People v. Dobrino

• Decision Date: 30 March 1992
• Docket Number: Nos. 1-88-0733,1-90-3224,s. 1-88-0733
• Citation: 169 Ill.Dec. 904,227 Ill.App.3d 920,592 N.E.2d 391
• Parties: , 169 Ill.Dec. 904 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Norman DOBRINO, Defendant-Appellant. First District, First Division
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 391

592 N.E.2d 391

227 Ill.App.3d 920, 169 Ill.Dec. 904

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Norman DOBRINO, Defendant-Appellant.

Nos. 1-88-0733, 1-90-3224.

Appellate Court of Illinois,

First District, First Division.

March 30, 1992.

Michael J. Pelletier, Deputy Defender, Office of State Appellate Defender (Karen Daniel, Asst. Appellate Defender, of counsel), for defendant-appellant.

Jack O'Malley, State's Atty., County of Cook (Renee Goldfarb, Veronica X. Calderon and Catherine A. Hufford, Assistant State's Attys., of counsel), for plaintiff-appellee.

Justice CAMPBELL delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a jury trial, defendant, Norman Dobrino was convicted on three counts of delivery of a controlled substance (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 56 1/2, par. 1401(a)(2)), sentenced to 10 concurrent years imprisonment on each count, and fined $25,000 on each count. Defendant appealed, and while his appeal was pending, he filed a petition pursuant to the Post-Conviction Hearing Act (Ill.Rev.Stat.1985, ch. 38, par. 122-1 et seq.) The trial court summarily dismissed defendant's petition, without a hearing. Defendant also appeals that order. These two appeals have been consolidated for disposition. On appeal, defendant contends that: (1) the trial court erred in prohibiting defendant from presenting evidence of his lack of prior narcotics convictions and evidence of alleged police intimidation, to support his defense of entrapment; (2) the trial court erred in sentencing defendant to an extended term of ten years for delivery of more than thirty grams of a controlled substance containing cocaine; and (3) the trial court erred in summarily dismissing defendant's pro se post-conviction petition. For the following reasons, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

The record sets forth the following facts relevant to this appeal. Prior to trial, ¹ defendant moved to discharge the indictments on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct. Defendant alleged that on the evening before trial, police officers had gone to defendant's home and kicked one of defendant's dogs so severely that it had to be put to sleep. Defendant alleged that these men threatened that if certain witnesses testified at trial, they would return and kill the other dog. According to defendant, the men wore ski masks and had covered the license plates on their unmarked car. The trial court denied defendant's motion, and barred defense counsel from introducing any evidence of the incident to the jury, because defendant had no proof that the incident actually took place. The trial court then granted the State's motion in limine to prevent any evidence of defendant's lack of prior convictions or arrests.

On September 3, 1986, defendant was arrested for selling twelve ounces of cocaine to an undercover Chicago Police Officer. At trial, Chicago Police Officer Philip Pariso testified on behalf of the state that on August 12, 1986, he first met with Gina Ranallo at the Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA") offices. Ranallo told Pariso that she had been dealing cocaine for defendant and his wife, Sabine Dobrino. Ranallo told Pariso that the defendant lived at 1421 West Wolfram, Chicago. Ranallo told Pariso that she had problems with the Dobrinos because she owed them money. Pariso told Ranallo he would try to help her.

On August 13, approximately 8 p.m., Pariso and Ranallo went to defendant's home accompanied by a number of surveillance officers. When defendant answered the door, Ranallo introduced Pariso as her boyfriend, "Joey." Defendant and Sabine began to argue with Ranallo about the amount of money Ranallo allegedly owed them. After approximately a half an hour, Pariso took $200 out of his pocket and handed it to defendant to repay Ranallo's debt because Ranallo had told him that she owed defendant $200. Defendant told Pariso that Ranallo's debt was actually closer to $5000 or $6000. Pariso and Ranallo left defendant's home shortly thereafter.

On August 15, Pariso called defendant on the telephone and told him he wanted to come over to discuss Ranallo's debt. Accompanied by a surveillance officer, Pariso arrived at defendant's home approximately 1 p.m. Pariso talked to defendant in the front room. Defendant showed Pariso a blue ledger book of names and numbers in an attempt to prove that Ranallo owed him $4875. Defendant explained that girls dealt small amounts of cocaine for him and Sabine, and that the ledger book showed the amounts of money owed to them by the girls. Defendant stated that Sabine handled the girls, while he handled the larger customers. At that time, Pariso told defendant that he was interested in buying some cocaine, and defendant showed Pariso his price list for ounces of cocaine.

