People v. Cabrera
| Decision Date | 16 April 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 62357,62357 |
| Citation | 108 Ill.Dec. 397,508 N.E.2d 708,116 Ill.2d 474 |
| Parties | , 108 Ill.Dec. 397 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. William CABRERA, Appellant. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Steven Clark, Deputy Defender, Michael J. Pelletier, Asst. Appellate Defender, Office of the State Appellate Defender, Chicago, for Cabrera.
Neil F. Hartigan, Atty. Gen., Mark L. Rotert, Asst. Atty. Gen., Chicago, for the People; Richard M. Daley, State's Atty., County of Cook, Chicago, Joan S. Cherry, Richard A. Stevens, Asst. State's Attys., of counsel.
The defendant, William Cabrera, was found guilty of murder, robbery and burglary by a jury in the circuit court of Cook County (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 38, pars. 9-1(a)(1), 18-1, 19-1) and was sentenced to a term of 60 years for murder and to extended-term concurrent sentences of 14 years for burglary and robbery. The appellate court affirmed the convictions but reduced the defendant's sentence for burglary and robbery to seven years. (134 Ill.App.3d 526, 89 Ill.Dec. 427, 480 N.E.2d 1170.) We granted the defendant's petition for leave to appeal (103 Ill.2d R. 315).
On this appeal the defendant claims (1) the trial court erred in finding that the police had probable cause to arrest him; (2) he was denied the right to be tried by a fair and impartial jury; (3) the State failed to prove him guilty of burglary beyond a reasonable doubt; and (4) the trial court abused discretion in imposing a 60-year extended-term sentence.
On February 12, 1981, Yoel A. Keena, a 74-year-old man, was found dead in a back room of the Assyrian National Foundation (the Foundation) at 1475 West Balmoral Street in Chicago, where he had been temporarily living. Investigating Detective Thomas Sappanos found that entry had been made through a broken window in the office of the foundation and that the premises had been ransacked and a cash box broken into. Sappanos also discovered a receipt for Thomas Cook traveler's checks with the name of the victim; however, no checks were found. The next day, February 13, Sappanos spoke with Dr. Shaku Teas concerning the results of the autopsy she performed on the victim and was informed that the cause of death was "[s]trangulation and subdural hemmorrhage [, bleeding underneath the fibrous membrane forming the outermost layer covering of the brain,] due to blunt trauma."
Learning that some of the victim's traveler's checks had been used to make purchases of clothing, Detectives Sappanos and Thomas Keane, on February 20, went to the "Different Circle" store in the Century Mall in Chicago. There they questioned Derrick Moore, assistant sales manager, about the purchase made with the stolen checks. Moore informed them that three men came to the store at about 8 p.m. on February 11; he assisted two of the men while they browsed through the store, and a saleslady assisted the third man (whom Moore later identified on April 7, as Ruben Lopez) in the purchase of a red jacket, a white shirt with a Popeye logo, and a necktie. The purchase was made with a Thomas Cook traveler's check, and an identification card bearing Lopez' picture was used. The three men remained in the store for about 20 or 30 minutes. Moore watched as they went into the "Saturday's Generation," a store across from the "Different Circle." Shortly thereafter, Moore observed the three men leaving that store carrying two shopping bags, one with the name "Different Circle," the other with "Saturday's Generation."
On February 23 Moore, after looking through approximately 200 police photographs or "mug shots" at the Chicago Area 6 police station, identified a photograph of the defendant as a picture of one of the men present in the store at the cashing of the check. Moore also told the detectives that the defendant had "a large scar going from his ear down in a diagonal line towards his neck" which was not shown in the photograph. That evening, Sappanos and Keane went to the defendant's apartment at 5523 North Kenmore in Chicago, but he was not there.
The next day at about 5:30 p.m., Sappanos received a telephone call at the police station from a clerk-receptionist at the defendant's apartment house, informing him that the defendant had just returned. Sappanos and Keane, without an arrest or search warrant, immediately went to the defendant's apartment, knocked at his door and identified themselves. The defendant, wearing only gym shorts and looking as though he had just taken a bath or a shower, opened the door. When he did, the detectives observed the scar on his neck and informed him that he was under arrest. They gave him the Miranda rights and told him that they "were investigating a homicide, [and] the fact that he had been identified as a person being involved in cashing the [traveler's] checks from the homicide." Upon the defendant's consenting, the detectives made a cursory search of the apartment; nothing was taken. The defendant later claimed that the officers unlawfully entered his apartment, came into his bathroom while he was taking a bath, and told him he was under arrest for murder and burglary. While he was dressing, the detectives searched his apartment without his consent, taking three photos of his girlfriend, the title to his car, his driver's license, and his social security card. The detectives denied these allegations.
