People v. Huff

• Decision Date: 26 November 1963
• Docket Number: No. 36977,36977
• Citation: 29 Ill.2d 315,194 N.E.2d 230
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, v. Richard HUFF, Plaintiff in Error.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 230

194 N.E.2d 230

29 Ill.2d 315

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, v.Richard HUFF, Plaintiff in Error.

No. 36977.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 26, 1963.

Howard Korengold, Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

William G. Clark, Atty. Gen., Springfield, and Daniel P. Ward, State's Atty., Chicago (Fred G. Leach and E.Michael O,'brien, Asst. Attys.Gen., and Elmer C. Kissane and Matthew J. Moran, Asst. State's Attys., of counsel), for defendant in error.

SCHAEFER, Justice.

The defendant, Richard Huff, was jointly indicted with Earline Poke in the criminal court of Cook County for the murder of Bernice Poke, the two-year-old daughter of Earline Poke.He pleaded not guilty, and the cause was severed for trial upon his motion.He waived trial by jury, was tried by the court, found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to an indeterminate term of three to eight years in the Illinois State Penitentiary.

On this writ of error he contends that his guilt was not proved beyond a reasonable and that the failure of the prosecution or the court to call Earline Poke as a witness deprived him of a fair trial.

During the six-weeks period immediately preceding September 16, 1960, the defendant, who was unmarried and 25 years of age lived in a Chicago apartment with Earline Poke, a married woman then living apart from her husband.Also living in the apartment were Earline Poke's two minor children, one of whom was two-year-old Bernice Poke.Late in the afternoon of September 16, Bernice Poke was pronounced deed.When an examination of the child's body revealed signs of physical abuse, the defendant and Earline Poke were arrested and charged with murder.

Two witnesses who lived in the same apartment building as the defendant testified that over a period of at least four weeks they heard sounds coming from the direction of the apartment where the defendant and Earline Poke lived a man saying-'Jesus wept; say Jesus wept' and 'eat your food' followed by four or five sounds of 'beating like on flesh with a belt' and the sound of a baby crying.These sounds, which were heard by one witness about twice a week and by the other witness apparently more frequently, lasted from five to ten minutes on each occasion.One of the witnesses heard these sounds on September 15 at about 8 A.M., and the other heard them at 10 or 11 P.M.Both witnesses heard them between 7 and 8 P.M. on that date.One of them testified that at about 4 A.M. on September 16she heard a man say 'get up under that cover; I said get up under that cover' followed by two beating sounds but no sounds of a baby crying.This witness also added that on one occasion she heard a woman say 'you hit me', and that this was the only time she heard a woman's voice coming from the direction of the defendant's apartment.Neither witness had ever seen the defendant strike the child and neither had seen any of the occupants of the defendant's apartment until after the child's death.

An elastic belt and a leather strap were introduced in evidence.The belt, with a metal buckle attached, was removed from defendant's person at the police station following his arrest on the night of September 16.The strap, which had a knot tied on one end, was obtained by a police officer from the floor of a closet in the defendant's apartment.A police officer testified that when he showed the elastic belt and the leather strap to defendant shortly after his arrest, the defendant stated that he had struck Bernice Poke with both the belt and the strap, but had never hit her with the leather strap in a knotted condition.

At the trial the defendant testified that he had never hit the child with the leather strap, even in an unknotted condition, but that he and Earline Poke had each hit her with the elastic belt on several occasions.He stated that the last time he struck the child was at about 2 A.M. on September 16, at which time, while he was in bed, he hit her three or four times on the leg and hand with the belt as she was walking toward the washroom, since she had wet the bed; that at that time he did not notice any lacerations or lesions on the child's body and that he was unable to explain the cause of the injuries which were found on the child's body after her death; that during the morning and afternoon of September 16he was out of the apartment for about 2 1/2 hours, and slept from 1:30 to 5 P.M., at which time he awoke and noticed for the first time that the child was ill; that prior to 2 A.M. on September 16he had whipped Bernice Poke with the belt only three times-once while he was teaching her to say 'Jesus wept' before eating, and twice for wetting herself, and that on none of these occasions, which were about one week prior to September 16, did he ever hit her with the buckle.He testified that he never struck the child in the head with the belt and never hit her with his hand or fist.He further testified that about one week prior to September 16he attempted to strike the child with the belt but instead hit Earline Poke by mistake.

Dr. Augustus Webb, a physician, testified that on September 16he performed a post-mortem examination....