People v. Peto

• Decision Date: 29 September 1967
• Docket Number: Nos. 40095-40097,s. 40095-40097
• Citation: 230 N.E.2d 236,38 Ill.2d 45
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Julian PETO et al., Appellants.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 236

230 N.E.2d 236

38 Ill.2d 45

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Julian PETO et al., Appellants.

Nos. 40095-40097.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Sept. 29, 1967.

Jack A. Brunnenmeyer, Public Defender, Peoria, for appellants.

George R. Kennedy, State's Atty., and Jay H. Janssen, Asst. State's Atty., Peoria, for appellee.

WARD, Justice.

The defendants, Robert Powell, Julian Peto, and William Rose, were convicted of burglary in the circuit court of Peoria County in April, 1966, and each was sentenced to a term of not less than 5 nor more than 8 years in the Illinois State Penitentiary. Following denial of their motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment, the defendants bring this appeal contending they were denied a fair trial because of numerous trial errors, viz.: (1) the charge was not proved beyond a reasonable doubt; (2) the court erred in admitting evidence found in the car in which defendants were arrested and evidence found at the scene of the burglary; (3) the court erred in allowing evidence that defendants were arrested in a stolen car; (4) the court erred in allowing the introduction of a pistol found in the car; (5) the trial court violated defendants' constitutional rights in permitting testimony that defendants refused to give any statements or discuss the crime for which they were arrested; (6) the lower court erred in allowing evidence of an attempted jail break in which the defendants allegedly participated; (7) the court below erred in giving certain People's instructions over defendants' objections.

About 12:15 A.M. on the morning of November 12, 1965, James Scott, Jr., returned home from work. Scott lived two doors from the Heights Hardware Company in Peoria Heights. On that morning he noticed a 1953 blue Chevrolet without a license plate on the front of the car, with a decal sticker on the lower right area of the front windshield, and a spotlight on the left side of the car, parked directly behind the hardware store. As Scott pulled into his parking space at the rear of his home he turned his bright lights on the car and saw a man, who was later identified as Robert Powell, one of the defendants, standing by the right door of the Chevrolet with a bundle of guns on the ground near him. He also observed a man, later identified as defendant Julian Peto, standing on the roof of the Heights Hardware Company building. Scott immediately drove to the Peoria Heights police station and reported the apparent crime.

About one half hour after Scott had observed and reported the burglary, Peoria police officers stopped a blue 1953 Chevrolet automobile with Missouri license plates on the rear of the car and no license on the front. The defendant Powell was driving, the defendant Rose was in the front seat and the defendant Peto was in the back seat. The auto was searched by the police officers and an automatic pistol was found in a crevice of the front seat; under the front seat there was a flashlight with masking tape partially covering the light head, and a yellow plastic-handled screwdriver with 'Wm. B. Rose' scratched on the handle. A small pry bar was also found. The police officers who investigated the burglary discovered three holes cut in the roof of Heights Hardware Company building; they also found a saw, hammer, bit, a bundle of guns, three gun cases and cloth gun containers full of pistols on the roof of the hardware store. On the ground at the rear of the store another 20 to 25 rifles were found.

Subsequently, the defendants were indicted, tried and convicted of the burglary of the Heights Hardware Company, substantially on the basis of the foregoing evidence.

The defendants' initial contention is that they were not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Such a contention cannot be sustained.

Scott, who observed the burglary in progress, positively identified Robert Powell as the man he observed standing by the car during the burglary, and Julian Peto as the man on the roof of the Heights hardware store on that night. All three defendants were arrested in a light blue 1953 four-door Chevrolet automobile with a Missouri license plate on the rear and no license plate on the front, within one half four after Scott reported the burglary. This car had been clearly described by Scott as the car parked in the rear of the hardware company during the burglary.

A flashlight which had masking tape covering part of the light head was found in the auto. The masking tape covering the flashlight was shown by expert testimony to be from the same strip of tape that was found on a saw left at the scene of the burglary.

Tar was found on defendant Peto's clothing and tar was also found on the roof of the hardware store. Wood shavings, debris and paper taken from Peto's clothing were also similar in characteristics in the opinion of the expert witness to that found on the roof of the Heights hardware building.

Too, the owner and clerk of Heights Hardware identified the defendants as having been in the store earlier on the day of the burglary. Joseph Gobel testified that he had observed a 1953 Chevrolet late at night behind the hardware store, and had recorded the number of the single license plate it bore.

It is the province of the jury to determine the guilt or innocence of the defendants and its judgment will not be set aside by this court unless it is palpably contrary to the weight of the evidence or so unsatisfactory as to justify a reasonable doubt of defendants' guilt. (People v. Solomon, 24 Ill.2d 586, 591, 182 N.E.2d 736; People v. Pulaski, 15 Ill.2d 291, 297, 155 N.E.2d 29; People v. Marose, 10 Ill.2d 340, 343, 139 N.E.2d 735; and People v. Davis, 14 Ill.2d 196, 202, 151 N.E.2d 308.) The evidence persuasively demonstrates the guilt of the defendants and the suggestion cannot be entertained that the verdict was palpably contrary to the weight of the evidence.

The defendants next urge that the trial court erred in allowing in evidence alleged burglary tools, including two flashlights, a revolver, a gun clip, a screwdriver, and a bar for a hydraulic jack. They argue that these items were not shown to have a connection with the crime or the defendants. This position is untenable. The evidence concerned was found at the scene of the burglary and in the immediate vicinity of the defendants' arrest. The relationship between the evidence admitted and the defendants was convincingly established. Our cases of People v. Craddock, 30 Ill.2d 348, 196 N.E.2d 672; People v. Santucci, 24 Ill.2d 93, 180 N.E.2d 491; People v. Stanton, 16 Ill.2d 459, 158 N.E.2d 47; People v. Malmenato, 14 Ill.2d 52, 150 N.E.2d 806; People v. Tomaszewski, 406 Ill. 346, 94 N.E.2d 154, resemble and control the case at bar.

The defendants assert that it was error to permit the prosecution to show that the auto in which they were arrested had been apparently stolen two months before by one of the defendants when it was not shown or urged that the theft of the auto was part of a scheme to burglarize the store. As a general proposition it is true that evidence of extra-indictment offenses is generally inadmissible because, as we declared in People v. Lehman, 5 Ill.2d 337 at 342, 125 N.E.2d 506 at 509: 'The law distrusts the inference that because a man has committed other crimes he is more likely to to have committed the current crime.' However, this general proposition is not without exception. We also said in Lehman that when evidence is independently relevant it is admissible.

An examination of the testimony of the husband of the owner of the auto discloses that while he did not testify that the defendant Powell or either other defendant wrongfully took the...