People v. Crego

• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: WILSON
• Citation: People v. Crego, 395 Ill. 451, 70 N.E.2d 578 (Ill. 1947)
• Decision Date: 20 January 1947
• Docket Number: No. 29611.,29611.
• Parties: PEOPLE v. CREGO.

395 Ill. 451

70 N.E.2d 578

PEOPLE

v.CREGO.

No. 29611.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 20, 1946.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 20, 1947.

Error to Circuit Court, Livingston County; Ray Sesler, Judge.

Roland Crego was convicted of involuntary manslaughter with a motor vehicle, and he brings error.

Judgment reversed.

Londrigan & Londrigan, of Springfield (John R. Kozak, of Chicago, of counsel), for plaintiff in error.

George F. Barrett, Atty. Gen., and Hubert H. Edwards, State's Atty., of Pontiac, for the People.

WILSON, Justice.

The defendant, Roland Crego, was indicted in the circuit court of Livingston county for the involuntary manslaughter of James Eric Sims with a motor vehicle. A jury found defendant guilty. Motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were overruled, and he was sentenced to imprisonment in the pentitentiary for a minimum term of two years and six months and a maximum of five years. Defendant prosecutes this writ of error for a review of the record.

On Monday, May 21, 1945, Sims, nineteen years of age, started out from his home in the village of Cornell on a borrowed bicycle to visit a young woman who lived four and one-half miles east, and one mile north, of Cornell. The bicycle was not equipped with lights, reflectors or illuminating paint. He arrived at her home about 7:30 P.M., and departed at 11:00 o'clock. Upon the return trip, when about two miles east of Cornell, a 1936 Chevrolet automobile, driven by defendant, struck and killed Sims. His body was found on the north shoulder of the road about seven feet north of the edge of the concrete slab. The pavement was eighteen feet wide. The bicycle landed on the front end of the car. Defendant's car gradually came to a stop about 900 feet beyond the place of the collision.

Defendant, then twenty-one years old, lives two miles north of Pontiac. He purchased the automobile, a used 1936 gunmetal gray Chevrolet coach on the preceding Saturday, May 19. The headlights on the front end of the car were operated by a control in the dashboard which has three notches. Of these, the first increases the voltage, the second turns on the parking, dash and tail lights, and the third turns on the bright lights. The latter may be deflected to dim by using the foot switch. Tests disclose that the parking lights are plainly visible at a distance of 780 feet. The car was equipped with a radio having an illuminated dial. The radio was in the center of the dashboard. While the radio was being operated the dial was illuminated four or five inches. The next day, Sunday, May 20, accompanied by two friends who live in Pontiac, James Heisner and Andrew Eckel, Jr., sixteen and seventeen years of age, respectively, defendant drove the car to Streator. He encountered some difficulty with the battery, and the car was pushed in order to start the motor. Monday, the battery was charged. At seven o'clock on Monday evening, defendant, Heisner and Eckel started for Streator on State route 23. Streator is twenty-six miles northwest of Pontiac. Cornell is fourteen miles south of Streator, and twelve miles west of Pontiac. About two miles east of Cornell, when traveling west, the occupants of the car saw a young man on a bicycle riding east. Eckel recognized him as Sims. Defendant arrived in Streator about eight o'clock. It was not yet dark, and he had not used the lights on the car. He turned on the lights in Streator after darkness fell, drove the car around the town, using the bright lights. Defendant and the two boys remained in Streator three hours until about eleven o'clock when they started back to Pontiac on route 23 by way of Cornell. The radio was played continuously upon their departure from Streator. As the car passed through Cornell, Heisner, who was sitting in the middle of the front seat, blew the horn several times. A strong wind was blowing from the south to southwest, the sky was cloudy and black, with moonlight shining through from time to time. The wind interfered with driving to the extent that the car swerved toward the black line in the middle of the road and a foot or two over it. Between 11:30 o'clock and 12:00 o'clock midnight, the accident occurred about two miles east of Cornell and sixteen miles from Streator.

