People v. Parra

• Decision Date: 31 December 1975
• Docket Number: No. 55444,55444
• Citation: 340 N.E.2d 636,35 Ill.App.3d 240
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Michael PARRA, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 636

340 N.E.2d 636

35 Ill.App.3d 240

PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Michael PARRA, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 55444.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Second Division.

Dec. 31, 1975.

Jerome Rotenberg, Rotenberg, Schwartzman & Richards, Chicago, for defendant-appellant.

Edward V. Hanrahan, State's Atty., Cook County, Chicago, for plaintiff-appellee; Elmer C. Kissane, Zenon Forowycz, Asst. State's Attys., Chicago, of counsel.

HAYES, Justice.

In Indictment No. 69--972, Michael Parra (hereinafter defendant) was charged with the offenses of murder (Ill.Rev.Stat.1967, ch. 38, par. 9--1(a)(1) and par. 9--1(a)(2)) and with the offense of involuntary manslaughter (Ill.Rev.Stat.1967, ch. 38, par. 9--3(a)) in the death of Sharon Dobosz, who died as a result of injuries sustained by having been struck by an automobile. After a jury trial, defendant was found guilty of the offense of reckless homicide (Ill.Rev.Stat.1969, ch. 38, par. 9--3(b)). ¹ He was sentenced to a term of not less than two nor more than five years in the Illinois State Penitentiary. From that judgment and sentence, defendant appeals. He was admitted to post-conviction bail pending the disposition of his appeal.

In his appeal, defendant raises eight issues. Of these issues, the most important is whether the evidence is legally sufficient to sustain his conviction. The consideration of this issue requires the following detailed recital of the evidence adduced at the trial, which recital we now undertake.

Cheryl Dobosz, the mother of the victim, testified that her daughter, Sharon Dobosz, resided alone in a second-floor apartment at 5903 West Huron Street in Chicago. ² On 18 November 1968, Sharon had visited at the home of her parents, arriving at about 7:15 P.M. and leaving at about 7:40 P.M. The witness next saw her daughter at about 5:00 A.M. on the following morning in the emergency room of the West Suburban Hospital. The witness made an in-court identfication of a photograph of her daughter, of five articles of clothing which her daughter had been wearing on the night of 18 November, and of Michael Parra, the defendant. The witness testified that Sharon had known defendant for Walter Frank Dobosz, the father of the victim, testified to substantially the same matters as his wife and made the same identifications of the photograph, the articles of clothing, and the signature of their daughter on People's Exhibit 3. In addition, he stated that, at the hospital, his wife had said: 'Who could have done this awful thing?' Whereupon defendant had hit his fist on a wall. Defendant's motion to strike this item of testimony was denied. According to the witness, defendant then asked a police officer whether he (defendant) could go back to secure the victim's apartment; the police officer told defendant he could not. Defendant then gave keys to the apartment to the officer, who requested the witness to return to the apartment and lock it up, which the witness did. The witness was shown a keycase and recognized it as being one which he had previously given to his daughter. The witness testified that he had recovered People's Exhibit 3 from his daughter's apartment, and that the insurance policy was among papers which he had found in her apartment two days after her burial. Defendant moved for a mistrial on the ground that People's Exhibit 3 had now been identified to the jury as an insurance policy. The motion was denied, but the jury was immediately instructed to disregard the description of People's Exhibit 3 as being an insurance policy.

about nine or ten months. At the hospital, defendant had given the witness' husband a keycase containing keys to Sharon's apartment. The witness recognized the keycase as one which her husband had given to Sharon. Over objection, the witness was permitted to identify the signature of her daughter on a document identified as People's Exhibit 3. Unknown to the jury at this stage of the trial, this document was an insurance policy on the life of Sharon; under the terms of the policy, defendant was the designated beneficiary. ³

Donna Mary Dobosz, the sister of the victim, testified that she saw Sharon at the witness' own apartment at about 8:10 P.M. on 18 November 1968. The victim arrived in Michael Parra's automobile. The victim made a telephone call at about 9:00 P.M. and then left the apartment at about 9:20 P.M. The witness identified the photograph of Sharon, the five articles of clothing which Sharon had been wearing, and Sharon's signature on People's Exhibit 3.

