People v. McPheron

• Decision Date: 22 December 1933
• Docket Number: No. 21959.,21959.
• Citation: 354 Ill. 381,188 N.E. 470
• Parties: PEOPLE v. McPHERON et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

354 Ill. 381

188 N.E. 470

PEOPLE

v.McPHERON et al.

No. 21959.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 22, 1933.

Error to Circuit Court, Williamson County; R. R. Fowler, Judge.

Ben McPheron and another were convicted of robbery, each in the perpetration of the offense, being armed with a dangerous weapon, and they bring error.

Reversed and remanded.Glen Pillow and George W. Pillow, both of Marion, and R. E. Smith, of Benton, for plaintiff in error.

Otto Kerner, Atty. Gen., Charles C. Murrah, State's Atty., of Herrin, and J. J. Neiger, of Springfield, for the People.

DE YOUNG, Justice.

Ben McPheron and Owens McPheron were indicted in the circuit court of Williamson county for robbery, each, in the perpetration of the offense, being armed with a dangerous weapon. A jury found them guilty as charged; motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were denied, and they were sentenced to imprisonment in the Southern Illinois penitentiary. The defendants prosecute this writ of error for a review of the record.

On January 5, 1932, White Triplett, sixty-one years of age, was employed as a black-smith at the Jeffery coal mine in Williamson county. Shortly after his return home from the mine, about 5:15 p. m. that day, two men appeared at his door. One of them inquired, ‘Is this where White Triplett lives?’ Upon receiving an affirmative answer, the stranger expressed the desire to purchase a cow. Triplett replied that he had no cow for sale. After standing at the door a few moments, a drink of water was requested and both men were invited to the kitchen. Upon reaching that part of the house, Triplett placed a drinking cup in a bucket of water. Immediately one of the men ordered, ‘Put up your hands, we don't want a drink; your money is what we want.’ The first man pointed a revolver at Triplett's neck and the second a similar weapon at his side. Triplett's wife stood six or eight feet from her husband, and both were taken to another room and compelled to face the wall. One of the men searched the house and took a shotgun valued at $10, two spark plugs worth about 75 cents each, and 40 cents in money. Upon leaving the house, the robbers commanded Triplett and his wife not to follow them, and they declared that they would leave the shotgun at the garage. The gun, however, could not be found. The next day Mrs. Triplett took her husband's lunch to the mine, and on her return stopped at the home of Mrs. McPheron, a neighbor and the mother of the plaintiffs in error, to buy eggs. Owens McPheron opened the door, but turned his back when he discovered that the caller was Mrs. Triplett. The latter bought eggs from Mrs. McPheron, but did not mention the robbery to her nor to any other person until highway police officers called several days later. The robbers wore no masks, and neither Triplett nor his wife was acquainted with the plaintiffs in error. Triplett identified Owens McPheron as one of the men who entered his house, but said that it was dark, and that he could not see the other man. Mrs. Triplett testified that Owens McPheron followed Ben McPheron into her house. The foregoing is the substance of the evidence introduced by the prosecution.

The plaintiffs in error called twelve witnesses. Of these, Lucille Berlotte, one of White Triplett's neighbors, who was acquainted with the plaintiffs in error, testified that shortly after 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon of January 5, 1932, she saw an automobile from which two men alighted; that they walked towards Triplett's house, and that neither was one of the plaintiffs in error. The remaining eleven witnesses saw the plaintiffs in error at Royalton, about fourteen miles distant from Triplett's home, in the afternoon or evening of January 5, 1932. A brief review of their testimony follows:

Joseph Walker, who resided at Royalton, testified that the plaintiffs in error were engaged in selling meat from an automobile truck; that they came to his house on the afternoon in question; that about 5:00 o'clock Owens McPheron backed the truck into a ditch; that he (Walker) was compelled to attend a meeting of the local branch of the United Mine Workers of America and left home about 5:45 p. m.; that upon his return from the meeting the plaintiffs in error were still at his house, and that they remained until the next morning. The union's record was offered in evidence and it showed that the meeting was held on January 5, 1932.

Clarence Bell, a coal miner, had been acquainted with the plaintiffs in error fifteen years. He saw their truck in a ditch at Royalton between 5:00 and 6:00 o'clock in the afternoon, January 5, 1932. Charles Spiller, a teamster, was called early in the evening to pull the truck out of the ditch, but was unable to do so. Later in the evening, about [354 Ill. 384]9:00 o'clock, Adolph Polinsky, the owner of a garage at Royalton, released the truck by means of a wrecker. The work required from twenty to thirty minutes. The meeting of the miners, Polinsky testified, was held the same evening. Roy Waldron saw the truck in the ditch near Joseph Walker's home. He witnessed Spiller's attempt to remove and later Polinsky's success in removing the truck from the ditch. William Boyd, who had been acquainted with the plaintiffs in error eleven years, saw the truck in the ditch about 5:30 p. m. on the day in question. During the varying periods of time that these witnesses remained either to view, or to participate in, efforts to release the truck, the plaintiffs in error were present.

Five other witnesses, G. W. Edmonds, Andrew J. Harris, Charles Hendricks, J. T. Jones, and Frank King testified that on January 5, 1932, they met the plaintiffs in error at Royalton and that they saw the truck in the ditch. Harris, Hendricks, and King remembered that the miners' meeting was held in the evening. Hendricks and Jones saw the plaintiffs in error between 5:00 and 6:00 o'clock in the afternoon, and Edmonds, Harris, and King met them during the afternoon and evening. Edmonds and King saw the truck removed from the ditch shortly after 9:00 o'clock. Jones had been...