People v. Evans

• Decision Date: 24 October 1975
• Docket Number: No. 74--163,74--163
• Citation: People v. Evans, 336 N.E.2d 792, 32 Ill.App.3d 865 (Ill. App. 1975)
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John EVANS and Oran Ray Davenport, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 792

336 N.E.2d 792

32 Ill.App.3d 865

PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John EVANS and Oran Ray Davenport, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 74--163.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Second District, First Division.

Oct. 24, 1975.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 21, 1975.

Philip G. Reinhard, State's Atty., Rockford, James W. Jerz, Ill. State's Attys. Assoc., Charles D. Sheehy, Jr., Elgin, for plaintiff-appellant.

Rolland J. McFarland, Rockford, for defendants-appellees.

GUILD, Justice.

This is an appeal by the People of the State of Illinois pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 604 (Ill.Rev.Stat.1973, Ch. 110A, 604). The defendants, John Evans and Oran Ray Davenport, were arrested without a warrant and subsequently charged with possession of burglary tools (Ill.Rev.Stat.1971, Ch. 38, 19--2) and theft (Ill.Rev.Stat.1971, Ch. 38, § 16--1.) After a hearing, the circuit court of Winnebago County granted defendants' motion to suppress evidence. On appeal, the State contends that the trial court erred in granting defendants' motion to suppress. We find that the State's contention has merit and reverse.

The record discloses that one week prior to June 18, 1973 newspaper articles in the city of Rockford, Illinois had carried accounts warning of persons who were selling fraudulent rolls of coins, with a quarter at each end and washers in between, to grocery stores in the area. One Mrs. Tamara Parish had read these articles and was aware of the problem. On June 18, 1973, at approximately 2:00 P.M., Mrs. Parish had gone grovery shopping in the vicinity of 2400 Kilburn Avenue in Rockford. She observed two men seated inside a blue Dodge Polaris with a black vinyl top parked immediately to her left. After shopping for approximately 20 minutes, she returned to her automobile. As she was entering her vehicle Mrs. Parish looked to make sure that the driver's door of her vehicle did not strike the Polaris. As she was doing that, she noticed the man sitting in the passenger seat doing something with his hands. She saw that the glove compartment was open and noticed quite a few different colored coin wrappers inside. The passenger then looked up at Mrs. Parish and quickly closed the glove compartment door. She became suspicious. Remembering the newspaper articles, Mrs. Parish wrote down the license plate number of the Polaris. That night, after discussing her observation with her husband, they reported what she had seen to the Rockford police department. The police received the report at approximately 6:30 P.M.

At approximately 7:30 P.M. the same night, Officer Bruce Scott of the Rockford police department was on duty patrolling downtown Rockford on foot when he received, on his portable police radio, a communication about suspects in the fraudulent sale of rolled coins to the grocery stores in the area. The radio message described them as two white males in a 1968 Dodge Polaris bearing 1973 Ohio license plate number 4206. Prior to receiving the radio message Officer Scott had also read about the coin scheme in the newspaper and had been advised at roll call to look for people with washers and rolls of quarters.

At approximately 8:00 P.M. Officer Scott spotted the Dodge Polaris westbound on State Street. Scott radioed headquarters to confirm the license plate number and was immediately notified it was the same number. Officer Scott ran up the street and went up to the driver's window of the vehicle which was stopped for a traffic light. Three persons were in the vehicle; defendant Evans, who was driving, defendant Davenport, who was sitting in the passenger seat, and one Joyce Hayes, who was in between them. Officer Scott asked Evans for his driver's license and told him he was stopped in reference to an investigation for possible theft. Evans gave Scott a valid license. Evans had not violated any traffic ordinances or statutes.

After Officer Scott made the stop, several other policemen arrived at the scene. Upon Evans' refusal to allow the police to search the glove compartment or follow them to the police station, Sgt. Carr, who was on the scene, ordered that the occupants be placed under arrest and the automobile be removed to the police patrol barn because it was blocking traffic. All three occupants were removed from the Polaris, frisked, handcuffed and taken to the police station where the defendants were initially charged with theft and deception and an inventory search was made of them. Subsequently those charges were dropped and the defendants were charged with possession of burglary tools and theft. Joyce Hayes was released.

After the defendants and Joyce Hayes had been removed from the car, Officer Scott opened the door and entered the vehicle to drive it to the police patrol barn. On the floor between the seat and the door he observed four lock picks. At the patrol barn, while locking the car, Officer Scott observed a bucket of coins with a white rag partially covering the top of it on the floor in front of the passenger's seat. He removed the lock picks, tagged them and put...