People v. Burnett

• Citation: 2019 IL App (1st) 163018,431 Ill.Dec. 924,128 N.E.3d 1094
• Decision Date: 29 March 2019
• Docket Number: No. 1-16-3018,1-16-3018
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Rodney BURNETT, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

2019 IL App (1st) 163018

128 N.E.3d 1094

431 Ill.Dec. 924

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.Rodney BURNETT, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1-16-3018

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, FIRST DIVISION.

March 29, 2019

James E. Chadd, Patricia Mysza, and Arianne Stein, of State Appellate Defender’s Office, of Chicago, for appellant.

Kimberly M. Foxx, State’s Attorney, of Chicago (Alan J. Spellberg and Tasha-Marie Kelly, Assistant State’s Attorneys, of counsel), for the People.

JUSTICE GRIFFIN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

¶ 1 Defendant Rodney Burnett appeals his criminal conviction stemming from his arrest for unlawfully possessing a weapon. Defendant argues that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to file a motion to quash his arrest since, according to defendant, he was arrested without probable cause. However, because there was no pretrial hearing concerning probable cause, the record before us is inadequate to permit review of whether a motion to quash arrest would have had merit. Essentially all we have in the appellate record is the arresting officer's trial testimony and, since probable cause for the arrest was not an issue at trial, there are insufficient facts to address the matter on direct review. Unable to provide meaningful review, we decline to address defendant's ineffective assistance of counsel claim and, if defendant wishes to pursue the matter, we direct him to do so through the postconviction process. We affirm.

¶ 2 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 3 On July 21, 2015, three officers from the Chicago Police Department were on patrol in a police vehicle when they spotted a van that had no front license plate. The officers made a traffic stop, exited their police vehicle, and approached the van. The van had three occupants: the driver and then two individuals in the second row of seats. A third row of seats in the back of the van was unoccupied. Officer Thomas Murphy approached the driver's window, Officer Nicholas Saviano approached the passenger side of the vehicle, and Officer Michael Walsh positioned himself near the rear of the vehicle on the driver's side.

¶ 4 Officer Walsh observed one of the backseat passengers, defendant Rodney Burnett, lean to the left, reach near his waistband, and remove an L-shaped dark object that he then placed backwards onto the vacant third row of seats. Meanwhile, the driver could not produce a driver's license to Officer Murphy, so Officer Murphy ordered the occupants out of the vehicle. After the men exited the van, Officer Walsh entered the vehicle and retrieved the object he had seen defendant place on the third row of seats. It was a semiautomatic handgun. Defendant was arrested.

¶ 5 Defendant did not have a valid firearm owner's identification card or a concealed carry license so he was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Defendant had a prior conviction for possessing an altered credit card, so he had a felony record and was also charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. There is no indication that the officers knew about defendant's felony record or that he did not have a firearm owner's identification card or concealed carry license before arresting him.

¶ 6 Defendant was tried by a jury and found guilty. The trial court merged defendant's unlawful use of a weapon by a felon conviction into his aggravated unlawful use of a weapon conviction. He was sentenced to four and half years in prison.

¶ 7 On appeal, defendant argues that he was deprived of his constitutional rights because he did not receive effective assistance of counsel. Defendant argues that his trial counsel was constitutionally deficient for failing to file a motion to quash his arrest. Defendant maintains that he was arrested without probable cause because, at the time he was arrested, the only evidence against him was that he possessed a gun. In light of recent rulings by our courts, defendant argues that the mere possession of a gun is no longer sufficient to establish probable cause to justify an arrest. Thus, defendant contends that his asserted basis for a motion to quash his arrest is meritorious and that there is a reasonable probability that the outcome of the case would have been different had a motion to quash the arrest been filed.

¶ 8 II. ANALYSIS

¶ 9 The United States Constitution guarantees criminal defendants the right to effective assistance of counsel. U.S. Const. Amend. VI (West 2016). Thus, where a criminal defendant is convicted of an offense but did not receive constitutionally adequate representation, he can seek relief to vindicate his constitutional right to counsel. People v. Burnett , 385 Ill. App. 3d 610, 614, 325 Ill.Dec. 288, 897 N.E.2d 827 (2008). To be entitled to relief on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must show that his counsel's representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness and that he suffered prejudice as a result. Strickland v. Washington , 466 U.S. 668, 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984) ; People v. Scott , 2015 IL App (1st) 131503, ¶ 27, 395 Ill.Dec. 590, 39 N.E.3d 57. We analyze claims of ineffective assistance of counsel by considering the entire record. People v. Hommerson , 399 Ill. App. 3d 405, 415, 339 Ill.Dec. 560, 927 N.E.2d 101 (2010).

