People v. Gaston

• Decision Date: 11 March 1994
• Docket Number: No. 1-92-0945,1-92-0945
• Parties: , 197 Ill.Dec. 308 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. James GASTON, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 311

631 N.E.2d 311

259 Ill.App.3d 869, 197 Ill.Dec. 308

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. James GASTON, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1-92-0945.

Appellate Court of Illinois First District, Fifth Division.

March 11, 1994.

Rita A. Fry, Public Defender of Cook County, (Julie M. Campbell, of counsel) for appellant.

Jack O'Malley, State's Atty. of Cook County (Renee G. Goldfarb, Christine Cook, Dori K. Leo and William D. Carroll, of counsel) for appellee.

Justice McNULTY delivered the opinion of the court:

After a bench trial, defendant James Gaston was found guilty of armed robbery and sentenced to life imprisonment. Defendant appeals both his conviction and sentence.

On December 19, 1987, a robbery occurred at the J & J Fish Market which was owned and operated by Tae Lee. On January 17, 1988, the police received a call from Judy Rush, implicating defendant in the robbery. The following day, defendant was arrested and charged with armed robbery and aggravated unlawful restraint.

Defendant filed a motion to suppress his lineup identification. At the hearing on this motion, Judy Rush testified that on January 18, 1988, the police took her to J & J Fish Market where she met with Tae Lee and gave him a description of the man who committed the robbery. She told Lee that the man was tall with glasses, brown skin and had a large nose. She then went to the police station and sat with Lee for about two hours and again described defendant to Lee. Rush testified that she was then taken to another room where she identified defendant, who was the tallest man in the lineup. After she identified defendant in the lineup.

Lee testified at the suppression hearing that when Rush and the police came to his store, he did not speak with Rush. Later, at the police station, Rush told Lee what defendant looked like. According to Lee, Rush did not tell him who to pick out of the lineup and he picked defendant out of the lineup because he looked like the robber.

Officer Dawson testified that at the second district police station, Rush and Lee were in close proximity for 30 to 50 minutes before they were taken to area one. Detectives Glynn and Regan testified that Rush and Lee were placed in an office in area one where they waited until the lineup was prepared. Lee was then brought into a room where he viewed the lineup and identified defendant. After identifying defendant, Lee was taken to another room, not the room that he had been in with Rush. Rush was then brought into a room where she was able to view the lineup. She identified defendant as the man that she claimed robbed J & J Fish Market.

Officer Argenbright testified that he met with Judy Rush, and during this conversation, Rush implicated the person she was living with in an armed robbery. Based on this information, Argenbright went to defendant's apartment and arrested defendant. Later, Rush and Argenbright went to the store Rush claimed defendant robbed, J & J Fish Market. Lee gave Argenbright a description of the man who robbed him and then Lee and Rush conversed. Argenbright took Rush to the second district station. Lee later arrived at the station, and Lee and Rush sat together before they were taken to area one to view a lineup.

The trial court denied defendant's motion to suppress his lineup identification. Both parties stipulated that the evidence heard during the motion would be the same evidence heard at trial.

During defendant's bench trial, Lee testified through a Korean interpreter that he owned and operated J & J Fish Market located at 202 East 51st Street in Chicago. Lee testified that on December 19, 1987, he was about to close his store and had counted the money in the cash register. He put $300 in his pocket and $300 in the register, along with $100 worth of food stamps. Two employees, Ron Smith and Jorrod Hicks, and a beggar were in the store when a man entered, pointed a sawed-off shot gun at Lee's chest and took him to a back bathroom. The man searched Lee and took the $300 from his wallet. After the man left the bathroom, Lee heard him say "If you guys, if any of you move I'm going to kill you." Defendant came back into the bathroom, got the register keys from Lee and left. Lee came out of the bathroom after he heard one of the employees say that the man had left and discovered that the cash register was missing.

Jorrod Hicks testified that he was working at J & J Fish Market on December 19, 1987, when two men walked into the store. Defendant pulled out a shot gun and said, "It's a stick up." The other man pulled out a gun and told Hicks to lay face down. Hicks testified that defendant took Lee to the bathroom and came back with something that sounded like keys. The other man said, "Anybody, move. I'm going to blow your damn head off. Don't even look up." The men then left with the cash register. Hicks testified that about a week after the incident, he looked at some pictures at the police station and he told an officer that defendant looked like one of the men who committed the robbery. Hicks testified that about three weeks after the incident, he stopped working at the fish market.