Janet Selers testified that she was visiting the apartment of Anna Palana at 5903 West Huron Street in Chicago on the evening of 18 November 1968. Ast about 11 or 11:30 P.M., she and other persons in the front room of the apartment of Anna Palana heard arguing between a man and woman coming from upstairs. She next heard footsteps coming down the stairs, first one set of footsteps and then a minute later a second set. She testified that she heard the woman's voice say: 'Mike, I want my keys.' The second set of footsteps sounded as if the person did not have shoes on. The footsteps then went outside, and a door slammed from outside. The witness went to a window in the front room of Anna Palana's apartment, which window faced north. When she looked through the window, she saw a white Pontiac Tempest convertible parked in front of the building at 5903 West Huron, on the south side of the street facing west. She had seen the automobile before. She heard the woman's voice saying again in a loud tone: 'Mike, I want my keys.' She and the other persons in the room then sat down and began to talk. She then got up again and looked out a window of the front room, which window faced west; she saw the white Pontiac making a right turn onto Austin Boulevard, which is a north-south street (6000) at the west end of the 5900 block of West Huron Street. 'At about not even a second' later, she noticed the white car again in front of Anna Palana's After the driver got back into the car, he drove around the body to Austin and made a right-hand turn onto Austin. The witness and Anna Palana then went outside when they noticed the body. They went up to the body and a Fire Department ambulance came headed west on Huron. The same white car then drove up headed east on Huron and the driver got out. The witness testified that the victim said: 'Mike, if I ever needed you, I need you now.'

apartment headed west. The white car then approached a body lying in the street; the car stopped; the driver got out of the car, looked at the body, and got back into the car. The witness was unable to determine who the driver was.

The witness did not see the driver of the car so as to be able to identify him. The driver of the Pontiac asked the ambulance driver where they were taking the girl. The witness did not see the white Pontiac leave the scene. The witness identified People's Exhibits 4 and 5 as pictures of the white Pontiac convertible.

On cross-examination the witness testified that, after she heard the car's engine start, she heard the girl ask for her keys for the second time. The voice sounded like it was outside the car. When the witness looked out of the apartment for the second time thru the front room window which faced west, she did not see anything in the street but saw the white Pontiac down by the corner at Austin Boulevard. The witness did not see a female then running down the street nor on the sidewalk.

The next time the witness looked out the window, the white Pontiac was again stopped in front of the apartment, on the south side of Huron Street facing west, but the witness did not know how much time had elapsed. At the time she noticed the white Pontiac again in front of the apartment, she first noticed the body in the street. From the time that the witness first looked out the front window facing west and saw the white car make a right turn at Austin until she saw it again in front of 5903 West Huron facing west was about a 'second or so' later. After stopping in front of the apartment, the driver drove up to the right of the body. He parked in the middle of the street. There were other cars parked along the curb (on the north side of the street).

The only conversation this witness heard was the girl asking for her keys. The witness did not hear any noise that sounded like a car running over a body, nor did she heard a screeching of brakes.

Anna Palana testified that on 18 November 1968 she was living at 5903 West Huron, which is a two-story apartment building containing four apartments. The witness lived in the west apartment on the first floor. Shortly after arriving home from work at about 10:30 or 10:45 P.M., the witness heard an argument between a man and woman coming from the apartment directly above hers. The witness recognized the girl's voice as that of Sharon Dobosz. The witness heard one person leave and go downstairs. Shortly thereafter she heard a second person going down the stairs. The witness heard the girl calling on the stairway 'Mike, give me my keys,' and 'I need my keys.' The witness heard the doors to the building slam and again heard the girl hollering for her keys from outside of the apartment.

The witness went to the window facing north and didn't see anything. She went to the window facing west and saw a small white car going towards Austin. The car was a couple of doors from the corner of Austin when she saw it. When the white car reached Austin, it made a right turn. The witness next saw the car come around the corner from Mayfield (a north-south street at 5900 West), making a right turn on to Huron and traveling west. The car pulled up in front of the apartment building for a second or two, pulled away, and again stopped. The witness then first saw After the white car had pulled away again, the witness left the apartment with Janet Selers and both went to the body. After they got to the...