People v. Kindhart
| Citation | 2017 IL App (4th) 141087 -U |
| Decision Date | 27 April 2017 |
| Docket Number | NO. 4-14-1087,4-14-1087 |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. BRADLEY L. KINDHART, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
NOTICE
This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and may not be cited as precedent by any party except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).
Appeal from Circuit Court of Adams County
Honorable Mark A. Drummond, Judge Presiding.
¶ 1 Held: The appellate court affirmed, concluding (1) the State presented sufficient evidence for the jury to find defendant knowingly possessed methamphetamine beyond a reasonable doubt and (2) the prosecutor's remarks during closing arguments were not improper.
¶ 2 In October 2014, a jury found defendant, Bradley L. Kindhart, guilty of unlawful possession of methamphetamine (720 ILCS 646/60(b)(1) (West 2014)). In December 2014, the trial court sentenced defendant to 30 months of probation and 270 days in jail. Defendant appeals, arguing the State (1) failed to prove he knowingly possessed methamphetamine beyond a reasonable doubt and (2) improperly bolstered the police officers' testimony during closing arguments. For the following reasons, we affirm.
¶ 4 On June 18, 2014, the State charged defendant by information with one count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine (720 ILCS 646/60(b)(1) (West 2014)) and one count of unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia (720 ILCS 600/3.5(a) (West 2014)). These charges arose from a search warrant executed on June 17, 2014.
¶ 6 Officer Patrick Frazier, a master sergeant with the Illinois State Police, testified he worked with the West Central Illinois Drug Task Force. On June 16, 2014, Officer Frazier conducted surveillance on the residence of Bridgette Skirvin, defendant's girlfriend. As part of his investigation, he retrieved Skirvin's garbage from an alley. Officer Frazier discovered pieces of tinfoil, a corner-cut Baggie with a piece of cardboard used as a scoop, and mail addressed to Skirvin at the address under surveillance. He testified Officer Cody Cook used a field test kit on the tinfoil and the Baggie, which tested positive for methamphetamine. Based on these results, Officer Cook applied for and received a search warrant for Skirvin's residence.
¶ 7 Officer Frazier testified the following day, June 17, 2014, at 10 a.m., his office, the sheriff's department, and a trooper from the Illinois State Police executed the search warrant on Skirvin's residence. The officers approached the residence and Officer Cook knocked on the door. Skirvin answered the door and stepped out onto the porch. Several officers then entered the residence. When the officers entered the home, they saw defendant in a recliner in the living room and another male, identified as John Bohnenblust, in the living room. The officers secured defendant, Bohnenblust, and Skirvin in handcuffs and began their search. Skirvin did not cooperate and requested an attorney. The officers transported her to the sheriff's department. Defendant remained seated in the recliner and the officers searched an end table next to the recliner. Inside the top drawer of the end table, the officers found a glass pipe with burntresidue. The officers also found a corner-cut Baggie in a different piece of furniture in the living room.
¶ 8 On cross-examination, Officer Frazier admitted he was not present when Officer Cook interviewed defendant, but he did speak to defendant afterward. When asked whether defendant made any admissions, Officer Frazier said, "Basically, he told me the same thing he just told Special Agent Cook." Since defendant did not tell him anything different, he did not write a report. Officer Frazier also testified he did not smell methamphetamine when he entered Skirvin's residence. However, Frazier explained he would not expect to smell methamphetamine unless a person was burning it in his presence.
¶ 9 Officer Cook, a special agent with the Illinois State Police Meth Response Team and a member of the West Central Illinois Task Force, testified on June 17, 2014, at 10:15 a.m., he executed a search warrant on Skirvin's residence. Officer Cook testified he walked up to Skirvin's residence and knocked on the door. Skirvin stepped outside onto the porch and Officer Cook informed her he had a search warrant for her house. Skirvin requested to speak with her attorney and an officer escorted her to a squad car. Officer Cook was the first officer to enter the residence. He immediately observed defendant in a recliner and John Bohnenblust getting up from the couch in the living room. The officers searched the home and found a glass methamphetamine pipe in the drawer of an end table. Based on his training and experience, Officer Cook believed the pipe had residue from methamphetamine use. In a different end table in the living room, Officer Cook found a corner-cut Baggie used for packaging drugs. Officer Cook also found a piece of mail addressed to defendant, but it bore an address other than Skirvin's. Officer Cook stated he did not smell methamphetamine when he entered the house.
He only smelled cigarette smoke. Officer Cook explained methamphetamine has a chemical odor and after use, the smell lingers in the air for a short period of time.
¶ 10 Officer Cook testified after he finished executing the search warrant, he interviewed defendant at the Adam's County sherriff's department. He asked for defendant's permission to audio-and video-record the interview, and defendant declined. The recording equipment remained mounted in the interview room, but the interview proceeded without being audio- or video-recorded. Defendant told Cook he arrived at Skirvin's residence around 7:30 that morning and she had not yet returned from work. Defendant stated he stayed with Skirvin off and on and had been dating her for about three months. He said he received mail at Skirvin's address and kept some clothes there. Officer Cook testified defendant expressed disbelief the police "would kick in a door for just one quarter of a gram of methamphetamine."
¶ 11 During the interview, defendant told Cook he used methamphetamine once every three months. Defendant elaborated he had used methamphetamine at Skirvin's residence on three occasions. One of those occasions was the morning the officers executed the search warrant. Defendant explained, "all we do is get high," "[w]e never sell," and "[w]e are just users." When Officer Cook asked defendant about the pipe, defendant admitted he used it to smoke methamphetamine that morning. Defendant stated he lost his job three weeks earlier due to a misunderstanding and he began to use methamphetamine. Throughout the interview, defendant continuously expressed disbelief the police would "go through this for this little amount." Defendant explained a police informant gave him the methamphetamine he smoked that morning but would not provide a name. Based on these admissions, Officer Cook decided not to have the pipe fingerprinted. Defendant advised Officer Cook, Officer Cook testified he also interviewed Bohnenblust and he recorded the interview.
¶ 12 Kristin Stiefvater, a drug chemist with the Illinois State Police, testified she performed an analysis on the glass pipe found in the end table in Skirvin's living room. The first step in her analysis typically would be to weigh the material. However, the glass pipe did not contain any material she could physically weigh, as it only contained residue. Stiefvater used methanol to rinse the inside of the pipe and placed the methanol in a vial for testing. Stiefvater conducted two tests on the sample. First, she conducted a gas chromatography analysis, which indicated methamphetamine may be present. Second, she conducted a mass spectrometry, which confirmed methamphetamine was present in the residue. In Stiefvater's final report, she concluded the residue from the glass pipe was methamphetamine.
¶ 13 Defendant testified he arrived at Skirvin's residence at 9 a.m., about 20 or 30 minutes before the police arrived to execute the search warrant. Skirvin was not home, and he and Bohnenblust waited on Skirvin's front porch for 20 minutes, until they discovered the back door was unlocked. Once inside, defendant started to make coffee and sat down in the recliner with a glass of tea. Bohnenblust lay on the couch. Defendant testified he did not use the pipe found in Skirvin's end table that morning and he did not know it was in there. Defendant believed his interview with Officer Cook was audio-recorded because Officer Cook asked for his permission to record the interview and placed a recording device on the table. However, defendant testified he declined Officer Cook's request to video-record the interview. Defendant denied admitting he used methamphetamine that morning and used the pipe found in the end table. Defendant also denied ever telling Officer Cook he received mail at Skirvin's residence.
Defendant stated he was employed on the day the search warrant was executed and was subject to drug testing to keep his job.
¶ 15 During the closing arguments, the State made the following statements:
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