People v. Pierce

• Decision Date: 19 September 1980
• Docket Number: No. 79-395,79-395
• Citation: 411 N.E.2d 295,88 Ill.App.3d 1095,44 Ill.Dec. 326
• Parties: , 44 Ill.Dec. 326 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jesse PIERCE, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 295

411 N.E.2d 295

88 Ill.App.3d 1095, 44 Ill.Dec. 326

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jesse PIERCE, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 79-395.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Fifth District.

Sept. 19, 1980.

Clyde L. Kuehn, State's Atty., Belleville, Raymond F. Buckley, Jr., Deputy Director, Stephen J. Maassen, Staff Atty., State's Attys., Appellate Service Com'n, Mount Vernon, for plaintiff-appellant.

Patrick M. Young, Public Defender, Mary Ann Hatch, Asst. Public Defender, Terrance L. Farris, Sr. Law Student, Belleville, for defendant-appellee.

SPOMER, Justice:

The State appeals from an order of the circuit court of St. Clair County granting defendant Jesse Pierce's motion to suppress his confession. On appeal the State contends: (1) the exclusionary rule was improperly applied to defendant's confession, as the confession was not the result of prior police misconduct; and (2) the motion to suppress the confession was improperly granted because the search made previous to the confession was proper. For the following reasons, we reverse the order of the circuit court.

On the night of December 31, 1978-January 1, 1979, while on routine patrol, Chief Alvin Sievers of the Village of Marissa, Illinois, discovered that the gate to a landfill in Marissa Township in St. Clair County had been knocked down. The landfill was owned by Mr. Bob Brown, and Sievers left a message for Brown that he notify the police if anything was missing. At the time he discovered the damaged gate, Sievers observed the defendant's vehicle traveling up and down Bubble Stream Road, the road which passes the landfill. This road is U-shaped and leads only to the landfill and then back to the City of Marissa.

After he turned to Marissa from the landfill, Sievers stopped defendant's automobile for a technical violation at approximately 2:30 or 3 a. m. on January 1, 1979. Defendant and a passenger, Ronald Miller, occupied the vehicle. They told Sievers they had been to a party in Marissa and were now riding around. Sievers checked defendant's driver's license and then told them to go home since "there had been some damage around town." No search or arrest was made.

At approximately 9 or 10 a. m. Reese Ford, an automobile agency in Marissa, reported to Marissa police that an FM high-band radio had been stolen from a truck parked beside its place of business. That same afternoon the owner of the landfill reported that a utility shed had been broken into and some tools, grease guns and wrenches had been stolen. On January 2, 1979, Mr. Price, who had left his truck at Reese Ford to be repaired, notified police that his vehicle had sustained front-end damage. Automobile parts and tire tracks found near the gate at the landfill matched Price's truck.

By the morning of January 3, 1979, Chief Sievers had collected five reports of thefts which had occurred either the night of December 31, 1978, or the early morning hours of January 1, 1979. He told Trooper Barker of the Illinois State Police that he had stopped defendant's automobile on January 1, 1979, and stated he felt defendant and Ronald Miller might be involved in the burglaries. Sievers and Barker then visited Miller at his home and advised him of his rights. Chief Sievers told Miller he had seen him at the landfill at the approximate time of the crime. Miller then confessed that he and others had stolen the truck from Reese Ford. Miller named his brother Steven Miller, his cousin Gary Zettler, and defendant Jesse Pierce as having taken part in the theft.

Trooper Barker placed Miller under arrest, advised him of his rights and transported him to Marissa. On the way to the police station Miller told Barker and Sievers that he and Zettler had stolen a radio from a vehicle on the Reese Ford lot and that auxiliary driving lights had also been taken. The radio and a fish-finder had been thrown from defendant's automobile in a paper bag on Bubble Stream Road as the Marissa police were approaching. The Marissa police later found these items along the road leading to the landfill at the exact place where Miller said he had thrown them.

