People v. Gardner, No. 39512

• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois
• Writing for the Court: SCHAEFER
• Citation: 35 Ill.2d 564,221 N.E.2d 232
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Arthur GARDNER, Appellant.
• Decision Date: 14 November 1966
• Docket Number: No. 39512

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221 N.E.2d 232 35 Ill.2d 564 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee,
v.
Arthur GARDNER, Appellant. No. 39512. Supreme Court of Illinois. Nov. 14, 1966.

George C. Adams, Chicago, appointed by the court, for appellant.

William G. Clark, Atty. Gen., Springfield, and Daniel P. Ward, State's Atty., Chicago (Fred G. Leach, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Elmer C. Kissane and Kenneth L. Gillis, Asst. State's Attys., of counsel), for appellee.

[35 Ill.2d 565] SCHAEFER, Justice.

A jury found the defendant, Arthur Gardner, guilty of forcible rape and he was sentenced to imprisonment for not less than one nor more than ten years. The appellate court affirmed, (61 Ill.App.2d 326, 210 N.E.2d 545) and we granted leave to appeal. The only issue that we find it necessary to discuss is whether the defendant's guilt was proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

The complaining witness, Helen Davis, a widow, testified that at about 10:00 P.M. on September 15, 1963, her niece and her

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niece's husband, with whom she had been listening to records, left her small, two-room apartment on the second floor at 6028A Blackstone Avenue in Chicago. She locked the door of the apartment, put on a nightgown and housecoat, and sat in the kitchen with her back to the bedroom door, about three steps away, to listen to some records before going to bed. The bedroom window, which opened onto a back porch and staircase, was three-fourths open, with partially drawn shades and a flowerpot on the sill. The screen on the window had been nailed on by her son. She heard a swishing noise, then a footstep, and 'I automatically turned around and jumps up and I looked right in the man's face. And, when I did, he grabs me around the throat with both his hands.' She identified the defendant as the intruder and testified that he told her not to look at him and not to scream, but to 'Come and lay on the bed.' She testified that intercourse followed, and that he apparently had a climax because 'I was extremely wet.' It was stipulated that a subsequent hospital test showed live sperm in her vagina. As the intruder left, she picked up a butcher knife. He slammed the door, and the sound aroused the neighbors. While some searched for the man, a 'neighbor in the front called the police.'

She testified that she was determined to get a good description of her assailant because she wanted to describe [35 Ill.2d 566] him. 'Every time he would say, 'Don't look,' why, I had to look down and not look in his face. When I'm looking down, I'm looking at his shoes and his pants.' She said: 'He had on these kind of big shoes like boot shoes. In other words, they're brogans, or something like that. And then, he had on some kind of blueish green pants or greenish blue pants, light, work, washable pants, and he had on a white shirt up here (indicating) and a kind of blueish greenish looking sweater.' She also testified that he had long sideburns.

After the police arrived she was taken to a nearby hospital and examined. While lying on a table there, she told a detective 'that I was positive that I could identify the man.' The detective then brought in the defendant. 'And, as soon as he came in with the fellow, I recognized him and told him that was the man.' She said 'he had on the same identical clothing that he had on when he came in my house.'

On cross-examination, she testified that when the police had arrived at her apartment she had described her assailant as between 28 and 30 years old, six feet one inch tall, and wearing a blue or greenish blue shirt, and blue or greenish blue pants. At the trial she guessed the defendant's weight to be 'at least 200 pounds. He was six feet tall, he had to be, because he take up my whole doorway.'

Officer Jackson testified that he went to the apartment of the complaining witness about 11:15 P.M. on September 15, in response to a burglary call. When he arrived, she told him she had been raped. He took down notes as she described her assailant, and 'put it on the air.' These notes were later phoned onto a tape at the central police station and made up by someone else into a report. This report was read into evidence, and described the assailant as: 'One male Negro, between the age of 29 and 30, six feet one inch tall, 160 pounds, light complexion, black short hair, wore blue shirt and blue fatigue pants.' The officer had no independent recollection of the notes or the description as related [35 Ill.2d 567] by the victim. He said that when he interviewed her she 'was emotionally upset and hysterical.'

Officer Carter testified that at approximately 11:00 P.M. on the night in question he was patrolling the area near the crime in a car and received a radio description of the assailant. At about 11:15 P.M. he saw the defendant walking east on the south side of 60th Street near University Avenue, about four and one half blocks from the victim's home. His official report of the arrest stated that it occurred at 12:50 A.M. the following morning. The defendant told officer Carter that he was going to his home at 7338 Kimbark and had just left the

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Regal Theater, at 47th Street and South Park Avenue. The distance between these locations is about four miles. He testified that the defendant said he did not know what movie he had seen, and that he had not been with anyone or seen anyone there. He seemed to be 'sweating very profusely' and 'to have been running or walking very fast,' although on cross-examination Carter said it was a 'fairly warm day,' 'pleasant.'

Officer Carter took the defendant immediately to the hospital and into the room where the prosecutrix was. He testified that he had the defendant turn his back, and the prosecutrix raised herself on one elbow. 'I turned Mr. Gardner around, and her eyes got wide and she said, 'This is the man. This is the man that raped me.' She kept repeating, 'This is the man, this is the man, this is the man. " He testified that then 'Mr. Gardner dropped his head'. Thereafter, Carter gave the defendant a nude 'head to foot narcotic search' and didn't find anything, but the defendant showed him 'one ticket stub, I believe,' which did not have a date or the name of the theater on it.

Defective Wallenda testified that he arrived at the hospital at about 12:45 A.M., and some time later he accompanied the victim back to her apartment. The bedroom screen was 'pulled away' and the kitchen screen had been [35 Ill.2d 568] removed completely. A dusting for fingerprints failed to reveal any prints suitable for comparison. He compiled a report from the victim and the arresting officer which indicated that the assailant was a male Negro, weighed 200 pounds, had light skin, wore 'work pants and what she thought was a blue shirt.' Asked on cross-examination whether the defendant was...