People v. ex rel. Garner v. Clutts

• Decision Date: 28 November 1960
• Docket Number: No. 35742,35742
• Citation: 170 N.E.2d 538,20 Ill.2d 447
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. George F. GARNER, Appellant, v. Carl CULTTS, Sheriff, Appellee.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 538

170 N.E.2d 538

20 Ill.2d 447

PEOPLE ex rel. George F. GARNER, Appellant, v.Carl CULTTS, Sheriff, Appellee.

No. 35742.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 28, 1960.

Peyton Berbling and W. C. Spomer, Cairo, for appellant.

William L. Guild, Atty. Gen., and Michael P. O'Shea, State's Atty., Cairo (Fred G. Leach, Asst. Atty. Gen., of counsel), for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

George F. Garner, hereinafter referred to as relator, was arrested as a fugitive from justice by the sheriff of Alexander County under authority of a Governor's warrant which had been issued on April 24, 1959, upon demand of the Governor of North Carolina.From the warrant, it appears relator had been charged in the demanding State with the crimes of first degree murder, burglary, and larceny, all of which were committed on September 28, 1955, in Madison County, North Carolina.He challenged the legality of his detention by a petition for writ of habeas corpus filed in the circuit court of Alexander County, the sheriff made a return by alleging the Governor's warrant and, after a hearing, the writ was quashed and relator remanded to the custody of the sheriff.As provided by section 10 of the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act, relator has prosecuted a direct appeal to this court for review.(Ill.Rev.Stat., 1959, chap. 60, par. 27.)The sole ground advanced here for the illegality of the relator's detention is that he is not a fugitive from the justice of North Carolina in that he was not present in such State at the time of the commission of the crimes alleged.

From the record, it appears that on the evening of September 28, 1955, at about 8:00 P.M., three armed men, wearing masks, entered the residence of Carson Lawson in a mountain settlement called Shut In Community, located in Madison County, North Carolina.Lawson was a storekeeper and his store was adjacent to his home.The intruders bound those present with wire, ransacked the premises for twenty to thirty minutes, and departed after finding and taking $200 in currency.Lawson, who suffered from a heart condition, died during the course of the robbery.It was for these crimes that the demand and warrant for the relator issued.

To overcome the prima facie case of fugitivity made by the Governor's warrant (see: People ex rel. Borelli v. Sain, 16 Ill.2d 321, 157 N.E.2d 417;People ex rel. Mortensen v. O'Brien, 371 Ill. 351, 20 N.E.2d 782;20 I.L.P.Fugitives From Justice§ 22), the relator testified in his own behalf, introduced documentary evidence and summoned seven witnesses who told of his presence in Cairo, Illinois, on the date in question.

According to relator, who testified he had lived in Alexander County, Illinois, for twenty years and that he had never been in the State of North Carolina, he resided in a motel just outside Cairo in September, 1955, and was then a partner with Fred Sullivan, Sr. in a coin-operated machine business that dealt with music boxes and pinball machines.He testified he had been in the partnership since 1953, that Sullivan had been seeking to dispose of his interest, and that he, the relator, had agreed on September 28, 1955, to purchase his partner's interest for the sum of $4000.Detailing the events of such date, relator testified that he and Sullivan reached their agreement about 10:00 or 11:00 o'clock in the morning, that he then went to the office of Homer McDaniel to have a bill of sale drawn, (the latter was a notary public who operated a sporting goods store adjacent to relator's place of business,) and that he, Sullivan, and Vincent Doss, the latter a repairman employed by the partners, returned to McDaniel's office about 2:00 or 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon, at which time the bill of sale was signed by Sullivan and witnessed by the relator and Doss.McDaniel notarized the document at relator's request and relator paid Sullivan $4000 in cash, his testimony being that he had $2000 in savings and that he borrowed a like amount from his brother, Arthur Garner.The bill of sale, which bears the date of September 28, 1955, both in the body and the acknowledgment, was admitted in evidence.

