People v. Minnecci

• Citation: 362 Ill. 541,200 N.E. 853
• Decision Date: 08 April 1936
• Docket Number: No. 23164.,23164.
• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois
• Parties: PEOPLE v. MINNECCI.

362 Ill. 541

200 N.E. 853

PEOPLE

v.MINNECCI.

No. 23164.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Feb. 14, 1936.

Rehearing Denied April 8, 1936.

Error to Criminal Court, Cook County; Philip J. Finnegan, Judge.

Leo Minnecci was convicted of murder, and he brings error.

Affirmed.

Wm. Scott Stewart, of Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

Otto Kerner, Atty. Gen., Thomas J. Courtney, State's Atty., of Chicago, and A. B. Dennis, of Danville (Edward E. Wilson, John T. Gallagher, and Richard H. Devine, all of Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

FARTHING, Justice.

Leo Minnecci was by a jury in the criminal court of Cook county convicted of murder and sentenced to the penitentiary for 199 years. He was tried jointly with Eleanor Jarman and George Dale for murdering Gustav Hoeh, a haberdasher, during an armed daylight robbery of his store. Eleanor Jarman's sentence was 199 years and Dale was given the death penalty. As to the latter we affirmed the death sentence in People v. Dale, 355 Ill. 330, 189 N.E. 269. Plaintiff in error, Minnecci, was granted, leave to withdraw the record in the Dale Case and has refiled it, with a new abstract, in this cause. He does not present any of the issues that were before us in People v. Dale, supra. The contentions here presented are: (1) That the trial court erred in overruling plaintiff in error's motion for a new trial, after it had denied his motion for a severance, because the evidence disclosed that plaintiff in error was prejudiced by a joint trial; (2) that it was improper to admit in evidence before the jury trying this defendant, statements made by his codefendants; (3) that evidence of other offenses was not admisible against plaintiff in error although properly admissible against Dale; and (4) that Minnecci was not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Our decision in People v. Dale, supra, determined that Gustav Hoeh was slain by Dale in the course of a robbery. We shall here set forth only so much of the testimony as is necessary to a consideration of the errors assigned.

After the killing, Dale, Jarman, and Minnecci were arrested and all admitted being present at the time of the killing. The only direct evidence that Minnecci participated in the killing of Hoeh is that of Dale and Jarman. Dale testified that he went with Jarman and Minnecci to the store of Hoeh on August 4, 1933, for the purpose of buying a shirt. An argument started over the shirt and there was a scuffle, in which the three men engaged. According to Dale, Jarman did not have anything to do with the scuffle. A shot was fired, but Dale said he did not know who fired it. He denied having a gun and did not know whether Minnecci or Hoeh had one. On cross-examination Dale testified that Minnecci had no money and Dale had to furnish him $2.50 to take Minnecci to his brother-in-law's to get a wound in his hand cared for after the shooting.

Eleanor Jarman testified that the trio entered the store to buy shirts; that an argument started; that in the course of a scuffle a shot was fired, and some one said: ‘Hurry to hell out of here!’ In the course of their flight their automobile licese number was obtained. The car belonged to Minnecci's brother. Minnecci's hand was bleeding profusely, so they abandoned the automobile and went to Jarman's apartment. Minnecci said he would bandage his hand and then see what could be done. He told Jarman to telephone his wife and tell her to get the keys to the car in which they had been riding and to tell his wife that he was in trouble. He instructed Jarman to tell his wife that if the police should come his mother should tell them that the car was at home when his brother came home for lunch and for her to say that some one must have stolen it. He told her not to say that Minnecci had taken it. A short time later Minnecci told Jarman to call his wife and have her bring him some pants and a clean shirt, ‘because these pants are all full of blood.’ When his wife answered she said, ‘The cops are here,’ and hung up. Jarman went back upstairs and told Minnecci that the cops were in his house, and Minnecci said, ‘It looks like you were going to have a boarder for a while.’ She told him to go to his relatives, because she had no room for him. Dale then told him he had better see a doctor about his hand, and Jarman wrapped it up in bandages made from an old dress.

Minnecci did not testify at the trial, but his statement to the police was admitted in evidence against him after references to Jarman and Dale had been deleted. This statement was self-serving to a very great degree. He admitted being in the store for the purpose of buying a shirt, but stated that when he saw Dale draw a gun on Gustav Hoeh he tried to intervene and protect the old man, and Dale hit Minnecci with the butt of the gun across the right hand and shot him, either intentionally or accidentally, in his left hand. He repeated this version of his part in the holdup several times at the police station.

Without objection the people also introduced in evidence a combined statement taken by the police...