The defendant was then taken to the Area 6 police station, where, at approximately 6:30 p.m., he was placed in an interview room. In the room, Detective Keane again informed the defendant of his Miranda rights. Sappanos then questioned the defendant about the stolen traveler's checks and the murder, but the defendant denied knowledge of either incident. The detectives then left the defendant in the interview room, returning at approximately 9 p.m. with a sandwich and drink for the defendant. Shortly thereafter, Detectives Sappanos, Keane and Chris Grogman asked the defendant to sign a consent form to search his apartment. The defendant signed the form and remained in the interview room. During the search of his apartment, the detectives did not find anything related to the murder or cashing of the traveler's checks.
At about 5 p.m. on February 25, Sappanos and Keane entered the interview room to question the defendant, and again prior to questioning, he was given his Miranda rights. The defendant told the detectives that he had not been truthful about the check-cashing situation. At first, the defendant told the detectives that Lopez had approached him with the checks, saying that he "had found the traveler's checks in the alley." The defendant then changed his story and said that Lopez informed him that he had obtained the checks by "ripping off a place" next to a dog-grooming parlor, which, as Sappanos testified, was next door to the Foundation. Lopez and he then went to the shopping mall "and cashed the checks." Subsequent to the questioning, Detectives Sappanos, Keane and Grogman left the station with the defendant, as he agreed to show them where Lopez lived.
Arriving at the 1400 block of West Summerdale in Chicago, Sappanos and Keane left the squad car to locate Lopez' apartment, while Grogman remained with the defendant. Upon finding the apartment, Sappanos and Keane obtained, from Lopez' mother and sister, a signed consent to search the apartment. Sappanos found a white shirt with a Popeye logo and took it to the squad car where the defendant identified it as one of the items purchased with the stolen traveler's checks. Grogman took the defendant back to the police station, then returned to Lopez' apartment to continue the search. He found an identification card, to which a picture of Lopez had been affixed, that was later identified by Derrick Moore as the card used by Lopez in cashing the traveler's checks. Sappanos, Keane and Grogman went back to the station, and two other detectives completed the search. They found the red jacket that had been purchased at the "Different Circle" store.
Early on February 26, after providing the defendant with a sandwich and soda, Sappanos and Keane gave the defendant his Miranda rights another time. Again the defendant told the detectives that he had not been totally truthful about the homicide incident. He told them that on the night before the checks were cashed he and Lopez had entered the Foundation by going through a broken window in the office. Once inside, Lopez told him to "search in the front" of the Foundation. There, he found a metal cash box, pried it open, and took $40 which was in the box. The defendant said that, while he was in the front office, Lopez went to the back of the Foundation where he found the victim, who had been awakened by the intrusion. The defendant saw Lopez strike the victim twice; however, the weapon was not described. (The autopsy referred to "strangulation" and "blunt trauma.") The defendant then went to the back room and searched the victim's pockets, where he found the victim's traveler's checks. He and Lopez then left the premises, Lopez taking the traveler's checks from the defendant, and the defendant keeping the $40. The defendant stated that on the following day Lopez told him that he was going to cash the traveler's checks and that if he, the defendant, would come along, he would buy something for him (the defendant). The defendant said he agreed and then gave Lopez $20 of the $40 dollars taken from the cash box. The defendant stated that several items of clothing were purchased with the checks, including a red jacket.
After the defendant's statement to them, the detectives called in an assistant State's Attorney to take the confession. Before taking the confession, the assistant State's Attorney gave the defendant the Miranda rights, which the defendant indicated he understood. In his confession the defendant repeated what he had told Detectives Sappanos and Keane. However, h...
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U.S. ex rel. Cabrera v. Page, 97 C 2990.
...N.E.2d 1170 (1st Dist. 1985) ("Cabrera I"). The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed on April 16, 1987. People v. Cabrera, 116 Ill.2d 474, 108 Ill.Dec. 397, 508 N.E.2d 708 (1987) ("Cabrera II"). The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari November 2, 1987. Cabrera Illinois, 484 U.S. 929, 1......
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