Sullivan, McDaniel, and Doss corroborated relator's testimony with respect to the execution of the bill of sale.In so doing, McDaniel testified the instrument was dated the same day it was drawn and executed; Sullivan stated he had no independent recollection and could fix the day only from the date appearing on the bill of sale; and Doss, insofar as the abstract shows, gave no testimony relative to his recollection of the date.Arthur Garner, a resident of Sikeston, Missouri, testified he had furnished his brother with $2000, that he had not drawn the money from a bank but had the cash on hand, that he had brought the money to Cairo in the morning, and, although relator made no mention of the fact, that the relator had shown him the bill of sale the same afternoon.Arthur's wife, Mila Garner, recalled the morning when her husband brought the $2000 to relator, but testified she was not present when the money was turned over to relator and that she did not see the bill of sale.Further concerning the money, Sullivan testified he had been paid in cash and that, on the evening of the same day, he had used $2000 of it to pay a debt he owed to Charles Connell.The latter, who was also called as a witness, stated that Sullivan had borrowed $2000 from him in 1955 and had repaid it.

Returning to the testimony of the relator with respect to his movements and whereabouts on September 28, 1955, he testified that about 4:00 or 5:00 o'clock, after the bill of sale had been signed, he and Doss delivered a pinball machine to a tavern at which time he told the operator, Murray Bryant, about purchasing Sullivan's interest and showed him the bill of sale.Doss likewise recalled this occurrence and Bryant, who operated the tavern in question for Sullivan, testified he had read the bill of sale on such occasion and that he saw the instrument on the day it was dated.

Relator further testified he had shown the bill of sale to Dave Kessler, owner of the motel where the relator resided, as the two men were having coffee in the motel about 9:00 or 10:00 P.M. Kessler, who had purchased the motel from Sullivan, verified relator's version of their meeting and stated he had been shown the bill of sale on the day it was made.

Following the foregoing evidence presented by the relator, the testimony of several persons from the demanding State was introduced in rebuttal.One such witness was Ed Church, a brother-in-law of Carson Lawson, who was present in the home of the deceased when the robbery occurred, together with his wife (since deceased,) Lawson, and the latter's 88-year-old mother.Church, who was 70 years old when he testified, related that at about 8:00 P.M. on September 28, 1955, while those present were watching television, a light was noticed on the porch, whereupon Lawson went out, thinking it was a customer at his store.He returned shortly accompanied by three armed men who tied up the occupants and started ransacking the house for money.All of the men were wearing Army fatigue clothes and their faces were covered with 'something like a silk stocking' or 'thin plastic.'One robber stood watch over the occupants and it was Church's testimony that he observed this man closely for twenty to thirty minutes, that he could see the face of the man through the stocking, that he had no difficulty in identifying the man, and that the relator was the man.

When the witness was cross-examined, he testified that, during a period extending from the fall of 1957 to the fall of 1958, the sheriff of Madison County showed him pictures of various men and that he had viewed about 19 or 20 pictures before he identified the relator as being one of the men involved in the robbery.He further stated he had last seen the relator's photograph the day before he testified in the present cause, that relator's name was written on the back, and that it had been exhibited to him by the sheriff who told him: 'that is supposed to be the man.'

From further cross-examination of Church, as well as other portions of the record, it appears that Doss and one of the relator's attorneys paid a visit to Church in North Carolina in April, 1959.When questioned concerning what had occurred during such visit Church denied making a statement that he could not recognize any of the three robbers because of their disguises, and testified he could not remember whether his visitors had shown him pictures or not.Church did concede, however, that upon the occasion of a deposition taken later in 1959, he had erroneously identified a picture of relator's brother and explained his mistake by stating that the brothers'favored' each other.

The next rebuttal witness was C. W. Burrell, a resident of Madison County, who stated that he was a minister, a mechanic employed by the board of education, and a former police officer.He testified that on September 28, 1955, he and a companion, Marvin Ball, were fishing at a lake about 35 miles from the community where the robbery occurred.They stopped fishing about 7:00 P.M. and started for home on a route that took them through Shut In Community at a point very near Carson Lawson's store and home.They drove through the Community about 7:45 P.M. and pulled off the highway shortly thereafter to effect a change of drivers.As they were stopped, an Oldsmobile automobile,...