Pariso told defendant that he was not sure he wanted to pay such a large debt for Ranallo, but that if they did some business together with the cocaine, he may be able to pay the debt off a little bit at a time. Pariso left defendant's house approximately 45 minutes later.

On August 18, at approximately 11 a.m., Pariso called defendant's house and spoke to Sabine. Pariso told Sabine that he wanted to buy a couple ounces of cocaine and Sabine told Pariso that the cost would be $1500 an ounce, but that he should call back later because defendant was sleeping. Pariso called back at 2 p.m. and defendant told Pariso to come over. Pariso arrived at defendant's house at 2:45 and he again discussed Ranallo's debt with defendant. Defendant then went into a bedroom and returned to the front room a few minutes later. Defendant handed Pariso two packs of Parliament cigarettes, each containing a clear plastic bag containing one ounce of cocaine. Pariso gave defendant $3000.

Defendant told Pariso that his "source" lived around O'Hare airport and that he gets two or three kilos of cocaine a week. Defendant said that he had a half a pound of cocaine on hand at that time, and that he was expecting a new batch to come in. After a half an hour, Pariso left. He did not arrest defendant at that time because he was hoping to learn the identity of his source. Analysis of the cocaine revealed that it was 88 percent pure and Pariso estimated the street value at approximately $35,000.

Pariso called defendant again on August 25 and told him he wanted to buy two more ounces of cocaine. On August 26, Pariso went back to defendant's house and purchased two ounces of cocaine for $3000. Pariso told defendant he wanted to buy two kilos and defendant said it would cost $80,000, but that he would have to talk to his supplier first.

On September 2, Pariso went to defendant's house in the late afternoon and defendant told him that his supplier would not front him such a large quantity of cocaine, but would sell him a smaller amount. Pariso agreed to buy twelve ounces the next day for $1400 an ounce, a total of $16,000.

On September 3, Pariso called defendant and defendant said he could only get ten ounces of cocaine. Approximately 6:15 p.m. Pariso returned to defendant's house. Defendant had previously told Pariso that he only felt safe making transactions in his home. At that time Pariso carried an electronic agent-alert device and was accompanied by a number of surveillance officers who intended to arrest defendant and execute a search warrant. Defendant escorted Pariso into a bedroom in the rear of the house and gave Pariso a package to weigh on a scale. As Pariso weighed the package, he hit the agent-alert signal. They heard pounding on the front door and defendant told Pariso to hide in a closet.

Defendant and Sabine were arrested. One officer asked defendant if he had any other drugs in the house and defendant said there were drugs in the bedroom. Defendant would not disclose any information about his supplier because he feared being killed. Police searched defendant and recovered three vials in his pocket, each containing one gram of cocaine. Officers then searched the bedroom and found a clear plastic bag of cocaine on the dresser, a container of cocaine, a plastic bag of Manitol in a ceiling panel, $927 in cash, and devices used for grinding and cutting cocaine for packaging. Defendant was transported to the DEA office where he threatened to have Pariso killed if he testified against him in court.

On cross-examination Pariso testified that he had never met Ranallo prior to August 12, 1986, and denied going to defendant's home prior to August 13, 1986. Pariso said that the ledger book was not inventoried until July 1987 because it was in the custody of officers in the financial unit who used the book to prepare for their criminal conspiracy and asset forfeiture case against defendant. Pariso stated that shortly after defendant was released from custody following his arrest on September 3, Pariso went to defendant's home and advised him to stay away from Ranallo. He stated that based on information from Ranallo, three other individuals were arrested. He arrested Sabine in September 1987 and a search of the house uncovered more drug paraphernalia.

Gina Ranallo testified that she met defendant and Sabine in 1985 when she and Sabine were on the same bowling league. Ranallo stated that she had been to defendant's house and had seen defendant and Sabine use cocaine in the house. Ranallo first tried cocaine in 1985 at defendant's house and after that went to defendant's house every week to use cocaine. She began selling cocaine in 1985 after Diane Weckett and another girl told her how much money they were making. Sabine wrote Ranallo's name in a ledger notebook and gave her the cocaine to sell. Ranallo explained the columns in the book and stated that sometimes defendant would make the entries. Ranallo sold drugs for defendant for approximately nine months, until the end of May or early June 1986.

Ranallo stated that she used more cocaine than she sold and that she owed defendant money for the cocaine in addition to $1000...