People v. Murray

• Citation: 560 N.E.2d 309,137 Ill.2d 382,148 Ill.Dec. 7
• Decision Date: 30 May 1990
• Docket Number: No. 69335,69335
• Parties: , 148 Ill.Dec. 7 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellant, v. William MURRAY, Appellee.
• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois

Page 309

560 N.E.2d 309

137 Ill.2d 382, 148 Ill.Dec. 7

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

No. 69335.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

May 30, 1990.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 1, 1990.

Neil F. Hartigan, Atty. Gen., Springfield, and Cecil A. Partee, State's Atty., Chicago (Terence M. Madsen, Asst. Atty. Gen., Chicago, and Inge Fryklund, Paul Gliatta and Renee Goldfarb, Asst. State's Attys., of counsel), for People.

Milton Blum, Chicago, for appellee.

Justice RYAN delivered the opinion of the court:

Two police officers observed defendant, William F. Murray, asleep in a car parked on the side of a road. The officers awoke defendant and asked him to produce a driver's license and to exit the car. After defendant exited the car, the police confiscated a gun which was seen in plain view. Defendant subsequently was charged by information in the circuit court of Cook County with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 38, par. 24-1.1.) Defendant's pretrial motion to quash his arrest and to suppress the evidence was denied. Following a bench trial, defendant was convicted as charged and sentenced to two years' probation with 15 weekends of incarceration. Defendant appealed from the denial of his motion to quash the arrest and suppress the evidence. The appellate court, with one judge dissenting, reversed, holding that because an unconstitutional seizure occurred when defendant was "ordered" to produce his license and exit the vehicle the trial court was manifestly erroneous in denying the motion. (188 Ill.App.3d 488, 136 Ill.Dec. 233, 544 N.E.2d 1008.) We granted the State's petition for leave to appeal (107 Ill.2d R. 315).

The issue presented is whether the officers violated defendant's fourth amendment rights. We hold that fourth amendment rights were not violated under the facts presented in this case. Therefore, we reverse the appellate court and affirm the circuit court's order denying the motion to quash and suppress.

Preliminarily, defendant raised the issue in a pretrial motion, which was denied after an evidentiary hearing, and again in a motion to reconsider. He also raised it during and after the trial. Therefore, the facts as presented below have been adduced from the testimony both at the evidentiary hearing and at the trial.

On the morning of October 4, 1986, defendant was sitting in the driver's seat of his automobile, which was parked on the frontage road adjacent to the Calumet Expressway near 104th Street and Doty Road in Chicago. The car was legally parked. Defendant testified that he had been en route to his son's funeral when he exited the highway and pulled over onto the roadside to regain his composure. Officers Charles Brown and James Flaherty were on patrol and became concerned about defendant's condition after observing him apparently asleep behind the wheel of his parked car. The officers parked behind the car and approached the vehicle. Officer Brown made his way to the driver's side and stood near the front end of the door, while Officer Flaherty stood at the driver's side and near the door handle.

The officers contend defendant was asleep when they approached the car. Officer Flaherty testified at trial that defendant was slumped over the steering wheel, and the arrest report which was filled out on October 4 also indicated that defendant had been slumped over the wheel. Defendant stated that he was not asleep, although the seat may have been in a semireclining position. Next, Flaherty awoke him by knocking on the window. Officer Brown testified that defendant appeared to be in some distress at this time. After defendant awoke, they asked him to exit the vehicle and produce his identification. Defendant, however, testified at the suppression hearing that they did not have to awaken him and that the first thing the officers did was to tell him to exit the car and then they asked for his license. Defendant's trial testimony contradicts this. At the trial, defendant testified that after the officers parked their car he opened his door, turned, placed both feet on the ground and was practically out of the car as they approached.

Defendant stepped from his car and handed Flaherty his license. The door was apparently open and Brown observed a handgun on the floor of the car on the driver's side. Brown alerted his partner, and the officers confiscated the weapon and arrested defendant. Defendant testified that the door was closed. Additionally, at the suppression hearing, he stated that while one officer was checking his identification, the other officer searched his automobile after he had expressly denied the officer consent to the search. Although, at the trial he testified that the one officer pushed him aside, opened the door, pulled out a floor mat and retrieved a gun.