Eckel and Heisner were called as the court's own witnesses. Their testimony was both confused and confusing. Eckel first testified that the car was being operated with bright lights until it was stopped near a place called Ancona corner or Ancona road, about four miles south of Streator, to remove a cigarette which was caught in the door. The lights were switched off at this time. Upon proceeding, as Eckel puts it, ‘there was a light of some sort on the inside of the car. I couldn't see any in the front of the car.’ He testified that he did not recall seeing lights on the front of the car after the lights were extinguished; that he did not look at the black line as he could not see it; that he could see the edge of the road; that, after leaving Cornell, the wind caused the car to sway a little from one side of the road to the other, and that he did not know the position of the car with reference to the center of the road when it struck Sims. Eckel testified, further, that he supposed they were driving about fifty miles an hour; that, after leaving Cornell, Heisner and he were operating the radio and not paying any attention to the line in the road; that his impression was that the dash lights were on and, if so, the dim or parking lights were on in the front of the car. He added that he did not see Sims prior to the collision and did not hear defendant say or do anything indicating he saw him.

Heisner testified that, on Monday, after sunset, defendant used bright lights the entire tiem he drove the car in Streator; that, when they left Streator, the lights were in operation; that these lights were changed but he did not know what occurred; that, in particular, he did not recall whether the car was being operated with lights; that he could not see any lights, but did recollect they were changed at some point between Streator and Cornell; that he did not observe any difference after the lights were changed; that the moon was shining; that he did not know whether the bright lights were on or off; that no light on the front of the car was visible to him, and that he thought the dash lights were on but had no independent recollection of any light other than the radio dial. He added that, after leaving Cornell, they continued at about the same speed, fifty miles per hour; that the car only swayed across the black line in the road when a gust of wind blew on a hill ‘or something;’ that he had no difficulty in seeing the black line; that the lights were of sufficient brightness to see the line easily, and that he did not see anything in front of the car, and that they only passed one car which he was some distance away. Heisner did not see Sims before the accident, and said that defendant did not say anything leading the witness to believe he saw Sims before the impact of the collision.

Kenneth Ferguson, fifteen years of age, together with his brother, Raymond, left the home, in Cornell, of the boy from whom Sims borrowed the bicycle about eleven o'clock in the evening of May 21. He testified that they saw Sims walking on the shoulder on the north side of the road pushing his bicycle going west. On cross-examination, he testified that the night was windy; that Sims was not on the pavement, and that he, the witness, did not know why he was pushing the bicycle. Raymond Ferguson placed the point where he and his brother saw Sims at about one and one-third miles east of Cornell. He said that they blew the horn on their car and that Sims waved to them in recognition. He stated that the only reason suggesting itself for Sims walking instead of riding was the fact the wind was very strong. William Roberts, who also saw Sims pushing his bicycle on the north side of the road, observed that a very strong westerly wind was blowing.

Dorothy Shobe and her husband, Robert, the minister of the Baptist church in Cornell, live on the east side of Cornell. The former testified that, about 11:30 P.M. on May 21, she heard an automobile horn blowing continuously as a car passed her home. Her husband knew Sims, and picked him up earlier in the evening at Streator. Later, about 6:45 P.M. he saw Sims riding a bicycle east of Cornell and told him to hurry and be careful. He testified that his wife directed his attention to the horn, and that he looked out the window but saw only a blur of darkness in the shape of an automobile going east without lights.

Defendant testified that when he left Streator his bright lights were in operation, and that, afterwards, the lights were changed from dim to parking lights until the time of the accident, except that, when going around curves, the bright lights were used. He added that, upon leaving Streator, he changed the lights somewhere along the road; that he did not recall when he made the change from bright to parking lights, and did not know the reason for making the change. According to defendant, there was no other occasion, between the time he parked the car on the right shoulder of the road, the west side, to remove the cigarette, and the time of the collision, when the lights were turned off. Defendant stated that the fact he had encountered trouble with his battery the preceding day did not influence him in the manner in which he used the lights on May 21. He declared that he was driving the car at the time of the accident between forty and fifty miles per hour, more likely about forty-five miles per hour, but did not look at the speedometer. Referring to the heavy wind, defendant stated that he could see the black line but, when a gust of wind came, he would go over the line a little and would then bring the car back. After leaving Streator, several cars passed him but he did not remember any car passing...