¶ 10 This appeal presents a question that stems in part from our supreme court's decision in People v. Aguilar , 2013 IL 112116, 377 Ill.Dec. 405, 2 N.E.3d 321. In Aguilar , our supreme court declared as unconstitutional the statute that categorically criminalized the possession of a weapon outside the home. People v. Aguilar , 2013 IL 112116, ¶¶ 20-22, 377 Ill.Dec. 405, 2 N.E.3d 321. Since Aguilar was decided, this court has had occasion to visit the parameters of the constitutional right to possess a weapon and the contours of the laws that the State may enact to criminalize the possession of weapons. Defendant argues in this case that the officer's mere observation of him in possession of a handgun in the back of the van, without any other evidence, was insufficient to establish probable cause to arrest him.

¶ 11 The record before us does not contain sufficient information about the circumstances of defendant's arrest from which we could determine whether he has an arguably meritorious claim—i.e. whether he was prejudiced by counsel not filing a motion to quash arrest. Because the case just went to trial and defendant did not seek to quash his arrest, the State was only concerned with proving that defendant committed the charged offenses. The State had no reason to demonstrate the factual basis that putatively gave the officers probable cause to arrest defendant in the first place. As the United States Supreme Court has observed, a reviewing court often cannot entertain a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel on direct review when the claimed error was not a focus in the case below. Massaro v. United States , 538 U.S. 500, 504-05, 123 S.Ct. 1690, 155 L.Ed.2d 714 (2003).

¶ 12 At trial, Officer Walsh testified that he saw defendant with what looked like a weapon, recovered the weapon from the vehicle, and arrested defendant. Defendant's argument is that, under Aguilar and other precedents, his possession of the weapon in and of itself did not give the officers probable cause for an arrest because possessing a weapon, absent any other facts, is not a crime. See Aguilar , 2013 IL 112116, ¶¶ 20-22, 377 Ill.Dec. 405, 2 N.E.3d 321. However, due to the insufficiency of the record for this purpose, we have no way of knowing what the officers' probable cause determination was based upon, so we have no way of knowing whether counsel could be considered ineffective for failing to file a motion to quash arrest.

¶ 13 The Illinois Supreme Court recently addressed the propriety of this court declining to consider certain ineffective assistance of counsel claims on direct review. People v. Veach , 2017 IL 120649, ¶¶ 31, 39, 417 Ill.Dec. 718, 89 N.E.3d 366. The supreme court stated its view that "ineffective assistance of counsel claims may sometimes be better suited to collateral proceedings but only when the record is incomplete or inadequate for resolving the claim" ( id . at ¶ 46 ) and instructed us to "carefully consider each ineffective assistance of counsel claim on a case-by-case basis" ( id . at ¶ 48 ) to determine if the circumstances permit us to adequately address a defendant's ineffective assistance of counsel claim on direct review. See also People v. Bew , 228 Ill. 2d 122, 134-35, 319 Ill.Dec. 878, 886 N.E.2d 1002 (2008). In this case, it is clearly apparent that meaningful review of defendant's claim cannot be had without a supplemented record.

¶ 14 Defendant attempts to spin the lack of testimony about probable cause into a conclusion that there was no probable cause. Defendant states that "[t]here was no evidence that before police arrested [him], they had probable cause to believe that he lacked a firearm owner's identification card or a concealed-carry license or was not supposed to have a firearm." Defendant states that "[t]he sole basis for the arrest was that Burnett possessed a gun in public," and, thus, the arrest was illegal. But he is drawing an affirmative conclusion from a negative premise. The lack of evidence currently in the record concerning probable cause and the officers' pre-arrest beliefs cannot be equated with fact—that there was no evidence to support a probable cause determination. The State did not need to show justification for the arrest at trial because it was not an issue, and the lack of evidence demonstrating probable cause currently in the record does not demonstrate that the arrest was, in fact, unjustified.

¶ 15 Per the charged offenses, the only things the State was concerned with proving at trial were: that defendant had possession of an immediately accessible weapon, that he did not have a firearm owner's identification card or a concealed carry license, and...