People v. Ibom
| Decision Date | 28 September 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 37091,37091 |
| Citation | 25 Ill.2d 585,185 N.E.2d 690 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, v. Gamili IBOM, Plaintiff in Error. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
William J. Callahan, Chicago, for plaintiff in error.
William G. Clark, Atty. Gen., Springfield, and Daniel P. Ward, State's Atty., Chicago , for defendant in error.
This case comes before us on writ of error to the criminal court of Cook County to review a judgment entered upon a jury verdict finding the defendant, Gamili Ibom, guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The defendant was sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of 1 to 14 years.
A number of errors are alleged to have occurred in the trial, but in the view which we take of the case there is no necessity for us to consider any assigned error other than the sufficiency of the proof to establish the guilt of the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt.
The defendant in this case, Gamili Ibom, is an exchange student in this country from Nigeria. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Oregon, had received a scholarship to return to the university on September 25, 1961, to finish work upon his master's degree in physics, and had been working as a bus driver to defray part of the cost of his schooling. On May 13, 1961, the defendant was employed by the Chicago Transit Authority as a bus driver and testified that he had been so employed for approximately one year, and was operating the Kedzie-California bus about 10:00 o'clock on the Saturday night in question. At that time John Hutt, a smallish man 65 years old, boarded the bus which defendant was driving at the Archer Avenue intersection. John Hutt was thereafter thrown or fell from the bus to the sidewalk, was taken to the hospital and there died. The People's theory of the case is that decedent boarded the bus, told defendant he did not have money to pay his fare, and that defendant thereupon shoved him out upon the sidewalk occasioning injuries to decedent's head which resulted in his death. The defendant contends decedent was intoxicated, refused to pay his fare, and that defendant then attempted to escort decedent down the steps and off the bus; that in the course of this action, decedent lost his balance and fell, striking the sidewalk.
The prosecution's testimony as to the alleged offense included Mrs. Hutt who testified that her husband was 65 years old and had been in good health, but who, on cross-examination, admitted that he had fallen and hurt his head approximately a month prior to the incident in question. Thaddeus Barnhill was the chief witness for the prosecution. He testified that he was a passenger on the bus, observed the decedent get on the bus and tell the bus driver that decedent did not have the correct fare for the bus and ask the driver to give him a lift for a few blocks; that the bus driver meanwhile had shut the doors and proceeded across Archer Avenue and that he then stopped, opened the bus doors and without any argument or 'flusteration,' the bus driver rose from his seat, placed his hands about the decedent's waist, and shoved him backwards out of the bus door; that as the bus driver was starting to push the man out the door, the witness got up and told the bus driver, and that when the man fell out of the bus, the witness was standing in the door exit looking down upon the bus driver and the decedent; that the driver of the bus then reached down and picked up the decedent's feet, which were still resting upon the bus steps and threw them out the door; that witness told the defendant he had better call the police, and that defendant left; that defendant was gone seven or eight minutes and then returned; that subsequently the fire department ambulance arrived and removed Hutt from the street. This witness also testified that when Hutt was picked up by the firemen, one of his hands went limp, opened up, and some change fell out of it; that the firemen picked up the change amounting to 22 cents and passed it to the police officer. On cross-examination it developed that this witness, who testified on direct examination that three people, the decedent and two women, got on the bus at Archer and Kedzie, had previously testified at the coroner's inquest in response to a question as to 'Who got on the bus at Archer and Kedzie?', 'One man got on the bus at Archer and Kedzie,' and that the man was John Hutt. The witness also admitted that he had said nothing to the police about 22 cents falling out of the decedent's hand when the witness was later interviewed. At the coroner's inquest this witness had also testified that he arose from his seat after the bus driver had shoved the decedent out the door and then told the bus driver 'not to bother that man any more.'
In addition, Thaddeus Barnhill admitted on recross-examination that he had signed a statement for a representative from the Chicago Transit Authority in which he also stated that the decedent was the only one to get on the bus at the corner of Archer and Kedzie.
A second eyewitness for the prosecution was Katherine Gniadek, a woman who had a good deal of difficulty with the English language. Many of her answers to the prosecutor's questions were completely unresponsive and such intelligible testimony as she did give was largely in answer to leading questions.
As an illustration of the difficulty encountered in the testimony of the prosecution witness Katherine Gniadek, the following examples are taken from her direct examination.
And then a little later the following:
'
The coroner's physician, Dr. Harold Waggoner, testified that he was chief pathologist for the Cook County coroner's office and as such, performed a post-mortem examination on the body of John Hutt, the decedent. That in the course of that examination he found that there was a recent laceration with sutures in it on the back of the right side of the head and an older, healing laceration in that area but rising onto the crown of the head. Additionally, the doctor found a recent hemorrhage on the left side of the skull, and a large, very old, subdural hemorrhage on the right side. That both temporal lobes and the frontal lobe on the left seemed to be the site of a very recent laceration, with softening and disruption of the tissue and hemorrhage in that area.
The medical opinion was that the hemorrhages were of traumatic origin, and that the death resulted from the traumatic cerebral contusions and lacerations to the brain occurring within two or three days of death. The doctor's opinion was also that the largest single apparent injury to the brain was the large hemorrhage which had occurred approximately two years prior to the doctor's examination and that this old hematoma might cause dizziness.
The doctor also found bruises to the right hip and right side of the chest which he estimated were at least a week old and could have been caused by a fall. The doctor's opinion was also that the head laceration, which did not have sutures, was several weeks old.
Another prosecution witness, John Delaney, one of the members of the fire department, testified that he had accompanied decedent to the hospital in the ambulance, and noticed the odor of alcohol upon his breath. He further testified that $11 was found upon the person of the decedent at the hospital.
The defendant testified that at the intersection with Archer Avenue several passengers got on the bus including decedent who had some difficulty negotiating the two steps to the driver's platform where the meter was situated, and that decedent just stood there hanging on to the post immediately behind the driver; that defendant told decedent that decedent would either have to pay his fare or leave the bus; that decedent mumbled something which defendant could not understand; that while the stop light changed color several...
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...Moreover, it does not appear that the State would be unable to produce additional evidene upon a new trial. Cf. People v. Ibom, 25 Ill.2d 585, 595, 185 N.E.2d 690; People v. Evans, 24 Ill.2d 11, 15, 179 N.E.2d 657; People v. Magnafichi, 9 Ill.2d 169, 174, 137 N.E.2d 256. This case will ther......
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