, 157 N.E.2d 28 and People v. Rohwedder, 78 Ill.App.2d 211, 213, 223 N.E.2d 1.

Defendant argues that the trial court erred when it admitted, over counsel's objection, evidence of defendant's involvement in what he believes is an unrelated prior crime. Specifically, he objects to the testimony of Clarence Mills and Marvin Woods. Mills identified defendant as one of four men who robbed his bus almost an hour before the instant crime, at a location five and one-half miles away, and with a gun taken from one of his passengers, which gun resembled the gun in evidence in the instant case. Woods, by stipulation, would have testified that the gun in this case was the very same one which he, as a security supervisor, had issued to one of his guards who had it taken...