People v. Gougas
| Decision Date | 27 November 1951 |
| Docket Number | No. 31972,31972 |
| Citation | 28 A.L.R.2d 852,102 N.E.2d 152,410 Ill. 235 |
| Parties | , 28 A.L.R.2d 852 PEOPLE v. GOUGAS. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Ellis & Westbrooks, and W. Chester Kitchen, both of Chicago, for plaintiff in error.
Ivan A. Elliott, Atty. Gen. and John S. Boyle, State's Attorney, of Chicago (John T. Gallagher, Rudolph L. Janega, Arthur F. Manning, William J. McGah, Jr., James A. Brown, and Arthur Dillner all of Chicago, of counsel), for the People.
Henry Gougas was indicted in the criminal court of Cook County for the murder of Donald Hugh Simms. A jury found him guilty and fixed his punishment at imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. Judgment was rendered on the verdict and Gougas prosecutes this writ of error for a review of the record.
The facts necessary to this opinion show that the plaintiff in error and the deceased had been friends for many years and that in October, 1949, plaintiff in error, together with his wife, Nannie, and their five children, moved into a portion of a residence at 4625 St. Lawrence Street in Chicago, of which the deceased was the managing agent. Plaintiff in error's family occupied the ground floor of the building while the deceased occupied a room on the second floor. The balance of the second floor rooms were tenanted by a family named Clarke. The relationship of plaintiff in error and his wife seemed to become progressively worse from October, 1949, to May, 1950, largely because of his failure to support his family and because of his cruel treatment of the wife. The friendship of the wife with the deceased seems to have strengthened during the same period and the latter at times apparently furnished food and money for the needs of the Gougas family and gave Nannie Gougas assistance with her household duties. Early in May, 1950, Nannie Gougas discussed with both men the possibility of getting a divorce, and the deceased, who was to be a witness for her, contacted his lawyer in her behalf. On approximately Saturday, May 13, Nannie told plaintiff in error that she did not want to live with him any more because she was afraid of him and felt that he would never hold a job. She also told him that she planned to get a divorce and that the deceased would be her witness. It is apparent, too, that both she and the deceased informed plaintiff in error of their plan to be married after the divorce. Pursuant to his wife's request, plaintiff in error moved from the residence on Saturday, May 13.
Within the next few days plaintiff in error returned to the premises several times and talked to his wife about the divorce. He testified that on one occasion when he attempted to see his wife at an early hour in the morning, he left without seeing her when he was met at the door by the decedent who held a gun in his hand. Plaintiff in error again returned to the premises about 9:00 o'clock, the night of May 18, and was admitted to the front room of the ground floor by one of the Clarke children. Several minutes later Nannie Gougas, who was in the kitchen, and the Clarke family, upstairs, heard shots in the front room. Nannie ran upstairs to the Clarkes' quarters and was followed by plaintiff in error who was brandishing a gun. She hid in a clothes closet and plaintiff in error, evidently being unable to find her, left the room and immediately after witnesses heard one or two shots fired in the hallway of the second floor. Plaintiff in error then left the premises and the Clarkes discovered Donald Simm's body sprawled in a sitting position on the sofa in the downstairs front room. He had been shot between the eyes. The room showed no signs of a struggle but the deceased had a broken portion of a comb clasped in his left hand; the other portion was found on the floor. His right hand was in his trouser pocket gripping a fully loaded automatic pistol which was ready to fire. Plaintiff in error was taken into custody by the police at a hospital where he was being treated for a bullet wound in his head near his right ear. When questioned by the officers he stated: 'I killed my best friend,' and when asked why he had done so, he said: 'Ask my wife.'
The prosecution appears to have been based on two separate theories; first, that plaintiff in error was motivated by the fact that he was a partial beneficiary of a National Service Life Insurance policy on the life of the deceased, and, second, that he was moved to commit the crime because of jealousy and unrequited love. A defense of self defense was interposed by the plaintiff in error. In support of its first theory, the prosecution was permitted, over objection, to introduce into evidence copies of the policy and of letters from the Veteran's Administration which established that plaintiff in error was the beneficiary of forty per cent of its proceeds. The record shows only that the policy and letters were found after the homicide, by the father of the deceased, in a drawer where the deceased kept his personal papers. It is the plaintiff in error's contention that it was error to admit such evidence in the absence of a showing that the accused knew of the existence of the policy beneficial to him, that it was a valid and subsisting contract and that the defendant believed it to be such. The People assert that the objection made in the trial court was not broad enough to sustain the contention made in this court and that proof of knowledge on the part of the plaintiff in error goes to the weight, rather than to the...
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Vanpelt v. State, No. CR-06-1539 (Ala. Crim. App. 12/18/2009)
...policies, this court has required proof of the existence of such a policy and its relationship to the defendant. In People v. Gougas (1951), 410 Ill. 235, 239, 102 N.E.2d 152, this court determined that the admission of evidence of a life insurance policy must be predicated upon evidence of......
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Vanpelt v. State
...policies, this court has required proof of the existence of such a policy and its relationship to the defendant. In People v. Gougas (1951), 410 Ill. 235, 239, 102 N.E.2d 152, this court determined that the admission of evidence of a life insurance policy must be predicated upon evidence of......
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Brooks v. State
... ... Most notably, in People v. Mitchell, 105 Ill.2d 1, 85 Ill.Dec. 465, 473 N.E.2d 1270 (1984), the Illinois Supreme Court reaffirmed its rule that "admission of evidence of a ... at 1274 (citing People v. Gougas, 410 Ill. 235, 102 N.E.2d 152 (1951)). The reasoning that compelled the outcome in People v. Mitchell does not, however, apply with equal force in ... ...
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People v. Smith
...the accused did kill the deceased. (People v. Mitchell (1984), 105 Ill.2d 1, 10, 85 Ill.Dec. 465, 473 N.E.2d 1270; People v. Gougas (1951), 410 Ill. 235, 238, 102 N.E.2d 152; People v. Mangano (1940), 375 Ill. 72, 76, 30 N.E.2d 428. See also People v. Novotny (1939), 371 Ill. 58, 61-62, 20 ......