People v. Bradley
| Decision Date | 20 May 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 36170,36170 |
| Citation | 198 N.E.2d 809,30 Ill.2d 597 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, v. Curtiss BRADLEY, Plaintiff in Error. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Edward L. Kelly, Chicago, for plaintiff in error.
William G. Clark, Atty. Gen., Springfield, and Daniel P. Ward, State's Atty., Chicago , for defendant in error.
Curtiss Bradley and Oscar Smith were jointly indicted in the criminal court of Cook County upon a charge of armed robbery. They were jointly tried, Bradley by a jury, and Smith, who had waived his right to a jury trial, by the court. (See People v. Pulaski, 15 Ill.2d 291, 299, 155 N.E.2d 29.) The jury heard the State's evidence against both Bradley and Smith, but it heard only the defense evidence offered by Bradley. After Bradley's attorney announced that he had closed his case, and before the prosecution offered rebuttal evidence, the trial judge severed the two cases with the result that the jury did not hear the defense evidence offered by Smith. The judge found Smith not guilty. The jury found Bradley guilty, and he was sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of 10 to 20 years. Subsequently, Bradley was convicted of assault with intent to kill, committed during the robbery, after a bench trial before a different judge. For that offense he was sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of 1 to 20 years, to run concurrently with the sentence for armed robbery. The two judgments have been consolidated for review on this writ of error.
We consider first the trial for armed robbery. The principal witness for the State was Ralph Moore. He testified that at 8:45 A.M. on August 28, 1959, two men, whom he identified as Bradley and Smith, entered the H & S Food Mart where he was employed as store manager and announced, 'This is a stick-up.' Smith ordered Sidney Rudolph, one of the proprietors of the store, to open the cash register. He took $30 from the register and $50 from Rudolph's wallet and then hit Rudolph on the head with a pistol. Moore showed the other robber, whom he identified as Bradley, that his billfold was empty and then began to step backward toward the rear of the store. He testified that he reached a gun and fired two shots at Bradley who 'grabbed his right side' and fired back three shots. The robbers then filed, pursued for a short distance by Moore and Rudolph, and managed to escape. Moore testified that he saw drops of blood on the sidewalk.
Smith was arrested and identified by Moore the day after the robbery. Approximately five weeks later Bradley was arrested. An officer testified that Bradley's shirt was opened in the squad car and that there was a scar on his right side just above the waist. Two officers testified that Bradley told them that the scar was caused by an accidental gun shot and had been treated by a girl friend. Bradley was taken at once to the H & S Food Mart in the squad car. An officer went into the store and told Moore, 'We want to see if you can identify this man as the holdup man.' Moore testified that he went outside and identified Bradley. Later that same day Bradley was placed in a four-man line up at a police station, and Moore again identified him.
At the trial Moore testified that he could identify Bradley only by his clothes. He said that Bradley wore a colored sport shirt, blue or black trousers, and carried a brown jacket. Sidney Rudolph, the proprietor, gave a similar description of Bradley's clothes but testified that he was not able to identify either of the defendants. Two customers, a man and a woman, were in the store at the time of the robbery. The woman was a regular customer. Neither was called as a witness.
Bradley testified that he had been working in a restaurant from 6:00 A.M. until 3:30 P.M. on the day of the robbery and that a cashier was with him all day. He also testified that Moore had been unable to identify him at the food mart on the day of his arrest and that he had told the officers that the scar on his body was caused by a nail against which he inadvertently scraped himself while at work. Doctors at the county jail had examined the scar but did not testify.
In his opening statement the prosecutor announced that he proposed to prove that Smith resisted arrest and was captured only after he had been shot by police officers. In response to an objection by Bradley's attorney the judge said, 'I won't let him tell any conversations, but I will let him show conspiracy.' During the trial when a police officer began to testify as to the circumstances of Smith's arrest, the judge stated, The officer then testified before the jury that when he stopped Smith on the day after the robbery, Smith resisted arrest and fled. The jury was then withdrawn and the officer testified that Smith was pursued, shot and captured.
When Bradley's attorney announced that his case was closed, the judge directed that Smith be taken out of the court room saying, The record, however, does not contain any order of severance or any such stipulation.
Up to that point, the trial had proceeded as a joint trial of both defendants. In our opinion it was error for the court to sever the two cases when it did. The jury had heard the...
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