People v. Harris
| Docket Number | 4-22-0899 |
| Decision Date | 01 August 2023 |
| Citation | 2023 IL App (4th) 220899 U |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CALVIN L. HARRIS, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
This Order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).
Appeal from the Circuit Court of McLean County No. 18CF1284 Honorable John Casey Costigan, Judge Presiding.
¶ 1 Held: The appellate court affirmed defendant's conviction for armed robbery.
¶ 2 In December 2018, the State charged defendant, Calvin L Harris, with one count of armed robbery with a firearm, a Class X felony (720 ILCS 5/18-2(a)(2) (West 2018)). In July 2022, a jury found defendant guilty, and the trial court later sentenced him to 21 years in prison.
¶ 3 Defendant appeals, arguing (1) the trial court erred by failing to answer a jury question and (2) he was substantially prejudiced by the State's improper comments during closing argument. We disagree and affirm.
¶ 6 In December 2018, defendant was charged by information with one count of armed robbery with a firearm, a Class X felony (id.) The State alleged generally that in December 2018, defendant robbed Cody Cedeno at gunpoint.
¶ 8 In July 2022, the trial court conducted a jury trial at which the following evidence was presented.
¶ 10 Cody Cedeno testified that in December 2016, he was a manager at a Casey's gas station on Fox Creek Road in Bloomington, Illinois. As manager, one of his duties was to deposit money at the bank. On December 16, 2018, at around 1 p.m., Cedeno gathered the money and receipts into bank bags and left the gas station to take the cash deposits to the bank. As he walked to his car in the parking lot, Cedeno saw a blue Chevy Equinox parked backwards into the spot next to his car with a "heavier set person" wearing a camouflage hoodie reclined in the driver's seat. He did not see any other person in the car.
¶ 11 As Cedeno opened his car door, someone came from behind him, held a silver gun to his face, and demanded the money. The robber was wearing "a silky metallic-or like silver, sweatshirt," which was different from the sweatshirt he saw the driver in the Equinox wearing. Cedeno allowed the robber to search him and take the bank bags out of his pockets. The robber also took Cedeno's keys and phone and then ordered Cedeno to walk toward the back of his own car and get into the trunk. Cedeno complied with the robber's demands, and the robber closed the trunk door. Once Cedeno heard the Equinox's door shut, he pulled the trunk's emergency release and got out of the trunk. His cellphone and keys were on the ground next to his car. Cedeno immediately ran into the store to call the police, but not before he saw the Equinox pull out of the parking lot and onto the road.
¶ 12 When police officers arrived, Cedeno told them what had occurred, describing the Equinox and that he believed the robber was a male, "over six feet tall, from 300 to 400 pounds," who wore a mask and had a deep male voice. One of the officers then drove Cedeno to a traffic stop involving a blue Equinox for a "show up" to see if he recognized the car's occupants. Cedeno identified the stopped Equinox as looking like the one that had been parked next to his car at the Casey's. He also told officers that the man in the car had the same physical build as the robber. Neither of the car's occupants, however, were wearing sweatshirts.
¶ 14 Officer William Buchanan testified that he was a police officer with the Bloomington Police Department. On December 16, 2018, Buchanan and several other officers were "dispatched to a report of an armed robbery" at a Casey's in Bloomington. While Buchanan drove towards the Casey's, dispatch updated him that "the suspects were two males African American heavyset, last seen in a light blue Chevy Equinox, and the vehicle had last turned right out of the parking lot from Casey's on the Fox Creek Road." Buchanan saw a blue Equinox and pulled the vehicle over. The driver appeared to be a heavyset black man, but Buchanan later learned she was a woman, Mary Harris. Her brother, who was a heavyset black man, was also in the car, seated in the backseat on the car's passenger side. Buchanan identified the brother as defendant in court.
¶ 16 Officer Timothy Marvel testified that he was a police officer with the Bloomington Police Department. On December 16, 2018, Marvel responded to a dispatch for the armed robbery at Casey's. When he arrived, two other officers were inside speaking with Cedeno. At that moment, a call came in that Buchanan had stopped the suspect vehicle. Marvel recommended that the other officers take Cedeno to the traffic stop to see if he could identify the suspects. Marvel accompanied them to the location of the traffic stop, where he observed a silver gun in the mesh pocket on the back of the passenger-side seat of the Equinox.
¶ 18 Mary Harris testified that she was defendant's sister and was a former assistant manager at the Casey's on Fox Creek Road. Harris testified that she alone committed the robbery, without defendant's involvement, and was convicted for that robbery in 2019. Harris stated that she chose Cedeno as her mark because she had stopped working at the Casey's before he was hired. She knew Cedeno would leave the store around midday to deposit the money. Harris stated that on the day of the robbery, she had been alone all day prior to and during the robbery. Defendant was only present at the traffic stop because she had picked him up just after leaving Casey's, following the robbery. She recalled wearing a camouflage jacket at that time.
¶ 19 Harris testified that prior to her arriving at Casey's, defendant called and asked her to pick him up from a house that was near the gas station, but she did not plan on picking him up. When she arrived at the Casey's parking lot, she backed her car into the spot next to Cedeno's car and waited for Cedeno to come out of the building. When Cedeno began opening his car door, Harris got out of her car, shutting the door behind her. She then walked around the back of her car and put a gun in Cedeno's face, demanding he give her the bags of money, which he had in his hands. Harris took the bags, walked Cedeno towards the back of his car, opened his trunk, took his phone, and "had him put himself into his trunk." Harris then shut the trunk on Cedeno. Money in hand, she placed Cedeno's phone on the ground next to his trunk and left the Casey's parking lot in her own car.
¶ 20 Because Harris realized that she was likely to get in trouble for the robbery, she decided to pick her brother up, figuring that if she got into trouble, she could place the "blame the situation on him."
¶ 21 Harris at first testified that she took a left out of the parking lot but then corrected herself to say she took a right and called her brother on the phone to let him know she would pick him up. Harris was unable to recall what the house looked like where she picked up her brother or precisely where it was located. When Harris arrived at the house, defendant got into the passenger-side backseat of the car, and Harris headed home. While en route, she was pulled over by police officers and arrested. At the police department, Harris submitted to a recorded interview with officers, portions of which were played for the jury.
¶ 22 During the interview, Harris told the detective that she went to Casey's to put air in her tires and not to rob anyone. Normally, she would go to a different Casey's that was closer to her home, but she went to the Casey's on Fox Creek Road because defendant had told her to. She had been with defendant that entire day and felt like the "whole thing" was a setup by defendant because he kept asking her questions. Harris said that
¶ 23 Harris told the detective that when she was at the Casey's, all she did was get out, air up her tires, and pull off. At some point, defendant exited the car. Harris said she heard a little scream but did not elaborate because she did not want to incriminate defendant. When the detective told Harris "we know it wasn't you that stuck the gun in [Cedeno's] face," she responded, "[N]or did I know that was about to take place." Harris told the detective that when defendant got back into the car, he told Harris to "go," and she pulled away. He also told her not to pull over for the police.
¶ 25 During rebuttal argument, the State made the following comment:
¶ 26 Defendant objected to the portion of the State's argument referring to the passage of three and a half years before hearing Mary's story for the first time, and the trial court sustained the objection. The State then restated its argument without the inclusion of that particular sentence.
¶ 28...
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