Defendant claimed he was unaware of the gun's presence or who owned it. Defendant, who had a criminal record and had been paroled from prison in 1980, was charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.

At the trial, two other witnesses testified, both on defendant's behalf. Lucille Green, defendant's mother, testified that she was the owner of the car from which the weapon was recovered. In addition to herself, the only persons who drove the car were the defendant and his son. She added that on September 29, 1986, defendant's son died from gunshot wounds and that his funeral had been scheduled for October 4, 1986. Prior to his death, her grandson had been "in trouble" with the law.

Jerome McDonald testified that he was a security guard for the Chicago Housing Authority and was the registered owner of the handgun recovered from the vehicle in which defendant was arrested. Apparently, McDonald had stored the weapon at his parents' home within the previous year and it was either stolen or taken from there without his knowledge, and somehow ended up in the vehicle.

As noted earlier, the trial judge denied the pretrial motion to quash the arrest and to suppress the evidence. Although there was conflicting testimony on the facts, in ruling on the issue, the trial judge stated that he resolved the conflict in the evidence and credibility of the witnesses in favor of the State. The court found that the officers properly approached the vehicle and checked on the welfare of defendant and then observed the weapon in plain view. Defendant raised the issue in a motion to reconsider, after having obtained private counsel. The trial judge heard oral argument but, based on the same grounds, again held for the State. At the close of the State's case at trial, defendant requested that the court reconsider its ruling on the motion. The trial judge denied the request. At the conclusion of defense counsel's closing argument there was a request that his ruling on the motion be reconsidered, but this too was denied. Based on the evidence adduced at trial, the trial court found defendant guilty as charged. In reaching this conclusion, the judge specifically stated that he did not find defendant to be a believable witness. In a motion for a new trial, defendant argued that the court should reconsider its ruling on the motion to quash. This motion was denied.

A divided appellate court reversed, holding that the trial court's denial of defendant's motion to quash the arrest and suppress the evidence was manifestly erroneous. The majority concluded that the officers were performing a "community caretaking" function when they checked on defendant and woke him up. However, they exceeded the purpose of this function when, through a show of authority, they ordered defendant to exit the vehicle and produce his license. The appellate court concluded that at that moment defendant's freedom of movement was restrained and that his fourth amendment right to be free from an illegal search and seizure was violated. The dissenting justice considered this to be merely a consensual encounter and that no seizure took place until after Officer Brown saw the handgun in defendant's car.

The trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress should not be overturned unless it was manifestly erroneous. (People v. Neal (1985), 109 Ill.2d 216, 218, 93 Ill.Dec. 365, 486 N.E.2d 898; People v. Reynolds (1983), 94 Ill.2d 160, 165, 68 Ill.Dec. 122, 445 N.E.2d 766.) We believe that the conclusions of the trial judge that defendant was not seized during this encounter with the police officers until after the gun was seen and that they were appropriately performing a "community caretaking" function is not manifestly erroneous.

There are, theoretically, three tiers of police-citizen encounters. (United States v. Berry (5th Cir.1982), 670 F.2d 583, 591.) One tier involves an arrest of a citizen, which action must be supported by probable cause; otherwise, the fourth amendment prohibition against unreasonable seizures is violated. (Henry v. United States (1959), 361 U.S. 98, 80 S.Ct. 168, 4 L.Ed.2d 134.) The next tier involves a so-called "Terry " stop, a brief seizure that must be supported by a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity to be within acceptable fourth amendment boundaries. (Terry v. Ohio (1968), 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889.) The last tier involves no coercion or detention and therefore does not involve a seizure. This tier is commonly known as the community caretaking function or public safety function. The Supreme Court elaborated on this level of police intrusion in Terry when it noted that "[o]bviously, not all personal intercourse between policemen and citizens involves 'seizures' of persons. Only when the officer, by means of physical force or show of authority, has in some way restrained the liberty of a citizen may we conclude that a 'seizure' has occurred." Terry v. Ohio (1968), 392 U.S. at 19 n. 16, 88 S.Ct. at 1879 n. 16, 20 L.Ed.2d at n. 16; see also Cady v. Dombrowski (1973), 413 U.S. 433, 441, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 2528, 37 L.Ed.2d 706, 714-15 (local police officers ...