Chief Sievers also advised Miller of his rights and took a written statement from him between 10:40 and 11:45 a. m. on January 3, 1979. Miller's statement read as follows:

"Approximately 01:40 hours, January, 1979, I, Ronald J. Miller and my cousin Gary Zettler, opened the driver's side door of a black Ford Bronco that was parked on the north side of Reese Ford. Upon entering the Bronco, I, Ronald Miller, took a small knife and cut the black power of the two-way radio that was on the floor of the Bronco. Gary Zettler finished cutting the cable with the same knife. I then broke the radio loose, and put it in my coat, and I and Gary Zettler then went to the south side of Reese Ford and took a black and red 1977 Ford, license number 75 4381B, Illinois '79 truck plates, and went to the landfill located on Bubble Stream Road just west of Marissa. I drove this vehicle. Upon arriving at the landfill, my cousin, Gary Zettler, then took over as driver of the vehicle. I then got in Jesse Pierce's car, a green 1974 Ford Torino. Gary Zettler and my brother, Steven Miller, then ran the 1977 Ford Pick-up into the gate at the landfill. Gary Zettler and my brother then went into a field and turned off the vehicle lights. A Marissa car then came by, so Jesse Pierce and me took off south down Bubble Stream Road. Marissa Police stopped us back in Marissa. Gary Zettler and my brother, Steven Miller returned the black Ford, black and red Ford pick-up to Reese Ford. Jesse Pierce and myself picked them up. We went back to my sister's house. Prior to the above-mentioned events, I was at my sister's house sleeping when I was woke up and saw Gary Zettler, Steven Miller, and Jesse Pierce looking at auxiliary lights in the bedroom of my sister's house, Barbara Miller's residence. Barbara Miller, my sister, told Zettler, S. Miller, and J. Pierce to get the lights out of her house, and I took the lights and put them in the trunk of J. Pierce's vehicle. I saw that there was a lot of tools and grease guns in the trunk of Pierce's vehicle. I asked where the tools came-where they came from and which one of them-one of them said they got them from Brown's shed at the landfill. They said they stole the lights at Reese Ford at approximately 12:00 hours, January 1st. J. Pierce, Gary Zettler then left for their house and had all the stolen items in the trunk of Pierce's vehicle."

Barker then contacted Trooper Leo Sprankle, who came to the Marissa Police Station with Trooper Ratto. Since defendant lived in Pinckneyville, the officers next went to the State's Attorney's office at the Perry County courthouse in that city, where they were met by Pinckneyville Chief of Police Tom Denton. They gave Denton all the information obtained up to that point, including the defendant's address and a description of his automobile, a 1974 green Ford Torino. Denton then went to defendant's residence, found the automobile there, and returned to the State's Attorney's office with this information. At that time Chief Sievers applied for a search warrant for defendant's automobile. The State's Attorney's office prepared the complaint, affidavit, and search warrant, which were taken to a judge of the circuit court of Perry County. Sievers signed the documents in the presence of the judge, who then issued the search warrant.

The search warrant was served on defendant, and his automobile was searched late that afternoon. He was not questioned prior to the serving of the warrant. Pursuant to the execution of the search warrant, the auxiliary lights from the the vehicle on Reese Ford's lot and grease guns and other tools taken from the Brown Landfill were recovered from the trunk of the automobile, and defendant was placed under arrest at 4:45 p. m. on January 3, 1979, charged with possession of stolen property in Perry County and theft and burglary in St. Clair County.

The stolen items were placed in a State police car, and defendant was transported to the Perry County Jail. Trooper Barker advised defendant of his rights, and defendant signed a written waiver at 5:15 p. m. Defendant then gave a statement to Barker, which was written down by the officer from 5:30 to 6:03 p. m. Sievers witnessed defendant's statement. At 6:10 p. m. Chief Denton also advised defendant of his rights, and defendant again signed a written waiver. An hour and ten minutes later, from 7:20 until 7:55 p. m., defendant gave a statement to Denton. During this interim, defendant remained alone while Denton completed his "paperwork."

The search warrant was subsequently quashed by the issuing judge in the circuit court of Perry County on the ground that the informant's (Ronald Miller's) credibility had not been sufficiently established to support probable cause. The evidence found pursuant to the search warrant also was quashed in Perry County on the ground that it was seized as a result of the illegal search.

On the basis of the Perry County order, the items found in defendant's car were also held to be inadmissible in St. Clair County in the case at bar. Defendant then moved to suppress the confession in St. Clair County, claiming it was the result of an illegal search.

At the motion hearing in St. Clair County, defendant testified that the officers came to his door and asked if "that was my automobile." He answered in the affirmative, whereupon the officers gave him the search warrant and asked if they could open the trunk. Defendant gave his approval and opened the trunk for them. He further testified that he was then placed under arrest for theft of tools and other items and for burglary, was read his Miranda rights, understood them, and waived them voluntarily. After being transported to jail, he made a statement, which was written down by one of the officers, and he read and signed it. He testified that the...