People v. Jones

• Decision Date: 18 November 1970
• Docket Number: No. 42956,42956
• Citation: People v. Jones, 264 N.E.2d 189, 47 Ill.2d 66 (Ill. 1970)
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. William E. JONES, Appellant.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 189

264 N.E.2d 189

47 Ill.2d 66

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. William E. JONES, Appellant.

No. 42956.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 18, 1970.

Geo-Karis & Thompson, Zion, for appellant.

William J. Scott, Atty. Gen., Springfield, and Jack Hoogasian, State's Atty., Waukegan (Norman G. Reese, Asst. State's Atty., of counsel), for the People.

CULBERTSON, Justice.

Defendant, William E. Jones, was tried by a jury in the magistrate division of the circuit court of Lake County, was found guilty of driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor and fined $100. He has appealed directly to this court contending that a comment of the prosecutor on his failure to testify deprived him of his constitutional right against self-incrimination. See: Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106.

No claim is made that defendant was not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, thus there is no need to set forth the evidence of intoxication. However, some detail of the evidence is necessary to a consideration of the comment complained of and to place it in the context in which it occurred. No evidence was presented for the defense. For the prosecution, deputy sheriff Vernon Cook testified that on the day in question, Saturday, August 30, 1969, he first encountered defendant at about 8:30 A.M. At the time Cook was patrolling a highway and came upon an automobile, owned by defendant, parked on the shoulder with its lights burning. Upon investigating he found defendant asleep in the front seat and detected a strong odor of alcohol in the car and on defendant's person. He awakened defendant who assured the deputy that he was 'okay' and that he was not driving the car because he was in no condition to do so. At about this time a second man, identified in the record only as a 'friend' of defendant, came walking along the highway with a gasoline can. The latter told Cook that he was the driver, that he was trying to get defendant home and that the car had run out of gas. Soon after, the officer permitted the car to be driven away with the friend at the wheel.

About 11:45 A.M., of the same morning, Lorraine F. Anderson drove to The Sunset Inn to meet her husband and placed her car in the parking lot. Inside the place she saw defendant and another man sitting at the bar, her attention being attracted when defendant vomited on the bar and was asked by the bartender to leave. The witness and her husband walked to the door to depart about the same time, and she testified that defendant first got into her car, but then got out of it and went to his own car. In backing out of a parking space, defendant struck the car of the witness and the police were summoned. When cross-examined about defendant's 'friend,' she testified that the latter got into a car, returned and talked briefly to defendant after the accident and then drove off. Whether or not this 'friend' was the same person who had been with defendant during the earlier encounter with deputy Cook, or was the man with whom defendant was sitting at the bar, does not appear in the record.

By coincidence deputy Cook responded to the accident call. He testified, among other things, that defendant had said he was 'parking his car to go home,' and that he had not seen the Anderson car behind him.

Against this evidentiary background, counsel for defendant argued to the jury as follows: 'The evidence is Mr. Jones (defendant), Mrs. Anderson testified to this, that Mr. Jones had said...