Officer Brown testified that he interviewed Rush on January 17, 1988, and Rush gave Brown a strip of paper with various figures and initials on it. This piece of paper was marked People's exhibit No. 1.

Officer Argenbright testified at trial that he and officers Dawson, Cox and Dobb talked to Rush in the lobby of defendant's apartment building on January 18, 1988. Argenbright told Rush to call defendant in his apartment to see if he was home before they went to find him. When defendant answered the phone, the officers took the elevator to the sixth floor while Rush hid in the lobby. When the officers exited the elevator on the sixth floor, defendant saw the officers, and entered his apartment. Defendant ignored the officers' order to stop and attempted to close the door on the officers. The officers entered defendant's apartment and asked his name. Defendant responded, "Robert Kennedy." Defendant finally admitted to being James Gaston. Defendant was then placed under arrest.

Judy Rush testified that she had known defendant for about seven years, she was his girl friend and they lived together. Rush testified that on December 19, 1987, she was at home with defendant. Defendant left the house at about 10:30 p.m. for about 20 or 25 minutes. Rush testified that her girl friend, Eujeana, lived downstairs and Jorrod Hicks was Eujeana's boyfriend. Hicks was in Rush's house on two or three occasions and each time Hicks saw defendant.

Rush testified that on January 17, 1988, after catching defendant in bed with his ex-wife, she immediately called the police, told them she was Bobby Rush's sister and that defendant had committed an armed robbery. Rush testified that she notified the police because she wanted to "get even" with defendant. When Rush was unable to give the police any information about where the robbery occurred, Rush went to her friend Eujeana's apartment and asked her where Hicks worked. Eujeana told her that Hicks had worked at J & J Fish Market but had been fired because the owner thought he had something to do with the robbery. Rush then called back the police and told them where the robbery occurred. Rush testified at trial that when she called the police, she had no personal knowledge that defendant was involved in any robbery. According to Rush, she later informed the police that she had lied about the robbery and that the information she had given to them was false. Rush testified that People's exhibit No. 1 was not the piece of paper she gave to the police.

Rush admitted that on January 18, 1988, she told the police that on December 19, 1987, defendant received a sawed-off shotgun from two men who came to her apartment. Defendant fastened that sawed-off shotgun by a shoe lace over his shoulder and hung the shotgun under his jacket. She also told the police that defendant left the house around 10:30 p.m. and when he returned around midnight, Rush heard defendant talking about a cash register. She saw defendant writing on a piece of paper and dividing money. Rush told the police that defendant, Hicks, and two other men named Berry and Smith were planning a robbery.

Jorrod Hicks testified on rebuttal that he had never met defendant. Eujeana Nathaniel testified that she never had a conversation with Rush regarding the robbery.

The trial court found defendant guilty of armed robbery. Defendant filed a motion for a new trial and the State filed a motion to have defendant sentenced as an habitual criminal. Both motions were denied and defendant was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.

The State filed a motion for supervisory order or a writ of mandamus in the Illinois Supreme Court requesting that the trial court be ordered to sentence defendant as an habitual criminal. In that motion, the State argued that the trial court erroneously refused to consider defendant's 1976 conviction when analyzing whether defendant was eligible for a mandatory life sentence. The Supreme Court exercised its supervisory jurisdiction and ordered defendant's sentence of 15 years imprisonment to be vacated. In addition, the trial court was ordered to conduct further proceedings which comports with the dictates of the Habitual Criminal Act. 720 ILCS 5/33B-1 (West 1992.)

After the mandate was issued, defendant filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and a motion for a new trial. The trial court stated that after reviewing its notes, the court realized that it erred in finding defendant guilty. The trial court therefore granted defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, defendant was found not guilty and was discharged.

The State filed another motion for supervisory order or writ of mandamus in the Illinois Supreme Court and requested that the trial court be compelled to vacate its order finding defenda...